The Significance of Losing LOST

Posted by Rath Loeung , Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:35 PM

I didn't catch this train when it first left the station. I think Sharyl and I were 3 seasons behind when we started watching the first couple of seasons on DVD. Seeing that many episodes, in that compacted amount of time, and without commercials... it was all extremely intense. Needless to say, we were hooked from then on.


So a mere hour ago, we bid farewell to this amazing piece of pop culture, unsure of the sum total impact it will have on future entertainment media. Being such a character-driven show makes seeing it come to an end more weighty than I want to honestly admit. The kind of intersections that everyone's life-path makes is something worth pondering about. The Island, from the very beginning of the show, emphasized crossing paths and not-so-chance connections. These are my thoughts inspired by the finale. I make no promises about being spoiler-free.

I loved how Sharyl commented on someone's puzzled-about-the-LOST-finale Facebook status that it was all kind of like a big life group reunion. That's better articulated than anything I could have come up with, I'm sure. After the course of my life, what people from what seasons of my life would have left the biggest impressions? Its a great thing to hope for that I'd be reunited with every single one of those folks when I'm done. Of course, who gets to be "there" and who doesn't gets explained differently depending on your, ugh, theology. I'm by no means a Universalist but I was slightly tickled by how traditional religious perspectives were sidestepped and confronted at the same time by ending in such a church. Jack shared his "OMG, we're all dead!" moment with Christian in a room lit by a stained glass that had symbols from the major world religions.

TV shows don't usually carry such profundity. When they try, the result is usually laughable. I'm glad that this was the ending, and the explanation for many of the show's question, that was chosen. It made me reflect on what my "sideways" universe would be like. Where would the differences lie and what major decisions caused them? Our lives weave, twist, and turn as threads in a loom. As we bob up and over and intersect with other people's threads, are we paying attention? Are we awake to it all?

As tough as it is to say goodbye to something and move onto something new, experience has shown that the unknown is an adventure. And yes, LOST was just a TV show but the timing is such as to mark a transition in my life from one adventure to the next. Sharyl leaves for North Carolina in a week, and I will in two. What lies ahead, certainly God knows. I'm just hanging on for the ride.

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