my recent reflection (in part) of Truffaut's "Bed & Board" from the fantastic Criterion Collection box set "The Adventures of Antoine Doinel"...

"i really wasn’t prepared for Doinel to be a married man. but it seemed to be a way for him to create needed order and structure, though he is obviously still very dependent upon a certain amount of chaos and ambiguity, much to the obvious disdain of his wife. she needs him to be a man, a husband, a father – but he is still very much the child from the 400 Blows. but we like that about Doinel, despite the fact that he leaves behind one broken relationship after another, as if that were the norm – and as if it won’t potentially leave him sad and lonely in the end, if he can’t reconcile himself to those who know and love him the most.

more sad than that – this is very much a reality for many, if not most, postmodern relationships in the industrialized western worlds (societies). the individual savors childlike innocence, craves the independence and excitement of eternal adolescence, never losing sight of individual interest and pursuit, and always remaining cynical of any relationship that challenges the sacred freedom of choice in all aspects of life."

but it really is not a postmodern issue, is it? Since the beginning, despite being given all the order, structure, and security needed (in relationship to all things that were deemed good, as created by God) we would trade it all in, for greater gods like choice, independence, and "enlightenment", because the grass must be greener outside the garden of eden. it would not be good enough that we were created in the image of God! we had to know all that God knows, just in case we too, could become God, or greater.

...and isn't that known as the "human spirit" - always rising above oppression, always beating the odds, never submitting, always conquering? isn't that our historical narrative - the human spirit vs. the holy spirit? isn't there a kind of jealousy for the holy spirit that conquered death, while the human spirit still lust for it's own immortality? in this context, can we better understand the depths of discontentment, of fear, of worry, of mis-trust, of selfishness, in regards to our most intimate relationships.

Have you seen "The Fountain"?