Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Once Upon a Time

I love this new show on ABC - Once Upon a Time
  • If anyone knows me, they know I'd prefer a drama or sitcom over all the reality TV that shows up on broadcast (and I don't have cable). So this show is already my kind of thing. 
  • I love Jennifer Goodwin and want to claim her as my doopleganger. :) It's also great that she plays this Snow White whose back story is a bit more empowered than a damsel in distress. 
  • I like adding meaning to things and was hooked by something that is said at the beginning of every episode. 
The show is set in Storybrooke Maine a small American town with no happy endings. The 10 year old the story centers around says in the pilot everyone in the town has "forgotten who they are." While that frames the story and helps the plot move forward, I am taken aback by how true that statement may be for all of us.

I don't believe we are all fairy tale characters. That's not where I'm going.What may be worth considering is that we have forgotten who we are because we've forgotten whose we are. One of the best books I've ever read is Victory Over the Darkness by Neil Anderson. In it, he reflects on what was lost for all future mankind after the fall in the Garden. Succinctly put, we were:
  1. Accepted by God unconditionally and got to walk around naked
  2. Secure in who we are because we could walk and talk with God
  3. Significant to God and to each other (there were only 2 people).
The reality we live in now, is that we live in a fallen world (with some similarities to Storybrooke) and are seeking to fill these voids - we fear rejection (because we lost the feeling of being full accepted); act out of insecurity, seeking others approval and putting others down; and are constantly striving to make a contribution where we feel known or recognized as having value.

In Once Upon a Time, the characters slowly begin to make choices that reveal who they were meant to be. The plot hooks me each week as they unravel the back story and intertwine it with current events in Storybrooke. I can't help but become like a kid rooting for the heroine to win over the wicked witch. I grieve when the villain gets the upper hand and never stop believing that good will win out.

With my faith, I hold to the same values with one significant difference. Good has already won through Jesus Christ.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. " 
Martin Luther King, Jr.





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