#absolutetruth

Stranger Things, Season 3, episode 8, otherwise known as the shell for one of the most magical, nostalgic-to-some, annoying-to-others, no-one-saw-it-coming scenes of recent history.

Here is the outline (italics represent what we’ve covered so far, bold is what is covered in this post):

A strong woman

What scene are we talking about?

The reaction to it (seen through the response to the context, which will be continued after we discuss the context)

The context of it

The type of woman Suzie is

Dustin’s predicament

The outsiders

The reaction to it (having seen the context)

Heartbreaking hope (the salvation of nostalgia, Suzie/Dustin as heroes)

“eternity in the heart”

death not a part of life

what Suzie/Dustin save us from

insufficiency of existentialism

long for eternal things

Who is the same “yesterday, today, and forever”?

Heartbreaking seriousness (the salvation from nostalgia, Hopper/Joyce as heroes)

The insufficiency of these heroes

(I will use the same explanatory paragraphs for these pictures and then work on these last two outline points.) 

These two moments are the contrast I’m trying to get at. And I think it would be best to see them in the video once more if you haven’t for a while. Not so that you will get the nostalgia back in order to enjoy this post more, but so that you can see what these pictures even are. What does a girl throwing out her arm in triumph have to do with two people who look totally defeated in some sort of a compound? Nothing, unless there is a song playing during both of these scenes that unites them in the strangest way.

The reality of the situation requires both of these shots. Both of these circumstances are at play. Hopper and Joyce are in the compound, standing in front of a locked safe, and they need the code. Dustin called Suzie to get that code and this song is part of the bargain.

Both couples have a role to play in this scenario, and it would not be fair to leave either out in terms of the importance of their role.

Let’s start with the basic reasons why both couples are heroes. Suzie/Dustin get the code. Hopper/Joyce use the code to get the keys, which leads to them destroying the Mindflayer. On that level, it is very easy to see why both couples are heroes here.

But that is not why I’ve been writing about them. I’ve been writing about them because they are heroes in much more substantial ways, ways that go beyond the Stranger Things franchise.

Heartbreaking Seriousness: The Salvation from Nostalgia

We covered the heartbreaking hope of Dustin/Suzie, and her arm outstretched toward an undefined hope for future things that do not end with “death is a part of life.” The hope they pointed at does not have a shelf-life, nor does it have any substance unless there is something sufficient to sustain an eternal hope. So we have to decide, either it was totally meaningless (in which case we all ought to be ashamed to desire a meaningful future), or there is something actually there that makes hoping for an eternal (and meaningful) future, not only a viable option, but essentially natural to us all.

So why would Hopper/Joyce be heroes by saving us from that? Why not just let that song roll on repeat forever, with Dustin and Suzie singing to one another over the radio waves forever? It is the reality of the fact that as they sing there is a Mindflayer chasing the car which will eventually run out of gas, and the reality of the fact that Hopper, Joyce, and Murray are not really Russians and don’t really belong in that compound. It is the reality that things will be much worse very soon for not only all involved, but for potentially all, period.

The reality is, we need to be saved from danger in order to enjoy whatever eternity there is worth hoping in. And what Hopper/Joyce save us from is thinking otherwise, that is, thinking we can enjoy that future, or that song, or come to it without dealing with that strangest thing, death. 

This is where those who say, “C’mon, get the code!!! WHY ARE THEY SINGING!!!???” are correct. They may not know why the code is worth getting, since it provides no meaningful future in their worldview (if they are existentialists, or “here-and-now-only-ists”), but at least they know without that, the show is over.

And this is where I’d like to remind you of the picture above of Hopper/Joyce, listening to the song Dustin/Suzie are singing. Those two pictures are, for the most part, simultaneous. Could there be a greater contrast? There is another picture I will add to help remind you. 

Here you can see the lyrics to the song, as Joyce hangs her head in despair and Hopper stares off down the tunnel, not to look for the Russians, but in utter disbelief that those words are being sung over the radio rather than numbers to Planck’s Constant. 

