On Machines, Transportation, and Control

Many people in my generation were introduced to pop philosophy through the words of the cloaked future warrior Morpheus, played with concise elegance by one Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix trilogy. Although some dismiss the movies for their shoddy treatment of philosophical and religious themes, I've always been a fan for the pure amount of adrenaline that the series creates as Morpheus guides the hacker turned hero Neo to claim his identity as 'the one.' The series pits humanity against a race of machines that desires nothing but control through a programmed dream world. Neo awakens from this dream to a nightmarish reality where humans "are no longer born, but grown" in vast fields of embryonic chambers. He is trained so that he can face the deadliest of these computer programs, called "agents" and then proceeds to lead us in a series of increasingly impressive action sequences where his skills are honed and we are generally reminded that the purpose of the movies was not, in fact, to educate us in existentialist concepts.

By the third movie we all wished he had taken the blue pill...

Yes, I agree with those of you who decry the sequels as utterly self-absorbed and lacking in the curious spirit that made the first movie so special. While the second movie suffered from complicated and confusing plot additions and the third was overblown in its climactic battles, the first movie had just enough linearity to be immediately arresting. It's one of those science fiction experiences that stays with you, owing to the groundwork laid by George Lucas in Star Wars as far as the moral arc of the hero goes. There's something endearing about watching a character break free of the controlling machines and fighting to liberate others from the illusions that surround them. We find ourselves feeling and rooting for Neo even though his emotional expression goes little beyond "confused stare." It's the fact that he can beat the machines within the confines of their own programs, stopping the imaginary bullets and warping the physics of the computer-generated virtual reality such that nothing can harm him. 

Perhaps I'm rooting for Neo now because I'm struggling with my own battle for control. You see, my trusty pickup Guillermo, whom I've written about before, is in the shop with engine troubles. As environmentally conscious as I am, I have to confess my entrenched dependence on the automobile as a primary form of transportation. This is my first blog posting from my new digs in the inner city of Fresno, which for all its charms is not too friendly to those without some form of vehicle. As I walked down the street this evening to participate in daily mass at the local parish, I recognized that our culture has gone to extreme lengths to depend on the auto. We rail against rising oil prices whose liquidity is expressed at the pump. We design our shopping centers to be driven to and from, walkable only in rare circumstances. Fresno is not my former home town, San Luis Obispo, which has a walkable urban core that people may enjoy without a vehicle. God chose not to give us legs that can carry us much beyond 3 miles per hour for a sustained period, sub-Saharan Africans notwithstanding. In the days before cars we would rely on our feet, boats, or if you were lucky, a horse. I don't know how the apostles did it, spreading their message of love with their feet!

All this is to say that the machines have gripped their hooks of control into me, and I am being painfully weaned from my dependence on them this week. Although I have hope that my car will get repaired, I will be more mobile, and life will go on, this car-less week provides me with an important opportunity to recognize that I am not in control, that I do not control my own destiny, and ultimately, that I am not the one who has the final say. 

In these liminal moments I'm reminded that the Lord's grace is sufficient to cover an abundance of my short sighted and frail attempts to control my own little reality. Perhaps this is an occasion to offer a prayer of repentance for operating under the presumption of my autonomy:

Lord, I recognize that You are the one in control. I'm sorry for the ways I try to assert my own dominion where I never should. Shape me through these experiences to have a heart more sensitive to the lost, broken, and marginalized that I encounter. Give me a generous spirit that can share the abundant grace that I've received from you. Mold me according to your will for my life, and not my own presuppositions. Amen.

May you be filled with the Generous Spirit's good grace throughout this week.