Friday, December 16, 2005

We just want our brother(s) back

Took the kids to see Narnia this evening. It was a long-awaited event for me. I first heard the books read aloud in my mother's voice as a young, very young child. I don't even remember how old I was. We all got complete boxed sets for Christmas when I was eight or nine, and I read them over and over. I read them to my kids starting in 2003, when Sam was four.

The movie was good enough -- not perfect, but with some beautiful moments done quite perfectly.

But that's not what I really want to talk about. For some reason I looked at the story differently this time. The parts that moved me most were not the moments of Edmund's redemption. They were the desperate cries of his siblings, "We just want our brother back," and "We have to find Edmund."

There was no way that Peter, Susan and Lucy could save Edmund without waging full-scale war on his captor in complete alliance with Aslan and the forces of goodness. Halfhearted attempts, selfish strategies, easy ways out -- there were none of these. Personal weakness, reliance on logic, self-doubt -- no room for them.

Only Aslan could save Edmund. Peter, Susan and Lucy couldn't do it. Yet neither could they sit back and wait for him to take the situation in -- um, paw. They had to join his side and go to work where he sent them. None of them were sent to free Edmund. He had someone else for that. But their commitment to him was required before he saved their brother.

Something to think about. Do I see my brothers shackled in an icy dungeon, eating moldy bread? Bound to a tree and gagged? Dragged through the snow behind a ruthless monarch's sleigh?

I think they are. All three of them.

I also think I have been so focused on them that I have sometimes neglected the battlefront where I belong. I've been watching, agonizing, wondering what I should be doing differently in regards to them. Not trusting. Standing in the witch's castle waiting for the rescue, when there's nothing I can do, and the war rages outside where I could make a difference.

Maybe what I should be doing differently is being more fully committed myself.

1 comment:

Emily said...

That's a nice interpretation. I actually saw the movie with MY two brothers who are in the icy dungeon, which was interesting. Thanks for the perspective.