Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004) is one of my favorite films. While the original Spider-Man (2002) sees Peter Parker internalizing the adage that “with great power, comes great responsibility,” Spider-Man 2 takes this message further: Peter learns the meaning not only of responsibility, but of commitment, which in this film signals choosing responsibility even despite… Continue reading The beauty and subtlety of Spider-Man 2
Tag: Choice
Four 2100s
2100: In this future, humanity has uploaded our consciousnesses to cyberspace and thereby done away with physicality. Somewhere in myriad rooms, bodies sit, ingest nutrients, and decay, but all of this is rendered negligible by the mechanized wonder that completes our imaginations. In a sense, we have willfully submitted to the reality of the film… Continue reading Four 2100s
Death of the projected self
As the gap grows between the self you are and the self you thought you would be, Your envisioned self dies the death of a million cuts, Like a drawing incrementally erased from a white board. You are strong where he is weak, Grieving where he is alight with fancy, Alive where he is dead,… Continue reading Death of the projected self
Choices, the heart, and God
Shall I go to the bar tonight, Or stay in and read? Shall I drop out of college, Or finish? Shall I propose to my girlfriend? Find another? Vote my conscience? Abstain? Beneath these decisions, there is the part of us that has already chosen; if we try to convince ourselves of our choices… Continue reading Choices, the heart, and God
What it means to bow to the Buddha
A few years ago while reading a foundational text on Buddhism I had the first of two spiritual experiences with respect to the tradition: every new insight I read, it seemed like I was remembering rather than discovering. That is, it felt like I had been a Buddhist before. I asked a psychic about this… Continue reading What it means to bow to the Buddha
Jackson Holzberg Buckley 