It starts off innocently enough. As it gets closer and closer to Christmas, numerous kids worldwide have an insatiable urge to discover one thing: what presents they got for Christmas. They might look in their parents’ closet, search for receipts, or shake the gift boxes under the Christmas tree to guess what their gifts are. In the modern world, they might even try to break in to their parents’ Amazon account to ease their anxious minds.
This is not acceptable, but is still normal behavior, for so many of us. It is as we get older that we discover the absolute importance of not trying to find out, see, or learn things we should not know of. It’s wrong to open someone else’s mail, read someone else’s email, try to demand answers from others that we aren’t entitled to and have no business knowing.
However, certain groups of individuals, separated by: class, race, nationality, or wealth status do get to partake in knowledge and experiences only they will ever fully know and the masses will not.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, formed of about 8,000 members, votes each year for the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. With the requirement that you must work in the film industry: actors, directors, screenwriters, and producers can vote for the best contributions to Hollywood within the past calendar year, across many categories.
Yet, because so many of these individuals are celebrities, they cannot just walk into a movie theater, stand in line, get their popcorn and soda, and watch all the films nominated for awards without being ambushed by the paparazzi and die-hard fans.
That is why they receive “For Your Consideration” DVD copies of each film that is nominated for them to watch, and then afterwards they vote on them.
Why do I know this? Why am I even talking about this at all?
It is because I have seen at least three “For Your Consideration” DVDs, those that once were used by members of the Academy, not once but three times.
In Steamboat Springs at a friend’s house, and while I worked at a local thrift store here in Fort Collins, I remember seeing copies of movies such as Defiance, Changeling, The Dallas Buyers Club and even a special copy of a TV series nominated for the Golden Globes.
Each time I saw these DVDs, I felt like I was getting just a taste of what it would be like to work in Hollywood and in movies. Yet, those DVDs are now just like all the others in the thrift store, that I organized on the shelf, just waiting to be purchased for a few dollars. Few will ever really know the difference between them and all the other movies for sale there.
You may not know or care that much about movies. Yet, you aren’t as alone as you think in your personal knowledge and trials in this life. Some of us know great success, while others know great sorrow. Some of us are enabled by our minds and bodies, while others are disabled by them. Some of us are trusted with secrets, and keep them hidden, while others may not be so responsible.
One of the hardest things to learn in life is that whether its good or bad, secrets or truths, the news or the future, is that we are not meant to know everything.
We cannot be all things to all people, know every subject, read every book, watch every film, be active and eat healthy 100% of the time. We cannot know the joys and pains of all the people on Earth.
If we even try, if we overexert ourselves in this impossible task, we may end up feeling like Cate Blanchett in Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. She “wanted to know everything” and literally blew up.
So, if we aren’t meant to know everything, then what should we know?
We should know we are loved, chosen, and favored by God. We should know what we are called to do in life, and make the most of it, no matter what. We should know only the troubles of today, trust God with them, and also the troubles of tomorrow.
Whether or not we ever know the names in Ghislaine Maxwell’s “little black book,” or what all the classified documents are about, that have been “mishandled” by now two presidents and a vice president of the United States, in the end, does not matter as much. Knowing the God who knows All, sees All, and can handle it all, is the ultimate solution for peace and satisfaction for all of our weary hearts.
Until Next Time,
Jacob McGowen
The Adventures of A Warrior 