Six years ago, when LOST started, I was a bachelor fresh out of college looking to make my way in this world as a temp. Several “real” jobs, and six years later, I am a married father of two, and as the LOST journey comes to and end, I feel like in many ways my own is just beginning. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t view this show as life-changing or life-altering. It’s a TV show, so you have to have some perspective there, but, I do feel in a lot of ways like I have taken part in something that at the very least, won’t soon be repeated and I feel that I owe it a proper send off.
The reviews for the finale have come in mixed. They range from “this changed the way I view the afterlife” to “I can’t believe I wasted six years on this nonsense.” To each his or her own, I suppose. The one thing I find puzzling on some level about the dissatisfied fraction of viewers is that this is a sci-fi and faith based show…and you expected all the answers? That’s not realistic. Heck, that’s not even reality,! Life so rarely delivers effortless answers. Some of the greatest movies ever made, books ever written, or stories ever told leave a lot up to the imagination. Some people don’t like that, but for me, I like the fact that the door was left open just enough for us to come up with answers and resolutions in our own minds as to what really happened. To me, that’s a winner…especially living in the “real” adult world where the use of ones imagination isn’t often encouraged but rather, we are to do our jobs, go through our routine’s and return and repeat. Cogs in the wheel.
The one thing that LOST did really well, or should I say the writers of LOST did really well over the last 6 years was that it changed the perspective of the show on the viewer and required the viewer to see things through a different lens. Some walked away frustrated with the final season because they looked at the end and said “oh, so they were all dead anyway, that’s dumb.” No, they weren’t and no it’s not dumb. In any show, when you are given new information, you have to reevaluate from the point on where you learn the new info. You can’t just apply it to where you’re at and reach your conclusions. That’s kind of silly. You can learn a lot by simply paying attention! LOST writers and producers kept people guessing for a reason. I suspect that if you go back and watch the entire show, knowing what the end-game is, you’ll probably pick up on subtle hints that were dropped throughout and now that you are viewing it through the proper lens, you might find that you like it a little better. Then again you might not, that’s your choice…your, free will (if you will!)
In the end the show was about redemption and it was about the relationships that you build in life and the importance of holding on to those relationships. It also focused on the power of choices. You can choose one path or you can choose another, but either way, you choose. I’ll admit, I’m not nearly as good a friend, brother, or son as I probably have been in the past. Life gets in the way, we all move on. Some of the characters received a grand redemption on the show and others received theirs in very subtle ways. So too goes the pattern of our lives. We have our ups and we have our downs, but in the end, it still comes down to people, particularly the ones we surround ourselves with and how we treat them. Hanging on to grudges and negative feelings don’t help us progress, in fact, quite the opposite, they become an albatross that we have to overcome but only can do so once we are ready to face that challenge and make that choice. For each person, it comes in its own place and its own time.
Did LOST change my world view? Nope. It just reminded me that I needed to make sure I maintained perspective, which I often struggle with. So, farewell Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Ben, Locke and the rest of you! It has been one heck of a ride.
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