Spoiler Alert: I Relate A Lot To Thanos

Well, it’s a new week and a new blog post is due to keep the storytelling fiends (such as myself) at bay. I have thoughts to share and stories to tell, but first a disclaimer…

SPOILER ALERT
If you have not yet seen the latest Avengers movie that came out in theaters, then you should go buy a movie ticket, watch the movie, cry in your car, then come back and read this blog.

I just watched Avengers Infinity War in a little theater in India. The little theater only had little wall AC units and fans attempting to circulate the cold air, but it did nothing for my backside, which was sweltering against the plush red seats. Bleh.

QUICK RANT
I went into this movie with a bit of superhero movie fatigue. I’m tired of stuff mindlessly getting blown up/destroyed/stabbed and it all being pointless. Cities are destroyed and there’s not enough time to rebuild in time for the next movie. I’m always surprised that there are still skyscrapers a plenty to be destroyed by invading aliens.

Also, it drives me crazy how the powers of superheroes fluctuate. One minute they are being pulverized by a Titan (lose), but then can stand the direct aim of a powerful star for a couple minutes (win). Get it together, Thor!

QUICK PRAISE
I have great respect for Black Panther as a character while watching this movie. Think about it, he’s not just some playboy in a cat suit that goes around saving the day for kicks. He’s a wise king that rules a hidden country and is accustomed to making hard decisions i.e. like making Wakanda known to the world. He chooses his battles carefully and when the fight comes he’s at the front leading his men and women into the fray. He works in diplomacy, considers the needs of his people and that, my friends is a real hero and something we could use more of in this world. But I digress…

MAIN POINT
The main villain of the movie is a Titan called Thanos. He is trying to collect all six of the infinity stones so he basically becomes like an (almost) omnipotent being and can extinguish life in the Universe. He plans to wipe out half the population of all living kind in order to sustain the remaining life. Due to famine, over population, and living in a finite universe, Thanos believes this is the best way to bring back balance. Calculated genocide…never heard of anything like that before in human history…sarcasm…

Thanos is quite the conflicted philanthropist and a great villain. What makes him a great villain is that he is not completely evil. Aside from the fact that he murdered, tortured, and wiped out entire species…you can hear the logic in his argument. The universe is finite. I’m not a math expert, but if the population continues to increase and the food supply does not that leads to starving, desperate people which leads to death. He leads you to believe he actually does care about the quality of life enough to sacrifice his own adopted daughter Gomorrah (I told you there’d be spoilers, but did you listen? NoOooOo.)

How often do we have good intentions with our decisions and it leads to drastic consequences? How often do we allow our passions to dictate our lives instead of the other way around? 

At the end of the movie, Thanos is successful in retrieving all the stones, but at a great cost (it’s okay you’re allowed to cry). Once he controls the stones, he delivers as he promised and wipes out half of mankind. You see your beloved heroes turn to ash before your very eyes. They failed and are now suffering the consequences.

Something I learned before I came on this journey around the world was that we as humans have control of three things in life:

1. Your Choices
2. Your Attitude
3. Whom You Trust

I chose the title “I Relate A Lot To Thanos” not because I’m a homicidal, clickbait maniac, but because just like him I’ve done things because I thought it was a good thing to do even though the process to get there wasn’t. Like Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I want it and I want it now.

Save the world?
Like Thanos, you could kill half the population with the snap of the fingers.

Or am I willing to work tirelessly to find sustainable solutions for a growing world?

Healing from my wounds?
T-t-today, junior.

But am I willing to walk down the pain of memory lane and confront giants I thought I laid to rest that are alive and well?

Lose that extra flab to look fab? 
Now.

But am I willing to set aside the fork and do some push-ups everyday?

It all requires a process.

Whether it’s a noble cause or a selfish one, I hate the process to get it. Because in order to receive any of these things, I need to die to myself (Galatians 2:20). I need to value others more than I value myself (Philippians 2). What it all comes down to is the world needs more love (1 Corinthians 13). More of God and less of me (John 3:30).

I think the reason I don’t like the process is because it is painful. But no matter what we do in life, we will experience pain. Choose your pain. 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If you could save the world from dying out by famine, disease, overpopulation, how would you do it? 

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