aaaaarrrgggghhhhh

This involved some kind of castle and huge hideous beast, and something about carving a message into the wall on the way down...

Work has been entirely too hectic lately. Working until 8 or 10 or 12 most nights, and that's after trying to get in earlier than usual to get a head start on things. At least I'm getting to do some fun database work, not just menial, trivial junk. I believe this is the first time in nearly 2-1/2 years that I'm come close to fully using my capabilities. I rock. I almost felt guilty leaving at 6:05 this evening. Isn't that awful, to feel guilty about leaving that late? I t was a 9-1/2 hour day.

Last night, I finished watching the first four episodes of "Lost" and "Invasion" this season since last Saturday. What excellent shows! I recorded tonight's episodes and decided to watch a movie from Netflix. My choices were: High and Low (Akira Kurosawa), The General, and Nobody Knows. I'm saving The General for a movie night in a couple of weeks, and I wasn't in a mood for Kurosawa (I know that's blasphemy), so I watched Nobody Knows.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Basic premise: four children, from ages 5 to 12, are abandoned by their mother. Even when she's around, it's not much different except for her having an apparently steady income for the family. The remainder of the movie focuses primarily on the oldest child and what he does for his brother and sisters. The children do a fantastic job and seem fairly realistic in their reactions. The gradual wearing down of clothes, the growing hair, and the desperation of what you would consider doing to survive (which, at the end of a year of being unemployed, well, let's just say that was pretty realistic).

And now for the ranting... Just imagine this next bit is in all caps, bold, and about 72pt. Also, minor spoilers, but not too much more than what you would find on the blurb on the back of the box.

How can a mother (or father) just abandon her children so she can find some kind of "happiness" in her life? How can she raise them in such a way that they're forced to live out their childhood in the squalor of their cramped apartment? A 12-year old shouldn't have to make the kinds of decisions that an adult should have to make to survive. He stayed and did what he could, unlike his selfish twit of a mother. They should all get to go outside to play, go to school and learn, and just be kids. I am just infuriated at this.

I know this is just a movie, but it is based on a true story (though I think in the actual events, the mother died), and I can't help but wonder how much of this is going on today right here in the land of plenty of America. (The movie is set in Japan.) Why do we treat our children as a nuisance, a bother to the rest of our lives? I'm not shocked that we do this (and I do mean the editorial "we" here) because we live in a fallen world, and, increasingly, what used to be considered wrong or unthinkable is becoming considered the norm, and what used to be right and respected is not just falling out of favor but being ridiculed as "out of date" and "closed-minded". We've been at war far longer than we've been in Iraq, and the consequences of losing this war are far more insidious and regretful (maybe not the best words, but it's all I can come up with for the nonce). We're not merely talking about lives, but the very souls of people.

And this reminds me of what I feel God is leading me to at some point in my life: working with teenagers—primarily boys/young men—who are selling their bodies to survive. (None of that happened in the movie, so don't worry about that.) God has placed this particular group of people on my heart so much. And the people that prey on them, that use them for their own pleasure, I pray God will convict them of their wrong-doing in this. It wouldn't be very nice what I would want done to them. Yes, they pay the guys for their "time", but life is more than just money, and these young men are worth so very much more than money.