I just watched a video of a guy who tries to dissect this situation similarly to the way I am, but he sort of boils it down to the adult perspective verses the child perspective. I think there is some truth to that, but if you pay attention, you will see that not all the children in the scene are on board with Dustin/Suzie’s song, and that many adults who watched this scene (as I said, who would be in their late 30′s-mid 40′s) were sympathizing with Dustin/Suzie for the sake of nostalgia. In other words, the adult/child perspective gap is not a sufficient explanation. The fact is, even Dustin, who was as serious as ever got lost in the moment. And Hopper (spoilers), for someone convinced he’s about to die, has the mind to look up and smile at Joyce, saying, “It’s ok, it’s worth it. Do it!” But why was it worth it, Hopper? At that moment, he’s more in line with Dustin/Suzie than he is with Joyce, who sees only his immanent death, which causes her to hesitate. He sees something more, that there is value in life, even if it takes death to secure it. 

And this is related to why they are heroes. Hopper/Joyce are the slap in the face to Dustin/Suzie when they might have forgotten about the danger they were in. Dustin is chuckling at the end of the song. But when Suzie gives the code, what you see in Hopper is someone who knows life is fragile, and that they are in great danger, and maybe he knows he’s not likely to make it out alive already. But if he doesn’t punch in the code right away, no one makes it out alive. And this is why it is such a heartbreaking scene to me. The song ends, the hope filled look at the future has had its moment, but Hopper only cares about one thing, and as soon as he has that code, he turns around and punches it in. There is no hope without that, and he knows it. That perspective is essential too. 

Here we see the salvation from nostalgia. The stark reality that we won’t live forever in the world as it is now, and as we are now. All it takes is a measly Russian compound, a monster from another dimension, and a forgetful mind (Murray’s issue) to threaten certain death for them and maybe everyone else. But we know it is no less true when you take out the Russian compound, the monster and Murray. We know it is true on the streets we walk and the roads we drive. Everywhere we go we know it could be our last trip there, or if we were really giving it thought, that we might not even make it there. 

What Dusin/Suzie do is save the world by reminding us that there is an eternity worth longing for, or that life is not just about right now. What Hopper/Joyce do is save the world by reminding us of immanent death. The code didn’t save Hopper. And Joyce barely made it out alive and eventually will die (by now, if she were not a fictional character, she would be in her 80′s). They reminded us that what it will take to ever reach that future is to see the threat to it, and face it. To “get that code” is not all that matters, but it matters. 

The insufficiency of these heroes is seen in that neither of these hero pairs works on its own.  Dustin/Suzie lacked the urgency (even Dustin forgot what was going on, chuckling after the song was over) and desperation that would move them see the threat to that future. They show us the reality of a substantial meaningful hope (one we need not be ashamed of). But they do not show us the urgency of facing the threat to it. Hopper/Joyce listened in despair as two people hoped for that future, when all they could see is the threat and the need for the code. But the code did not save everyone’s life. If Hopper truly survived the explosion, he’d still likely have died of lung cancer before 2019, or some other random thing that makes the life expectancy of men top out at 78.

The point is, neither of these couples completes the picture; they just paint a good portrait of one part of (for the sake of this discussion) a two part landscape. These two parts: 1) eternity in the heart of man, and 2) the penalty of death. 

Penalty? 

Consider this verse from the Bible: “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Here is one with perfect perspective. The joy set before him was the reward of his labor, that is the glory of future joy for himself and all his redeemed, whom he died to redeem. What lies ahead? Something worth glorying in and hoping in, something substantial. What was the cost? Death on the cross. What was the threat? His own perfect wrath against sin. This is the penalty. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

Death is the penalty for sin, death forever, a sort of living-death. A death that lives forever, under the weight of justice for sinning against a holy God. But Jesus’ death sufficiently paid that penalty for all who come to him. He suffered, the just for the unjust. He “got the code” all on his own, then “took the explosion” all to himself, and yet, he did it “for the joy that was set before him.” Shortly before he died he said, “Father, glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.” (John 17). 

