What works do you
only now realize
helped make you
who you are today?
So just a few minutes ago–literally–I had a mini-epiphany.
I was Facebook messaging with our own beloved Joanna Schroeder when I mentioned how important the Footloose soundtrack was in my young life and it turned into one of those wonderful OMGMETOOOOOOOOO moments that make life so much fun.
It made me remember how during the summer when it hit home video, all of us kids spent the majority of our weekend lake trips taking turns recreating Kevin Bacon’s famous empty factory dance scene while Moving Pictures’ “Never” played on our boombox. This in turn made me remember how Bacon’s stunt double’s gymnastics in the scene served (along with the 1984 Summer Olympics and commercials for Gymkata) to get me into gymnastics, which seemed at the time like the coolest sport in the world.
But the BIG revelation I just had was how that film served as my first introduction to the idea of religious oppression. The whole film is all about a small town where dancing has been banned via the influence of conservative minister John Lithgow, who blames teenage gyrations for a prom night drunk-driving accident that claimed several young lives.
Having grown up in a completely secular household where religion was never discussed in a very secular country where you can know someone for years and never have any idea if or where they go to church, this was pretty mind-blowing stuff to me. As a kid I was shocked that people could actually ban something as basic and normal and natural as dancing based on their religious convictions. It definitely made me question the nature and validity of such enterprises and–in it’s own direct way–I think I can say that Footloose led me on the path of existential agnostic faithlessness in which I now happily dwell.
Can you think of any similar works that directly or indirectly led you to becoming who you are? I’m not talking about the stuff that hit you with the big life-changing epiphanies, but rather the ones that got you thinking about something you never thought before and maybe helped steer the direction of those thoughts.
A Clockwork Orange – the book, not the movie – is hugely responsible for how I think about religion and morality. I was raised with very conservative Christianity, and still am a Christian, but I have huge issues with the way my fellow believers try to force values upon others. Forced morality is not morality at all, and the forcing of it removes your own morality. More recently, the Dr. Who episode “Vincent & the Doctor” made me re-evaluate how I view art and artists, and also the long-lasting effects we can have on those around us and the world… Read more »