The Fortress of Solitude

My buddy at work has a couple of girls who are under the age of 6 and have barely seen Star Wars. While it's an intense movie to a young'n...it's also what sparked my imagination as a 3 or 4 year-old. Star Wars, Star Trek, and Superman all made very big impressions on me during the formative years.

Here it is a quarter of a century later, and I'm still stuck in a web where my mind bounces off the ideas and worlds of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Superman. So before we really get carried away with the geekery, let's shed some light onto why one of these movies still resonates.

I'm grown up, out of school, but don't know my place in the world quite yet. This scene is very cathartic because it expresses the exact moods I feel right now. I feel like while I've got an earthly family that can provide for me and teach me how to be a good person, I need more guidance, just like Clark did. So he's called north by a mysterious green crystal. We don't know how it calls him or why it leads him north. It just seems like he's going on faith. FAITH! So he just wanders up to the North Pole, reaches the edge of a glacier and throws the green crystal because that's kinda the thing to do. Then this gigantic crystal fortress emerges from the frothy, frigid waters. It's beautiful and majestic. Surely, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Once inside, Clark meets his real father. He finds out who he really is and why he's so different from everyone else and why he's so special. His earthly parents loved him and always knew he'd grow up to do great things. But what great things? What's this power for? Through this wonderful sequence, he finds those answers. We don't see Clark Kent flying through the galaxy, finding answers. The fourth wall is broken, so we can be included in this search for purpose and meaning. We don't see the face of a fat Marlon Brando...we just see space and hear this very wise voice, guiding our journey through the universe. The music's very tranquil and optimistic. It sounds like a Father giving his Son the universe, as he explains it to him.

Until I really looked at this scene, I had no real frame of reference for what kind of relationship I should have with my Heavenly Father. My earthly dad's an awesome provider, awesome motivator, and a good friend, but he doesn't know why I'm really here or who I really am. Plus he doesn't love me the way God does.

When I listen to the score from this scene, it's really easy to just tune out the details of this being about Superman and fill in the blanks with my own life. The moods in the music really guide the reflection about just how much God loves me and what He's put me here for. I've got great, unique powers that I don't even know about. But He does. He knows how special I am and what I'm going to do. And He wants to show it all to me and give it to me. There comes a point where I can't explain anymore of it and I get choked up thinking about how beautiful and awesome it really is. To traverse the mundane into this extraordinary, unbelievable, yet true reality to which I belong. It's a fantasy that also exists in fact. God didn't create us to live day-to-day only seeing ourselves barely live out our potential. He's put so much on the line for us, just because He loves us and wants us to grow up and feel that love everyday we wake up.

Wow. That's all I can really say about it. This is far from coherent and I'm probably the only person I know who gets this wrapped up in Superman. To each their own, I guess. :)