Here are a couple of final passages from the book of Revelation chapter 21 (that scary book that tells us the immanent danger we are in (i.e.the compound, the monster, the forgotten code, the reluctance of Suzie to give it - type of situation we are in), and something of an eternal hope.)) What is in parentheses is added by me:

“Behold, I am making all things new (in the future, and forever)...To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life (eternal life, meaningful, substantial, actual life) without payment (for he already paid the cost on the cross). 

Just prior to this he says, “Behold (that is, wow, you never saw this coming), the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

This is to say, there is an eternity worth hoping in, substantial and founded upon the finished work of Christ. 

But there is another side, the side that many ignore who accuse Christians of inventing heaven as a way to make us feel better about dying. Oh no, dear person. For the Christian, death is more deadly and serious than for anyone else. For just after he says what he says about heaven, he says: “But as for the cowardly (those who are too afraid to face the reality they are in, and face their need for a savior), the unbelieving (those who suspect God of lying to them about what he says), the detestable, as for murderers (which Jesus said we are when we are even angry with one another), the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

This is to say, there is a threat to that eternal hope: death, and the second death, which Christ suffered in order to save all who come to him. 

So I say that scene points to great truths, truths that no one intended to be there, and yet are unavoidable, like the air the actors breathe. I do not say this scene points to Christ. I say it points to two things about us. We long to live forever because we were made to. And we cannot (on our own) avoid the penalty of death (and eternal death) because God is just. Those truths may not be seen in this scene by every Christian, but every Christian, or Christian-to-be will see it somewhere. And many who know nothing of Christ see Dustin/Suzie singing of future hope and smile (their most genuine smile) without knowing why. Others urge Hopper/Joyce on, “Hurry, hurry, get the key!” without knowing what for. 

I’m suggesting to you, however few of you ever read this, that there is a reason why we do these things. We know two great things: God made us to live forever, and we are in danger from his wrath. The Christian knows two more great things: we really are sinners, and Christ came into the world to save (only) sinners.

The Four Greatest Truths to tell yourself everyday!

Stranger Things, Season 3, episode 8, otherwise known as the shell for one of the most magical, nostalgic, no-one-saw-it-coming scenes of recent history.

I will include the outline I’m working with from part one, in case you like outlines. If you haven’t read part one and two, it will explain why I’m writing this at all.

Here is the outline (italics represent what we’ve covered so far, bold is what is covered in this post):

A strong woman

What scene are we talking about?

The reaction to it (seen through the response to the context, which will be continued after we discuss the context)

The context of it

The type of woman Suzie is

Dustin’s predicament

The outsiders

The reaction to it (having seen the context)

Heartbreaking hope (the salvation of nostalgia, Suzie/Dustin as heroes)

“eternity in the heart”

death not a part of life

what Suzie/Dustin save us from

insufficiency of existentialism

long for eternal things

Who is the same “yesterday and today and forever”

Heartbreaking seriousness (the salvation from nostalgia, Hopper/Joyce as heroes)

The insufficiency of these heroes

These two moments are the contrast I’m trying to get at. And I think it would be best to see them in the video once more if you haven’t for a while. Not so that you will get the nostalgia back in order to enjoy this post more, but so that you can see what these pictures even are. What does a girl throwing out her arm in triumph have to do with two people who look totally defeated in some sort of a compound? Nothing, unless there is a song playing during both of these scenes that unites them in the strangest way. 

The reality of the situation requires both of these shots. Both of these circumstances are at play. Hopper and Joyce are in the compound, standing in front of a locked safe, and they need the code. Dustin called Suzie to get that code and this song is part of the bargain. 

Both couples have a role to play in this scenario, and it would not be fair to leave either out in terms of the importance of their role. 

Let’s start with the basic reasons why both couples are heroes. Suzie/Dustin get the code. Hopper/Joyce use the code to get the keys, which leads to them destroying the Mindflayer. On that level, it is very easy to see why both couples are heroes here. 

But that is not why I’ve been writing about them. I’ve been writing about them because they are heroes in much more substantial ways, ways that go beyond the Stranger Things franchise. 

