Odd Friday

I read a book about a Catholic who could see ghosts and other spiritual entities. This book is a work of fiction, but I found a peculiar moral to the story. I’m going to refrain from giving out the title, because there are many spoilers ahead.

The story featured a scientist that invented a machine that could create life by his very thought and will. The machine worked perfectly, but the scientist was not perfect. As he created one lifeform, he accidentally created chaotic and corrupted lifeforms. They postulated that these other beings were a manifestation of the chaos and corruption that resided in every man due to his fallen and wounded nature. They proposed that just as the attributes of God are found in His creation, the attributes of our corrupted and wounded nature would be found in our creations.  

I applied this concept to the creation of my thoughts. I create many things in my imagination. I even dwell in fantasies at times. The idea that my fantasies have attributes of my corruption makes me do a double take when I produce them. The harder I looked, the more I understood the corruption within myself.

It not only showed me myself, but also how I perceive others. The personalities of the people in my fantasies reflected how I saw them and not who they truly are. I am truly in need of our Savior.

I started to think about the movie, Freaky Friday. The movie is about a mother and daughter who switch bodies. We know that the daughter was in the mother’s body, because the daughter’s soul animated the mother’s body and vice versa. I then asked the question, “Who is animating the people that reside in my fantasies?” Reluctantly, I had to admit, that person was me.

The idea that I animate the people in fantasies that I used to give me pleasure started to feel like I was wearing the skin of these people. This still sends shivers down my spine. This has truly been a humbling experience. By the offering of my mind to Christ in prayer, I will use my imagination aright. My thoughts will be purified and my heart made clean.

The book I read has a number of uplifting quotes, but this one was my favorite. “Money and beauty are defenses against the sorrows of this world but neither can undo the past. Only time will conquer time. The way forward is the only way back to innocence and to peace.”