Because Sometimes Once Just Isn’t Enough

What do you do with a two-year-old who takes delight in chaos? My wife already blogged about The Snow Incident.

But evidently once just wasn't enough! Act II of The Snow Incident happened Sunday, just before our whole family was to meet with the bishop for recommends to attend the Draper Temple dedication. Yes, baby powder was everywhere. I vacuumed, hoping that would do a good enough job. It helped, but there was still a fine layer of powder on the pergo floor, which made it extra slippery. Fun, but he already broke his leg once. So I mopped it as well. And wiped it off of the furniture and bedding and. . . well, just about everything. It took me well over an hour to clean. On the bright side, I don't think his room has been that clean since we moved in.

The baby powder is no longer located in Jack-Jack's room.

Oh, but he's crafty. Yesterday he found the itch cream and squeezed it out of the tube onto his diapers. Naturally it didn’t stay there. It got all over the floor and his furniture, and all over him, too.

The itch cream is no longer located in Jack-Jack’s room, either.

Nor is the Aquaphor, nor anything else that could be shaken or squeezed within his room.

I suppose one solution is to give up on nap time. But that means my wife will also have to give up nap time. Not happening. Another solution is duct tape, but that seems a little extreme.

So I ask you, what do you do with a two-year-old who thrives on creating chaos?

Something To Think About

Sometimes a film comes along that not only entertains you but also makes you think. A lot. The Dark Knight is just such a film.

First of all, I am a semi-reformed former comics geek. While I didn’t regularly collect Batman comics, there were certain series, notably Frank Miller’s dark and stylized Dark Knight Returns and gritty Batman: Year One work, that mesmerized and enthralled me. So for me the ultimate Batman is the one played straight, that shows the ethical and moral dilemmas inherent in combating evil and the choices with their natural consequences. Fortunately for me, director Christopher Nolan has a similar vision of the Batman.

After seeing the film the most striking thing was the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. Nothing new here. If he doesn’t win an Oscar for best actor this year then a serious miscarriage of justice will have occurred. But as excellent as the performance was, it is how the character was written that allows Ledger’s portrayal to say something deep and meaningful.

The Joker is the personification of chaos and anarchy, and for that reason is perhaps the best cinematic representation of Satan I have ever seen. To him, only disorder has meaning. “You have all these rules and you think they'll save you. . . . The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules!” We learn no origin, as whenever he reveals something about himself it is a lie. “Nothing. No matches on prints, DNA, dental. Clothing is custom, no labels. Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint. No name, no other alias.” Not knowing anything, we cannot empathize with him. He just is. And what he is is blood and horror. As Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler, describes him, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”



Another aspect of Satan’s character embodied in the Joker (as pointed out to me by my wife) is his desire to “deceive the very elect.” The Joker turns Harvey Dent from an incorruptible champion of the law and order inherent in civilization into an agent of personal vengeance and destruction. He brags, “I took Gotham's white knight, and brought him down to our level. It wasn't hard. Y'see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little...push.” No one is immune to the conceit that the rules, which create and build community, don't apply to them personally. “You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time,” Two-Face bemoans. “But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance.” One man decides that his will trumps the greater whole.

Interestingly, in society today and throughout history certain individuals and groups try to redefine those rules to let anarchy back in, believing that they act in the name of liberty. Liberty is not synonymous with anarchy, but when society normalizes behaviors and activities that strike at the very order that strengthens the community, it becomes the enemy of order. And where order breaks down, chaos ensues.

The Batman, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of the Joker. He is human. He doubts himself. The terror the Joker has unleashed strikes him to the very core. Nevertheless, he stays true to his moral compass. Ultimately the difference between civilization and anarchy is a set of mutually recognized and respected rules. The Joker has none, Two-Face gives his up, but the Batman stays true. Moreover, for the good of Gotham City the Batman takes upon himself the sins of another to further Dent’s work as District Attorney (See Leviticus 16:20-22). In Commissioner Gordon’s words, “[H]e's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a dark knight.”

Lots to think about. Dark and disturbing, but in the end hopeful. I don’t know that this movie is one that I’ll watch again and again, but its message will stay with me for a long time to come.