Heartbreaking Hope: The Salvation of Nostalgia:

Hopper and Joyce are in a horrible spot. They just found out Murray was wrong about the code, and now everyone in the compound is in danger of being caught, even Murray, and everyone outside the compound is in danger from the Mindflayer. All depends upon that code (and then ten thousand other things besides have to go right - Hopper and Joyce could have lost to the Terminator even after getting the keys. Or Joyce could have not had a long enough belt etc.) And now it comes down to Dustin trying to reach his girlfriend, whom no one is sure is real, in order to get the code. Remember, this was the 80′s; no one could google Planck’s Constant. Things are bad. 

Dustin knows the value of this code and hesitates not to do as Suzie demands in this case (as we said earlier, this was a low point for Suzie). He sings. And as we saw earlier, he doesn’t sing alone for long. Here she joins him and takes the song higher and further than Dustin would have. That is clear in that Dustin seems to be taken up into her joy as the song goes on. But it is her joy, Suzie’s joy that Dustin is taken up into. What is that joy? This is fictional joy, for sure, but why is it we, or many of us, can relate to something similar? 

What Suzie did, by singing that song with Dustin, while the dimension everyone knew and loved was at stake, was to remind us that there was something worth living for. That something, is not just worth living for, it is worth exulting in, and singing about, and glorying in and forgetting even about monsters and all dangers and cares. The song was well chosen, and I have heard that the song was not the first choice for this scene. But I’m glad this was the final choice. I think the title of the song is a servant to my point. What Suzie and Dustin did, despite the fact that everyone, including Hopper and Joyce, wanted them to not be doing it, was to show that there is a kernel of our being that resonates very deeply with the idea of an eternal hope. I’m not speaking new age stuff here. I don’t mean the word “eternal” as an ethereal, mindless, meaningless positivity. I mean literally, lasting forever, never ending. 

Consider this passage of the Bible: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart...” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

You have heard it said to you that dying is a part of life. You have likely heard it said to you, or to someone else in effort to comfort you about someone’s death. Did it? I have often heard the phrase “God has a purpose in this,” mocked during times like that. “How uncaring and cold.” I wonder if anyone who has ever really lost someone they love find it more loving and warm to tell them something they know for certain goes against everything they know. You may not know God has a purpose in someone’s death, or you may know it. But you know that something is messed up with death.

I want to propose something different to you. Death is about the strangest thing there is in the universe. Strange as in, alien. Death is as unnatural a thing as any other thing you have known instantly to be unnatural, even without someone telling it to you. When someone dies and you hear of it, or even if you see an animal die, does this seem so very normal to you? In the case of people dying, especially loved ones, has it not been clear to you that something very wrong is happening? At a funeral, are you telling yourself, “Yeah, this makes sense.” Or are you not saying, “What the hell is going on here? This is not right.” Why do so many people who never knew JFK remember the day he died? Who cares? It was just another part of life, right? When our parents die, do you think we will be able to tell ourselves it was just another part of life, like sleeping, or going to the bathroom, or balding? Does not every experience we have with or near death tell us something different than that? Death is not right, death means something is very wrong. And we know it. 

When Suzie throws that arm out there, hopeful for the future, we are not thinking about her death that will likely occur in the next 70 years or so. We are thinking about her as someone who perhaps could live forever. We are thinking of her as someone who knows life is meant to be forever, and so hope can be eternal, and not just as a positive outlook on life, but as a life that has an actual (as opposed to relative or subjective) reason to hope for the future. I doubt the writers of the scene were thinking of Suzie living forever, or the actress, but I also doubt anyone had in their mind that Suzie’s hope for the future and exultant joy is all meant to be wrapped up nicely and neatly one day with “death is just a part of life.” No, something would not have been right with that, regardless of the author’s intent for the scene. 

The nostalgia that Suzie/Dustin invoke, or better yet, the “laughing at the time to come” that Suzie above all demonstrates, saves us from what everyone is normally telling us, that is, that there is nothing ultimately that makes the time to come worth laughing at with joy, or hoping in. Or maybe it would be better to say, Suzie/Dustin save us from thinking the code is what really matters. The code won’t keep Suzie/Dustin from getting leukemia in their twenties, or getting hit by a drunk driver, or even simply dying of old age some relatively short time down the road. The code buys them a few years. But what Suzie/Dustin remind us of, regardless of the intent of the authors, is that there is an eternal perspective that people have, that few realize or want to discuss. There is something much more substantial worth living for than “now.” And if that were not so, Suzie’s hopeful, bold and fearless gaze at the future would be meaningless. 

