An Epiphany: Dr. Horrible and Me

It’s important to gauge our lives objectively at times and remember where it is we’re heading. Then we might have to adjust our course a little bit. Or a lot, depending.

Somewhere along the way, the endgame of being both “loving” and “right” blurred together and had a bastard that seemed to be both, but was probably neither. And this hateful and wrong bastard became my idol – how could others not see things my way when it was so obviously plain to me?

In a surprisingly beautiful documentary I saw recently with the lambasting title Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, a simple line someone says in the film won’t stray far from my consciousness. “Jesus didn’t call us to be right; He called us to be loving.” The bastard and I would normally scoff at this trite and flimsy squabble as we sat high and lofty in our ivory tower of Loving Correctly. However, something about that phrase gnaws at me; it makes me rethink what I think about benevolence.

(P.S., that documentary is available to stream on Netflix. Check it out. Then agree or disagree with it and know why you do that.)

For about a year, I’ve become interested in the happenings in the political world. This passion fit in nicely with my sense of being “right” and “loving” correctly. My disillusionment of both of the US’s major political parties would, according to me, show my absolute fairness by balancing my distaste of those on the right and those on the left. Instead, I succeeded in ostracizing both sides by degrading some of each side’s heroes. I wanted to be taken seriously for my ultimate sense of what is right, but those in both camps of political beliefs trusted me very little. I viewed myself as an underdog, a dark horse, a male and masculine Rosa Parks, who did the “right” thing and spoke the “truth” regardless of the little support I received.

In other words, this is how I thought of myself…

…but this is how I was…

 

With the mindset of being a self-proclaimed underdog, it’s easy to empathize with characters like Dr. Horrible, from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (also available for streaming on Netflix, so watch it!). Billy Buddy, AKA Dr. Horrible, is so disillusioned with the way things are in the world that the only way he thinks it will make sense is if he rules it by force.

This is the extreme of when being right becomes your endgame.

Check out some of Dr. Horrible’s mindset. (Yes in song, look at the movie title.)

Any dolt with half a brain
Can see that humankind has gone insane
To the point where I don’t know if I’ll upset the status quo
If I throw poison in the water-main.
Listen close to everybody’s heart
And hear that breaking sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart
And crashing to the ground
I cannot believe my eyes
How the world’s filled with filth and lies
but it’s plain to see evil inside of me
is on the rise.

Look out, Taylor Swift. A new pessimistic singer is on the rise. (Pun!)

Dr. Horrible, bud, I’ve been there. Sometimes going against the entire world with only your sense of right and wrong is kind of futile. Who are you trying to impress? Penny, the girl you like? If so, you’re operating solely based on your own ideals of what is right and what is love (baby don’t hurt me no more). And if you want some flakey insights on making judgment calls on what is right and loving, I know a blog post you can read.

See Dr. H., our own ideas of what is right and what is loving don’t always cut it. If we’re the only ones squawking about what is right and no one else sees it the way we do, then we come off sounding like conspiracy theorists. However, if we filter what others believe until we find common ground and then talk to them about that, we may gain a friend. And then instead of one versus the world, it’s two. And then get another. And another. I think Sun Tzu would agree with this tactic.

Then there’s the whole loving thing. I don’t expect us to agree with my whole loving your enemies thing, but you and I can agree that love is important and fuels the fire of all that we do. Some people, like Penny, seem all about the rainbows and puppies: in that world, love is easy. But, Dr. H., we both know that the world is less Lisa Frankish and more Cormac McCarthian.

To show love in a world that’s gritty and unwelcoming is the noblest thing we can do.

I’ll make a pact with you, Billy: let’s both try to not be limited by our own personal concepts of what is right and what loving means. That’s not to say we won’t fail. I know that for me, it’s only a matter of time til I mess up. But after that, I’ll try again.

And Billy Buddy, I’m not saying that what is right and love isn’t worth fighting for; I think they’re the only things that are. I’m just saying that let’s not allow ourselves to define them. Cuz what is Right and Love are bigger than our own opinions.

It’s more important for me to be loving than right. And I hope you come up with your own belief on that.

And also, just for kicks…

“Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.” –Pope Francis I

Preach it Poppa.