Cowboys and Aliens

After caring for my grandsons this afternoon, I came home to watch the DVD, "Cowboys and Aliens."  Although not laced with the philosophy and belief systems of my favorite movie, "Star Wars," it did host some heavy-hitter actors.

I was reminded, as I watched the high action adventure tale, that we are the "heavy-hitter actors" in our own lives.  The story derived from a comic book deals with gold harvesting aliens who are scouting Earth for her minerals and abducting the citizens to learn of weaknesses within our species.  Some gore rises to wring the emotions and the aliens are just plain ugly, non-human, razor-sharp toothed and somewhat faceless gargantuan creatures with no compassion for the life forms on this planet.

Warring parties of the savage West made of renegades, tyrants, the common barkeep, and even representatives of a Native American tribe join forces to battle the alien scouting expedition for if they depart Earth, more will soon arrive.  To aid in saving this planet comes a "white hatted" alien who takes human form and eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice of death in performing a demolition "cleansing act."

Spirituality and a connection to our planet serves as a backdrop for the screenplay and actions of the characters.  Times were harsh, boundaries and behaviors often crude, but underlying many people existed a courage and awareness of others, and life in general.   It's an action-packed story and reminded me of my personal search for meaning, comprehension, and belief systems after my own excursion through the bowels of the Twilight Zone with a narcissist/psychopath and his mirroring clan.

How much a part does spirituality play with us in today's humanity - if we are as some suggest, at loggerheads with an evolutionary offshoot within the parameters of psychopathy?  We who are recovering the onslaught to our senses of the wall of absence of empathy may well discover that spirituality exists even when religion has faltered.  As with the Native Americans in the movie, there exists something beyond self in living.  There are rituals and traditions that bind us within the varying bands of humanity and even when we feel adrift, the rituals may trigger memories of ages past where real magic existed (Michael Cremo).  This may be enough for this moment in time where those of us on our personal quests to right our life paths seek some mooring point.