Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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(For Part 2, Click Here)
 
I was scared of heights and possibilities
 
Wait.  ‘Up In the Air’ is a fascinatingly tragic, heart-breaking film.  Let’s start there.
 
I’ve heard it been called the film that, when looking back, will be the one that defines the decade1. Ebert called it “a film for this time,” and I can’t help but agree2. If you haven’t seen it, the movie follows George Clooney (aka Attempted Killer of Batman.  I prefer him in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.  Gotham City’s much safer in that movie) around the country, as he is paid to tell people they’re fired for companies that don’t want to do their own dirty work. Clooney lives a very lonely life in planes and hotel rooms, traveling from business to business, working a depressing job that wears him down as he tries to cover it up with shallow confidence and charm. 

 

But it’s not the plot that matters so much. ‘Up In the Air’ is about fear – of failure, of the future, of decisions, of husbands and wives, of family, of providing for family, of leaving, of staying, of death, of meaning. The entire movie’s worth a discussion, but there was one scene in the middle that really stood out. In the scene, Clooney is in town for his sister’s wedding.  On the day of the wedding, he gets a call from another family member telling him that the groom (played by the same guy that plays Kenny Powers from East Bound and Down) is wanting to back out of the wedding. Because Clooney works in public relations, the family hopes he can talk some sense into him.
 
Kenny Powers: I don’t think I’m gonna be able to do this.
AKOB: And why would you say that today?
Kenny Powers: Well, last night I was just laying in bed and I couldn’t get to sleep, so I started thinking about the wedding and the ceremony and about buying a house and moving in together and having a kid and then having another kid and then Christmas and Thanksgiving and Spring Break and going to football games then all of a sudden they’re graduating they’re getting jobs they’re getting married and I’m a grandparent and then I’m retired, I’m losing my hair, and I’m getting fat and then the next thing I know I’m dead and I just can’t stop from thinking, ‘what’s the point?'” I mean, what’s the point?”
AKOB: The point?
Kenny Powers: Yeah.  I mean, what am I starting here?
 
1. Wedding 2. Kid 3. Another kid 4. Christmas 5. Thanksgiving 6. Spring Break 7. Football games 8. Graduation 9. Kid’s get job 10. Kid’s get married 11. Retirement 12. Dead
 
The fact that Kenny even dared to ask, “What’s the point,” is surprising in itself. It’s amazing how many American’s lives are resorted to this 12-step destiny, because they’re scared to ask “What am I starting here?” A near-life experience.  It’s really too bad that Kenny wasn’t talking to a man with some wisdom, instead of the guy that believes this. 
 
 
C.S. Lewis had wisdom.  “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in the world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world4,” he said.
 
 

The film ends with a few short interviews from the (mostly older) men and women that had been fired. Their lives – their worth as a person – had been dependent on a position in a company. Here’s a few of their quotes:
 
“I don’t have a lot of hope, and I really don’t know when it’s going to get better. There are a lot of people unemployed, and I don’t know when it’s going to get better.
 
“I can’t find much to talk about.  Talk about being proud of something.  I’m proud of my kids.”
 
“I think the anger comes from the fact that I just wasn’t needed anymore.”
 
“It’s not all about the money.  Money can keep you warm, pay heating bills, buy you a blanket, but it doesn’t keep you are warm as when my husband holds me.”
 
Up In the Air asks big questions, but comes up a little short on answers.  As you can probably tell from a couple of the quotes, Director Jason Reitman states that these answers can be found in people, in each other, in husbands and wives, in family.
 
That sounds like a pretty nice way to live life.  But, wait; now I remember.  Marriages fail.  Alot of them.  Half, in fact.  Fathers fail.  A lot of them, too, if they’re even there.  I fail, and so do you.  If that’s what my life is dependent upon, talk about fear – I’m trembling with it.  The truth is that doesn’t work.  I’ve seen that truth through my family, and so many others.  So then, ‘What’s the point?  What are we starting here?’ 
 
How will next decade’s defining film not be one based on fear?

Understanding Perfect love.

 

“There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  1 John 4:18 

 
Accepting Sincere Faith.
 
“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”  Heb 10:22
 
Grasping Unwavering Hope. 

 

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”  Heb 10:23 

 

Does God help with your job, or is He the reason for your job? Does God help your marriage, or is He the reason for your marriage? For your friends? For your family? For your worth? He wants to be so personal, because He is so personal. 
 

No more fear from a 12-step destiny.

 
  
 
1 or Deuce Bigalow: European Gigalo. It’s a tossup, really.

 

2Not to be confused with the best films of the decade3. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, here’s my top 10 list for the decade: (I’ll be watching There will be Blood and Eternal Sunshine soon)

  1. Memento
  2. City of God
  3. Pan’s Labyrinth
  4. Once
  5. Gangs of New York
  6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  7. Lost in Translation
  8. The Departed
  9. Up
  10. The Wrestler

Honorable Mention: Up in the Air, The Last King of Scotland, Children of Men, Almost Famous, Aviator

 

3Not to be confused with my favorite films of the decade. If you’re interested this sort of thing, here’s my top 10 list for the decade.

  1. Vicky Christina Barcelona
  2. Once
  3. Kill Bill 1&2
  4. Pan’s Labyrinth
  5. Inglorious Basterds
  6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  7. Casino Royale
  8. Up
  9. Wedding Crashers
  10. Blood Diamond
Honorable mention: Children of Men, Slumdog Millionaire, In Bruge, Amelie, Ratatouille, School of Rock, Meet the Parents, Paris Je T’aime, Eastern Promises, Munich, Almost Famous

 

4 I read this quote on Melly Piche’s recent story about her desire to return to Haiti. I was blessed to have been on her team in Haiti, and now she’s a great friend of mine. Simply, she’s one of the most incredible women of true faith I know, living her life solely dependent on God and nothing else. She’s an inspiration, and changing the world, starting with the homeless in San Diego and the orphans of Haiti