joan of arcadia

when i was in college my best friend used to love watching touched by an angel. she managed to work herself up into tears every week. the concept of the show was that angels went to some new town and found some lost soul and then showed them the good in life or some such thing. there was alwasy a point with bright light shining showing the love of God in some over the top way. i never could get into that show…or the micheal landon one that came before it…or even the 7th heaven one that, although less showy with the lost soul, was equally preachy.

they never resonated with me because they don’t gel with my idea of God. i do have one. i’m not religious by any stretch of the imagination but i have a very clear idea of what God is to me and how she factors into my life and the world around me. it is a subtlety. it is a trusting of cirucmstance. it is an acknolwedgement of miracles…everyday ones like meeting a stranger and becoming friends, or reading an article that becomes useful in class the next week, or the smile from your boyfriend when you need it.

joan of arcadia represents that for me. the concept is brilliantly simple…God shows up in the faces, in the bodies, of complete strangers. they talk to joan and ask her to do seemingly abusrud or simple or contrary things. and it is so simple and so in line with my ideas of God, my definition of faith becuase for me, God is in everything and everybody. and it resonates because i don’t think God asks that much of us most days. most days she just asks us to step a little beyond our boundaries…a little into someone else’s.

God asks and joan questions and moans and eventually goes out on faith or doesn’t. and the story is as much about ther journey as it is about the results. and it is american television so it usualy has some semblance of happy ending…but not always. and regardless…the idea is still about her journey with God, for God, in God.

and it is lonely for her becuase she sees things differently than the world around her – and i can identify with that as well. but it also embraces the limitlessness of God, her acute attention to every detail…not just grand things like bringing people back to life, but redemption even for the smallest sins, like reconciliation with self past to present, with love beyond the boundaries we know and into those more uncertain ones.

it is an all encompassing view of God, one that i identify with and appreciate.

Tags: tv