Reapplying My Skills

I love stories, whether written or spoken, drawn or moving on a screen. Doesn't necessarily matter what the medium. I like learning about people through the stories they tell. I have spent a vast amount of time pondering and discerning lessons and character traits/flaws about the Harry Potter series and t.v. shows like LOST. I think about characters I've played and want to play and can tell you all about the motivations for any one of them (case in point, when I lay in bed last night for 3 hours unable to sleep and unable to get up and do anything else because of a massive headache, I thought about Amy March from Little Women and Jane Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. Someday, if you're nice, I'll tell you all about Amy. I feel she is very misunderstood.) I've thought about my and other people's relationships and could give a detailed account of who people are and why they behave the way they do, and dispense advice I believe would be helpful to any one of them in any given situation if they ask.

And yet, for a long time I didn't think I had an analytical mind. Here I have all this proof to the contrary, and I think I'm not deep. Nope. Truth is, I may simply misapply those skills to a large degree.

This all comes about because a few weeks ago I started posting my theories about LOST on the Players Anonymous website. After the first post, one guy said I blew his mind! Sweet! Who doesn't like to hear that? And it turns out we've discovered in subsequent episodes that part of one of the theories was correct! So, I learned that I can identify and put together clues. My college education wasn't a complete loss. And then I started to feel guilty about how much I think about this show. And then I thought, I need to apply these skills to actually making me a better person, not necessarily just a good conversationalist.

My current scripture "study" is really pathetic. I've gotten in the rut of just reading a few versus of the Book of Mormon each night before going to bed. I think I need to change my strategy. Last night, when I couldn't fall asleep and was thinking about Miss Amy and Miss Bennett, I realized that one of the best ways I figure out stories is to identify with the characters in it, or at least one of them. It makes the story more real and my mind attaches more importance to it.

And then I remembered that during my mission one of the study challenges was to study all of the scripture related to one of my Book of Mormon heroes and write a paper discussing all I'd learned. I studied Ammon -- the ultimate missionary -- and it was awesome! I learned that I could totally be just like Ammon if I had enough faith in my Savior and worked hard enough. It was an eye-opening and very cool experience!

So, I'm resolved to make my study of the scriptures more character-centric. Instead of just going through the motions and surfing through the stories, I'm going to pick certain people I want to learn more about, and start writing down my observations -- find out how they're like me and therefore how I can apply their lessons to myself. I plan to start with Moroni, son of Mormon. No, Helaman. No, Peter the Apostle.

Oh geez, just choosing someone to study is hard! This tells me this is a good idea for me.

Moroni. Definitely starting with him. I may continue to just read a few versus at a time, but I'll be writing my observations down, and that's a good step in the right direction. After all, I learn better by writing things down.

Yay! I have a plan to use my God-given intellect to deepen my relationship with Him. I'm excited! This is actually do-able!

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Erm, just for my own records, some stuff I've predicted so far during the current season (5) of LOST: **Warning: spoilers**

[2/05/09] I am starting to wonder if Miles is the son of the guy in the Dharma Initiative videos... the baby that Dr. Chang was caring for at the beginning of in the series premiere. After all, everyone seems to have a tie to the island.

I also wonder if, the little blonde girl who marched Faraday out to the hydrogen bomb is the younger version of Mrs. Hawking (the character played by Fionnula Flanagan). Could she be Faraday's mom? We last saw Mrs. Hawking talking with Ben about getting everyone back to the island, but she also counseled Desmond back in the day about how you can't change your fate, which is also what Faraday keeps emphasizing. Also, young Widmore called that blonde girl "Ellie" which could be a derivative of "Eloise", which was Daniel's rat's name. He might have named that rat after his mother who encouraged him to research temporal displacement, since she'd already seen him in the 50s and knew he'd eventually need to know...

[2/11/09] Another thought: Maybe Ben replaced Widmore as the leader of the others, and that's why they hate each other so much, and why Widmore thinks of the island as his. I mean, Ben wasn't happy when Locke was unceremoniously made the new leader, either, but he sort of seemed to get over it for the sake of the island. I can imagine that even though Jacob's in charge there's still some friction when the leadership changes hands. Maybe when we get down to the nitty-gritty of the Ben/Widmore rivalry, we'll find out more about Richard and Jacob -- I really want to know more about those two?

Also, and this may not have anything to do with ANYTHING, I find it interesting that the actual leader of the others is named Jacob, and that people who are connected to the island keep finding their way back, kind of like the twelve tribes of Israel being scattered that will eventually be gathered together again. I used to think it significant that the character Ben was named after Israel's youngest son, but now that Locke's the new leader that doesn't work... I guess I could go totally crazy and suggest a New Testament crossover (John), but that's probably just plain silly.

[3/6/09] What if Jin taught Charlotte to speak Korean while he was learning to speak English?