This isn’t an entry about the Psalms, God, or Christ. It isn’t about the church or Christianity. It isn’t even going to be focused on a very religious topic for the most part. Then again, maybe it’s about all of those things and then some.
At some point during the week, I exercise. This isn’t because I particularly enjoy exercise, in fact, I really don’t, but it’s because I’ve seen what time and gravity do to a body and I can’t handle looking in the mirror and seeing that I’m becoming old and out of shape. But I don’t like exercising in public. I prefer to find a place where I can be alone to exercise, and so I’ve turned a closet into an exercise room. Actually, it isn’t a closet, it’s the small mechanical room containing the heater, the hot water tanks, and other sorts of devices. I’ve managed to cram an elliptical machine in there as well as a small weight bench, with just enough room to slide around them to access the important things in the room. But exercising alone in a hot closet is almost worse than exercising in public unless you have a T.V. with a DVD/VCR combo in there with you, which I do.
I usually watch a movie or T.V. series while exercising so as to keep my mind engaged as well as build some interest in coming back the next day. I have watched the Lord of the Rings movies, the Harry Potter series, Star Trek, Seinfeld, 24, Lost, and more. The series I am currently watching is Game of Thrones.
Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, I know what some of you are going to say. “That series is filled with sin! Good Christians should not watch it!” Yep, you are correct, it is. It doesn’t take much to recall incest, fornication, murder, greed, arrogance, pride, hate, manipulation, orgies, boobs, butts, and other naughty parts. It is in many ways a vile show with very little redeeming value to it. But, you know what? I’m still watching it.
There are a few reasons for this. First, I love stories set in the times of swords and sorcery. I love the intrigue, the dragons (yes, there are dragons), the adventures, the characters, the whole thing. It’s, in part, why I love the Lord of the Rings, or the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series. Secondly, I love stories which show life for what it is, in all of it’s painful, raw, and horrible darkness. I find it sometimes difficult to recognize the light unless I see the edge of darkness. Finally, though, I love how every good story has some hint or shadow of truth in it whether the author intended it or not, and I love how these stories eventually say something about redemption.
Whoops…I said this wasn’t going to be about Christian things…
The episode I watched today was all about redemption and life and sin and death, and hope and…Whoops, there I go again.
The storyline here is a bit more complex than I am able to put into words, so let me try to summarize merely the good parts. (If you want to watch the scene I am trying to describe, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poy6h2zJCJ0)
One of the characters of Game of Thrones is a large man by the name of Hodor whose sole responsibility is to protect a crippled boy by the name of Bran. We know very little about Hodor other than the fact that all he can say is “Hodor.” We know much more about Bran, but for the purpose of this anecdote, all we need to know is that Bran has the ability to see the past. In this particular scene Bran, Hodor, and their companions are being threatened by zombie-like creatures known as The White Walkers.
As The White Walkers bear down on them, Hodor carries Bran on a cart down a long tunnel while Bran is in a trance looking into the past where he sees a young Hodor at a time before he lost his ability to speak anything but his name. As the older Hodor barges through the door at the end of the tunnel, one of Bran’s companions yells out to Hodor for him to hold the door. This call mysteriously reaches the ears of the young Hodor of the past who immediately falls into a trance and begins to call out “Hold the Door…hold the door…hold the door.”
Meanwhile, the older Hodor presses against the closed door, keeping The White Walkers contained while Bran and his companion escapes. Hodor keeps chanting his name all the while he is being attacked, eventually succumbing to their power. During Hodor’s death scene, the camera cuts back and forth between young Hodor, still chanting “hold the door” and old Hodor who is holding the door. The chants eventually condense to “hold door” before finally settling on “Hodor.”
What I am uncertain of is whether Hodor, from that moment as a child, knew this would be his eventual end. I like to think so, but not having read the books I don’t know the author’s mind on this matter. I like to think he grew up knowing he would someday give his life for his companions. I like to think while he was being ravaged by the claws of the undead he had no regrets about his sacrifice. I like to think Bran and his companion understood, at that moment, what love really meant. I like to think all these things, and more.
I like to think this scene encapsulates a greater truth. I like to think that somewhere there is a people, or person, being pursued by death itself, and I like to think there is only one escape, and that is through a door. I like to think there would be someone there to hold the door for them, both to open it to allow an escape from the shadows of death and to close it keeping them at bay so they might live. I like to think that person would willingly die to protect me and would do so having known all of his life that this moment would occur.
I like to think that the truth of redemption pervades the world in such a way that even the most profane of stories can’t help but reflect its beauty. I like to think redemption’s truth affects even the most despicable of lives, making a way of escape for everyone. But unlike Hodor, I like to think the one holding the door will meet me on the other side, in full living color, having passed through the claws of death for me so that I don’t have to.
