Life I: A Lesson from Tombstone

I woke up this morning intending to post on the relationship between the final words of Doc Holiday to Wyatt Earp in the movie Tombstone with the ending of Garden State. After further reflection I decided that I had too much to say. So this is part I: A Lesson from Tombstone.

When I was a bachelor living in this house with three other guys we maintained a religious routine. We would all return from work; warm up our dinner in the microwave; sit on the couch; watch Judge Judy; laugh; watch a scene from Tombstone; quote it and act it out in reference to our day's work; laugh and cheer.

One of our roommates (who went to 4 years of school to be a police officer) had a Tombstone nickname that we all sang (yelled) in unison: John "smut-dog, law-dog, law don't go around here no more, law-dog, smut-dog" Schmutzer! (pronounced 'smutzer'). The nickname escalated in speed and loudness until Schmutzer was a frenzied cry. It sounded best after a few beers.

It turns out that those were formative times for me. Tombstone is now possibly the most quoted movie in my marriage (most of the quoting done by me, of course). Lately, I have been quoting Doc Holiday's last conversation to Wyatt Earp before Doc dies of TB: "There's no normal life, Wyatt. There's just life. Now get on with it." Here it is in context:

Doc: "What do you want?"
Wyatt: "Just to live a normal life."
"There's no normal life, Wyatt. There's just life. Now get on with it."
"Don't know how."
"Sure you do. Say goodbye to me. Go grab that spirited actress and make her your own. Take that beauty and run. Don't look back. Live every second. Live right up to the hilt. Live Wyatt."

Often times my wife and I get stuck in a rut as we are attempting to figure out how to go about life. Which direction do we go? How do we get there? What are our goals? When life doesn't play out like it has been planned or anticipated we are back to the drawing board. It is a never ending cycle of re-evaluation. Life is always changing and never seems to reach that place of normalcy. Sometimes this is dissatisfying.

That is a perfect time to whip out a Tombstone quote. "There's no normal life. There's just life. Now get on with it." Perfect. Doc Holiday's quote gives freedom to me in those times I am caught trying to control my life's circumstances--even today as I long for a time where I won't have a desk full of paper work to do...or not knowing whether or not I will be deployed to Iraq next year.

Even though this is a message applicable to nearly everyone that I know, it may have a special application to Christians who attempt to control what life ‘should’ be about. I can picture King Solomon (possible author of Ecclesiastes and many proverbs; one of the richest and wisest persons ever to live) saying what Doc said to Wyatt.

Many Christians suffer like Wyatt Earp suffered. They don't know what to do with themselves. They are waiting and hoping that someone will tell them what to do with themselves. Each of our Christian communities has an idea of what the 'normal' Christian looks like. If you don't think so then go to your church and ask around what a Christian looks like--see how diverse the responses are.

I am guessing that some of the responses can closely identify with attempts to be one who "fears God and keeps his commandments." After all, Solomon concludes that this is the "whole duty of man." The attempt to do this certainly may not be normal in a broad, world wide, sense, but it is certainly normal for what a Christian is. Additionally, each Christian community has a common, 'normal,' way that they attempt to do this.

If we are not careful our pursuits of normality can hinder us from seeing a broader picture--a more diverse picture. How come answers to what a Christian looks like do not more closely resemble the rest of Ecclesiastes? What if life, 'who we should be,' was like the rest of the book as well. What would Christians be forced to see there? Could it include what Doc said to Wyatt?

Could it be to "Go grab that spirited actress and make her your own. Take that beauty and run. Don't look back. Live every second. Live right up to the hilt. Live Wyatt."? Could it be that Wyatt was stuck in a rut thinking that he needed to figure out how to live a normal life--so stuck that he could not trust his own being, his own desires, and enjoy the adventurous unknowns life could bring him? Could it be that many Christians are stuck in this same rut? Of course I think so.

I don't think that I have ever been told by another Christian to do what is on my heart without also feeling like there is some spiritual agenda that my heart is supposed to reveal to me--something that would make my decision appear 'normal'. I have always wanted to "suck the marrow out of life" like they attempted to do in Dead Poets Society. I often need someone like Robin Williams to rip out the pages of my book of 'what I should do' and set me free. I need someone like Doc.

Only one person has ever read Ecclesiastes and told me to "Go, eat your bread in joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun" (Ecc. 9:7-9)--and for him I am grateful.

I often need someone to set me free from this generalized and idealistic pursuit of the 'normal' life. There is just life...so live every second. This could be from Doc and it could be from Solomon...