August 14, 2000

"All That You Hold In Your Hand"

We just watched Contact, about what our first contact with 'aliens' might be like, tonight. Maybe this is the third time we've seen it. It's Julia's most favorite movie, evoking many salty tears. She told of a dream she had when she was eight, that caused her to feel she wasn't 'alone' in the cosmos. This movie, with the experience Elly the scientist had, as she made first 'contact', makes her relive that dream.

It affected me deeply, but on another level. When the committee were choosing the one person who would enter the device the 'aliens' had transmitted, a big deal was made about faith in God. Elly answered with honesty, as a skeptic. Later, after her experience in the device, everyone will not believe her account of the event. The aliens seemingly didn't leave any evidence of it for her to show. She tries to explain that it was her EXPERIENCE, and she knew it to be a true one. All such matters of faith come down to that, what we have experienced, and how it feels REAL to us.

But those who observed in the stands said, no, the ball which contained her only dropped through the device and fell through the bottom. No time had passed at all. However, she had felt it to be about eighteen hours, as the aliens used the imagery she would best understood to explain things to her. ''Couldn't it have just been an elaborate stunt concocted by the wealthy eccentric who had funded the project, an elaborate stunt just to ensure his fame?'' she is asked. She, as a rational person, must at least conceed that possibility.

However, later, she is vindicated, for the recording device that captured only static did, indeed capture 18 hours of static, the time she had sensed she had experienced in the alien's world.

An image from the movie stayed with me afterward. In the 'contact' scene, Elly is holding the grains of sand on the beach, and looking at her hand, with all the tiny stones, reflecting the shimmering water. Later, on earth, she is holding tiny bits of gravel in her hand, remembering her earlier experience.

With that image in mind, read this poem:

All That You Hold In Your Hand All the arguing in countless places will not prove anything. Words are words, they have their merit, but the burden of proof is in the eyes. 'Who sees it, knows it.' All that you hold in your hand can be compared to the grains of sand on the beach. Count them if you wish, but it is not the numbers that count. You, your hand, and your eye - Beyond this, the vast unspeakable. Hold it close to your heart, what you've seen. Dear it is, and without expense. Hold it against the passage of time. Image it thusly in just such pattern as it is. Hold it up, let others have a look. The grains will not leave the hand without returning. All these, the stars - All these, the heavens, All these, the earth, and its fine little grains - hold it all, and never let it go, 'til the final release - such spilling will not be lost, ever. So mote it be. JAL, 8-14-00

''Dear it is, and 'WITHOUT EXPENSE'??'', the receiver of the poem questions. I can only conclude, not with material expense, but with spiritual expense.

Thus, once again, I am moved by film.