Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Are You Ready?

Ready Player One, a Steven Spielberg film.


I saw this movie finally.
My oldest (40 something) told me I'd like it.
He was right.

There were so many cultural reference points in it that  got a kick out of spotting them, and I'm sure I missed many.
The plot is about a young protagonist who enters a simulated reality created by a reclusive and now departed computer genius.
But it's really about connectivity, of the human sort.

There's a lot of suspension of disbelief involved.
Like many of this genre (Inception and The Matrix comes to mind), you try and figure out how the real world is influencing the sim world, or vice versa.

But I found it to be an ultimately satisfying movie.

And I woke up the next morning, and as is my custom, I began to thank my Father in heaven for a new day and all the blessings I enjoy. After all, I did wake up.

Then I began to think of the intricate universe He created and I was reminded of the movie and the intricate simulated world that the recluse programmer (and I assume his team) created.
Throughout the movie, in order to win the contest, the hero investigates everything he can get his hands on  to understand the motives and intent of the creator in order to win.

I (and you) live in an intricately created world. It was given to us to live in.
And the clues are there for us to deduce a Creator.
He even gave us a book that describes the rules and His intent.
When the original players were put into the game, they broke the rule. One simple rule.
But that rule was the one that demonstrated their inability to follow the rules.
They broke the world.
Literally broke the world. (That's why we can't have nice stuff.)
And it's been broken since.
And the players have been trying to find the reason it was made.
Trying to win.
Trying to find the prize.

So few are willing to follow the rule.
So few are willing to read the instructions and if they do, fewer believe they apply.

But those who do, in the end, meet the Creator.
And like Willy Wonka, he gives them everything.
Everything.

All He asks, like most of us, is to be believed.

21 comments:

  1. Excellent post. The two principal commandments are love God (and therefore be obedient to all of his commandments) and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I think that both of these key commandments require action and are ultimately very difficult, no matter how simple they are. Returning home with honor, having strived to do those simple things - with all of the permutations they suggest is the challenge.

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    1. LL, we must thank God that grace perfects nature, however fallen.

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  2. I didn’t take quite that much from the movie......but like you, I thoroughly enjoyed it.......though I didn’t watch it for quite some time, thinking I wouldn’t.

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    1. I didn't think I'd like it, either. Not marketed to me. :)

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  3. LL nailed it, right out of the gate.

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  4. I still haven't seen the movie, but I do see the wonders around me every day!

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  5. I see what you did there. Brought it back home! I have not yet watched the movie. Loved the book. I heard the Joust game scene didn't make it to the movie? As I watched the trailer and the opening scene of the dismal towers of trailers in the stacks that reached into the dirty and polluted skies over Columbus, Ohio in the year 2045- I couldn't help but hope this vision of such an improved Columbus, Ohio is even possible.

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    1. Columbus, home of The Ohio State University?
      The trailers showed the improvements faithfully!

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  6. Our son has been trying to get us to watch for quite a while, and the video game aspect of it turned me off. With your recommendation, I'll reconsider.
    Review will be forthcoming.

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  7. They "broke the world." Well said! And He makes it whole, and more than whole, again. Consider the Virgin's words at Cana, "Do whatever He tells you."

    The servants do and water is transformed to wine, the Old Covenant fulfilled and we likewise, elevated in Him to be pleasing to the Steward of the Messianic Feast, God in judgement.

    But as you and Mary say, we must "follow the rule." Per comment to LL, good thing grace perfects nature!

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    1. "Do whatever He tells you."
      Words to live by.
      Never heard them directed at us before this. Thank you.
      Maybe my new "Life Verse". :)

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    2. Ed -- I've been reflecting on them. Such power!

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  8. Agree with LSP. And the movie IS a good one for old farts that actually understand the cultural references.

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    1. I got a kick out of them, like Easter Eggs in themselves.

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  9. Navy mentions the "cultural references".
    I too enjoyed the movie, mostly because of the snippets of '80's music. My ears perked up when they mentioned the "Atari 2600" because I loved "Space Invaders", but since I stopped playing video games when the controllers got more complicated than a joystick with a red button, I understood almost nothing about game references during the remainder of the movie.
    Well acted, it was nice seeing Olivia Cooke once again. We loved her in "Bates Motel".
    Entertaining.

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