Old Stuff...

This is old stuff, which a lot of you can avoid. I don't think I've posted it here before, but Dr. Heidi made me think of it and I wanted to share.

I believe in Angel.
No, I am not some raving Joss Whedon fan who wishes she was a slayer and could (with her cadre of super cool friends) save the world and date sexy vampires. I didn't start watching until late in the game, and I don't own any seasons on dvd. Okay, so I do own Firefly, but that is a different essay.
Still, I believe in Angel. Rather, I should say I believe that we can all learn a little something from the vampire with soul. In "Deep Down," the opening episode to season four, Angel returns from being trapped in a coffin underwater for three months to confront his son, Connor, who put him there. Without getting too far into their complex story, their relationship is a little dysfunctional because Connor was raised to hate and destroy all vampires, especially Angel. Hence, the whole putting him in a coffin thing.

Angel explains to Connor what he figured out at the bottom of the ocean.
"I did get the time to think. About us. About the world. Nothing in this world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh. And cruel. But thats why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from. What we've done or suffered or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world was as it should be. To show it what it can be."

This is it, this is what makes me believe in Angel. "We live as though the world was as it should be. To show it what it can be." It's simple. But, say it out loud, give the appropriate pause for that period, and listen to how it sounds. It carries magic.
Not the magic that lets us dream of champions, believe that vampires can have souls, and find answers to life's questions in a television show, it's a deeper magic. There is hope in that passage, a hope I sometimes forget about, because there is another truth in that passage.

"Nothing in this world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh. And cruel." It is easy, especially today, to only see what is wrong with the world. From natural disasters to political outrages, from social injustice to individual assaults we are inundated by all the things that are wrong (and those don't cover the struggles we face in our personal lives). The occasional human interest story does nothing to ameliorate the despair that can set in when it seems as if nothing ever changes.

Josh Whedon is right. We need champions. If only to give us hope. Not the hope that they will save the day, the hope that we can save it ourselves. I know it sounds naive and starry-eyed, but what if we could believe in Angel. What if we could believe that if we show the world what it is capable of, the world will change? What if we believed in the magic of hope?
I could hardly be called a champion, but isn't that the point. Like Angel said, it doesn't matter if we make a difference, it's about how we live. There are sillier things than believing in vampires. So, I'll believe in Angel. "We live as though the world was as it should be. To show it what it can be."