Sunday, September 28, 2008

In “Life”, “zen” means “grace” or How to overuse some quotation marks and get something out of a TV show

We recently watched the series premier of “Life”, a show that was offered as a free download on i-tunes. I downloaded several free show season or series premiers this week. We had watched some others but this one actually has an interesting dialogue in some places. The framed-for-murder-and-then-spends-12-years-of-a-life-sentence-reading-a-book-on-zen-and-getting-beat-up-a-lot-character is talking to his lawyer after he has been out for a few days.
Lawyer: Your father called me twice today. Three times yesterday. He is getting married and wants you to come.
Crews: My father is marrying an 8-year-old. He is marrying an 8-year-old because he killed my mother. He killed her because he wouldn’t let her visit me in prison.
Lawyer: No zen for daddy?
Crews: No zen for daddy.

This is one example and the writers may or may not have a good understanding of grace. But this character is trying to deal with a great deal of inner turmoil and he gives zen to several other characters he comes across. A drug dealer/addict who ends up shot is given a peaceful death. A father who has lost his son is allowed to dispose of some narcotic so that he can be there for his wife. A mother is given zen to help cope with her feelings of guilt after her sons murder. A convict is treated as an equal.

I suggest that at least in this first episode the word “zen” is used the same way that I understand grace. I am beginning to wonder if he isn’t a more Christlike character in this way than most of the heroes that we see in shows. He was/is a cop that goes into the system for 12 years. He knows what it is like, what it does to a person. He knows how they think, feel. He knows why they act like they do. His understanding seems to drive his actions towards them.