Neo-Leo by Clint

His name is Leo. Girls, you know you’ve always liked him. Ever since he played the world’s most romantic stow-away on a sinking ship, you’ve loved him. Guys, it’s ok, too. It’s safe to admit that you’re a Leo fan. No longer must you hide your fan-dom in fear. Ever since Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Gangs of New York and The Departed, suddenly it’s perfectly socially acceptable for guys to say, “Leo was awesome in that movie!” Saying that after Titanic would have resulted in male ostracism along the same lines as saying, “dude, turn the channel back to Lifetime!” Now that neo-Leo has arrived, though, I feel safe saying that I was actually ahead of the curve on this one. I became a Leo fan after the movie The Beach came out when I was a senior in high school. I remember a lot of people panned that movie, but I thought it was pretty good. I remember thinking that it was getting at something pretty deep, deeper than I think people gave it credit for. I’ll spare you the long run-down of the movie, but basically, Leo stumbles upon this secluded paradise island while on a vacation by himself. On this island, there are people there who have set up a standard of life and a quasi-civilization. The island is the most beautiful place you could imagine, the people are great, and it is just like what most people would imagine as paradise. Everyone is tan, there is little work to do, and much of the day is spent playing beach soccer while the evening is spent telling stories and relaxing. The movie pulls you in to this perfect paradise. As you watch the characters slip into this lull of island comfort, suddenly the rug is pulled out from under them. One of their friends, a man living on the island, is attacked by a shark and dies. No one knows how to respond. The dream is shattered, the paradise is lost, reality has returned. You see Leo flip out as people walk away from the tragedy, forcing it out of their minds and pretending it didn’t happen. They try and put it out of sight and out of mind in order to protect the paradise they had. In the whole-hearted pursuit of comfort and ease, they’ve lost touch with the pain of others and the delicate nature of life. In many ways, I think this aspect of the movie speaks to our culture.

I know that many live far from a paradise, and life is a daily struggle. However, many of us are living in a way in which the goal is to make this life as much of a paradise as possible. In a world in which the happiest people are assumed to be the ones on MTV Cribs that have escalators instead of stairs, we must be reminded that nothing created or bought can protect from the harsh reality of passing time and life’s mortality. Death is tragic, and my saddest days have been at funerals, but is it possible that we are losing touch with the fragile nature of life? In the movie, it is incredible how quickly they are willing to push the sad things out of their minds so they can try and recreate paradise. Our search for perfect comfort here in our everyday life has pushed us farther from recognizing how limited life can be, and that pushes us farther away from God our Creator. Our #1 goal in life should not be a comfortable retirement or the acquiring of all the best stuff. There’s more to our purpose and existence than that, especially when suffering is everywhere around us. And to be honest, I think it’s healthy to acknowledge how fragile life is. It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling invincible. God designed birth and death, and He has offered true paradise after death for those accepting the grace of Christ. One may ask, “If we’re so close to paradise here, getting whatever we want when we want it, what’s the need for a paradise later?” I feel that this scripture answers the question perfectly.

“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8; I Peter 1:24-25)