And for those who are too young to care about that future, or who were only concerned about the code, the “now,” I do not think that will always be the case. And I am willing to bet that there is something, that were it to be shown to you, or were you to hear it, you’d immediately long to live forever, not just for this moment (as the world has told you is all that matters), but forever. And I am willing to wager that whatever that thing is that makes you long to live forever, it is not something that melds well with the idea that death is just a part of live, or that getting that code is all that really matters. Whatever it is, it will be something that makes you long for a safe place to put your hopes, a safe place that, if you could only find it, would make you laugh at the days to come. And you won’t know where to find it, you’ll just know it is there. Just as Suzie was looking at some unknown place, full of joy and hope, but we know she was just looking at a wall. But no one is thinking about that wall; I only mention it to make the point. If we were just material beings, without the concept of eternity in our hearts, we would just think she’s a crazy person who looks at walls with a hope-filled gaze that has a 70 year shelf-life. No one is looking at her that way, even the hardest of the hard want to see their “most genuine smile” as they watch that scene.

It would be tempting here to say that the younger people who have bought that there is depth to existentialism will say, “No, the code is all that mattered.” But as I already mentioned, the code is not all that matters, even to you, if you are among that group. Even the idea of living for “now” is meant to be a way of living forever. You think “now” is eternal in some way, so that if you could just harness all that is there “right now,” you’d have truly lived. But you can’t, and it isn’t meant to be looked at that way, but you treat it as if it is. I remember hearing someone say the movie “Cast Away” was all about existentialism. And the ending is the perfect example. Spoilers!!!!! He is standing at a cross roads, looking down one road, then back at another road that leads to the lady’s barn, where he delivered a package. The end. He is stuck at the crossroads forever. Sound exciting? Existentialism exalts the fact that he has a choice, that he’s at a crossroads. But the reality is he has to make a choice. Things won’t go so well for him if he literally stays at that crossroads for even a couple hours (I think of weather patterns, food, water etc.). He’s not as free as he thinks, or as the movie makes him out to be. And if he thinks that crossroads is the epitome of joy, he has to leave his joy at some point. And this moment, this “leaving your joy” over and over is the folly of existentialism. There is no future, only a past you are always leaving. In fact, there is not even a “now” for people like that. 

Don’t be fooled. Let yourself long for an eternity, something worth hoping in. On the surface, nostalgia makes us long for the past, but really, if we will leave existentialism behind, it makes us long for an eternal future, where the past was not for nothing. We really want a story that does not end. Not an eternal crossroads, but a book with chapters that go on and on. As C.S. Lewis has in his Narnian book, “Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” This is no exalted cross roads, this is an adventure. 

“Christian thoughts on gaming and modern media” gives it away, right? I am not just convinced that Christ is the home/source/safe place for our eternal hopes, but the only justification for any hope that has true substance. I’ve heard that religion is used as a psychological crutch to make us feel like we have meaning etc. Obviously I do not agree. But that does not mean what they say is not touching some truth. And there is no atheist who can live consistently with the view that they and all others are inherently meaningless, or that self-made meaning is any real meaning at all. If there is one place I am going with all of this, it that we are not our own saviors, and we are not sufficient heroes. The never ending story is not really about us, and that is for our joy. Suzie was not looking at a mirror when she threw that fist in the air. It is said of him, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) That cannot be said about us. And while that may be good news for us, especially on our bad days, it is better news for us that it is said of him. Because if he is the same yesterday, today and forever, here we have a safe place to put our hope, past, present and future. 

Suzie/Dustin are heroes in this scenario because they pull us out of the “now” and point to they-know-not-what, but what is something yet worth pointing at.   

Again, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart...” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

To long for something eternal is to long for something you are suited to long for.