Oh Noah, you goah, all the way back to the protozoa!

I heard through the grapevine there's a recent Hollywood epic with a vaguely Biblical story and a really big boat.  I haven't seen it as I prefer my movies to have either subtitles and a fantastic score by a composer with an unpronounceable name, or Mr. Spock.  This movie fails on both accounts, so I will save my meager funds and attend the opera instead.  Despite my appalling lack of interest, I have become quite aware of all the hoopla and controversy swirling around the movie.  Christians on the right screaming, "Aronofsky's an atheist!  It makes a mockery of the Bible!"  Christians on the left screaming, "Who cares there's no rock monsters in the Bible? At least mainstream Hollywood made a Biblical epic!  That hasn't happened since Cecil B. deMille!"  Critics down the middle throwing out the usual platitudes, "Compelling, gut-wrenching, visually stunning," blah blah blah.  And of course, they all miss the point.

Just get on the boat.

Isn't that what the story of Noah is all about?  Whether you believe it to be literal or allegorical, or even downright fiction, you need to get on the boat.

I read an excellent interview with Darren Aronofsky.  He mentioned a fear he had as a child, "What if I was not one of the good ones to get on the boat?"  But this is the beauty of the tale, everyone had a chance to get on the boat.  Every living soul got to choose for themselves if they wanted to be one of the "good ones."  And it took a long time to build the ark.  How long?  Who knows?  Bible scholars claim anywhere from 40 years to 120 years.  Even at the short end of 40 years that's plenty of time for someone to ponder, "Hmm, look at Noah, working hard.  I wonder if I need to get on that boat?"

There are lots of boats in our lives, major and minor, and they all require a leap of faith to get on board.  Going to college, moving to a new city, trying a new hobby, choosing different friends, different faith, different family, they all demand some degree of courage, a willingness to say, "I wonder what it would be like to catch that boat?"

The painter Édouard Manet was expected to enter law, like his father.  What if he had never learned to paint?  The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff struggled with depression.  If he hadn't tried hypnosis, which helped him a great deal, we wouldn't have the magnificent Piano Concerto No. 2.  And where would we be if Anjezë Gonhxe Bojaxhiu didn't have the courage to leave her home in what was then Yugoslavia, never to see her family again?  The world would be a poorer place, indeed, without Mother Teresa.

How long are you and I, and each one of us, going to stand around and watch someone else build a magnificent boat, or a magnificent home, or a magnificent life?  We don't need to be bystanders.  We can be participants in the great adventure of life.  Believe that you belong on the boat, you are one of the "good ones."  Take a big breath and

jump.

The Grand Canal of Venice
by Manet

Noah