"Trailer Park Boys" has been around for ten seasons. (Please note that TPB is NSFW--no sex or nudity, but the language might even be worse than mine.) Yet, I just learned about it from my sons. My son James told me that his favorite episode is "Closer to the Heart" (named after the Rush song of the same name), and it's mine as well. For someone who grew up in the rock era of the 70s and 80s and attended many concerts, I can understand why the Rush concert is so important to one of the main characters--Bubbles. Having graduated high school in 1979, this is a song that brings memories of that era of my life rushing back.
While high school brought many hurts (mostly in the area of love--I hardly had any dates), it also brought moments of wonderful camaraderie. When I finally got a date to the Homecoming Dance (I was SGA president and was largely responsible for the dance), she then dumped me for her older sister's boyfriend. Her older sister and I were both left out in the cold. It took me years to get over this.
The camaraderie was as special as that found in Stephen King's works. My favorite memories from high school revolve around our church league softball team--only, it wasn't composed of many church-go'ers. I've never been much of a fan of church go'ers, or maybe more correctly, they've never been very enamored with me! We were kind of like the Bad News Bears. We even had one player who, like the character played by Matthew McConaughey in "Dazed and Confused," had already graduated high school. We would stop by his apartment after practice for a Busch beer and to watch baseball on the TV. We took our softball seriously and like the Bad News Bears were ultimately pretty successful.
Like my high school experience of camaraderie, that found between the three main characters of TPB is both endearing and unlikely and, therefore, that much more endearing. The three protagonists (Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles File:Trailer_Park_Boys,_April_2009.jpg) couldn't be any more different, but they love each other--they have each other's back--no matter how idiotic the other's conduct.
They were drawn together, because they all grew up in the trailer park--not because they had anything else in common. Julian is sort of the swashbuckling, good-looking one. He constantly, literally in every scene, is holding a cocktail (a rum and coke) yet he's never drunk. It's Julian's way of appearing cool. Julian is also the one who drives a sports car, although each one that he drives is antiquated--just plain old.
Bubbles loves cats, really loves cats. (I think he's called Bubbles, because his glasses are so thick. File:Mike_Smith,_Bubbles,_April_2009.jpg)
One of my favorite episodes involves Bubbles starting a cat daycare. Bubbles creates a merry-go round and other rides for the kitties. Over the years, I've gone from hating cats to loving cats. So, I love Bubbles' love for the cats.
Ricky is the one who is probably most like me. He's always willing to start a fight, or to get in the face of someone. Ricky is always trying to grow a new marijuana crop or otherwise come up with a way to sell drugs and make money--whether its selling drugs to the prison guards or selling at the Rush show. However, importantly for his character, the most potent drug that he ever sells is hashish and that's just a one-time sale. You are left with the idea that Ricky wouldn't sell anything harder, because he does care for people.
Each's loves and personalities is brought to the fore in my favorite episode "Closer to the Heart"--named after the Rush song of the same name.
Let's start with the introductory scene and song to set the stage. Trailer Park Boys Theme and Opening Credits - YouTube
How could anyone create a nostalgic mood concerning a trailer park? Yet, the creators of TPB nailed it--at least for me.
In this episode, Bubble's love of cats is almost his undoing. Rush is coming to town, and Bubbles wants to buy a ticket. But his sick cat takes precedence, so he has Ricky PROMISE to buy him a ticket. Ricky's confrontation personality is always creating problems. In this episode, his nature creates a series of events which leaves Bubbles without a ticket.
Yet, given their love for Bubbles, Ricky and Julian go to great lengths to get Bubbles into the Rush concert. As it turns out, their efforts are recognized by the lead guitarist (Alex Lifeson) who lets Bubbles act as his guitar tech during the show, because he recognizes the lengths to which Ricky and Julian went to get Bubbles into the show.
The episode ends with Bubbles and Alex Lifeson playing together: Greatest Trailer Park Boys moment - YouTube
So, this is where Tomas Halik comes in. Halik says that:
"I can't help thinking that God doesn't particularly care whether we believe in him or not. What really does matter to him, however, is whether we love him. Or more precisely: he doesn't care about our faith in the sense that the term is often used, namely that to 'believe in God' is to be convinced of God's existence."
"To assert that Christianity is not primarily about faith in God but about 'love'--love of God (and one's neighbor)--might come as a surprise. . . One doesn't become a Christian be believing that 'God is' but by believing that 'God is love.'"
Halik points out that Augustine and medieval theology asserted that "when people truly love anything, they are ipso facto already on the path to God, even when they don't realize it."
Halik says that "only in the experience of love do we find the space to glimpse the meaning of the word 'God.'" "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." 1 John 4:8.
If Halik is right, then Julian, Ricky and Bubbles are on the path to God, whether they know it or not!
Fortunately, over the last 20 years, I've shed many of my dogmatic views about Christianity and come to love my neighbor so much more. God had to wrestle those dogmatic views out of me. He replaced it with a sense of wonder at and about the love that God has for His created beings and order. This newfound love 'in God' has given me a greater love for my fellow man. Halik says that, in loving our neighbor, we love God. Amen to that!
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