JR. Forasteros - June 13, 2021
The Good Place
Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre famously wrote that “Hell is other people.” But The Good Place begs to differ. According to the show, other people might be our best chance of truly being changed. How can we discover the path to authentic community? From Arizona trash bag to whole, healthy and loving? If we’re willing to choose vulnerability, we’ll find Sartre was wrong. It’s heaven that’s other people.
From Series: "CataVision"
We're living in the Golden Age of Television. From Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones to Reality TV to WandaVision and the Mandalorian, we can't get enough of these serialized stories. Why do these shows resonate so strongly with us? Join us as we engage our favorite TV shows in spiritual conversations that challenge and transform us!
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Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
