Were You lost in "Lost"?

If you are like me and millions of other Americans, you've been watching the ABC hit series "Lost." In fact, last week 13.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the American airing of the 2.5-hour Lost finale. Anyway, most of the time I felt like the characters in the plot with those bewildered looks on their faces. Did you feel that way too? When we first started watching it the first year, I was rather bored. I couldn't follow the plot that well and it seemed to ramble on and on (sort of like this blog).

How did it all get started? What is all the fuss about this program?

Lost opened with a group of passengers on Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 who were on a scheduled flight  from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California when the plane crashed over the sea. Strange things started happening to the surviving passengers who were stranded on the island. For example, a paralyzed man named John Locke suddenly gained use of his legs and began walking around. 

What finally aroused my curiosity in the program though was something called the The DHARMA Initiative (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications).  Supposedly this was a scientific research project that had a large presence on the island and started to flirt with "time travel" based on a magnetic force hidden deep in the earth. Most of the Lost plot went in different directions, to the 50s when an atomic bomb was discovered when an eccentric physics professor from present day tried to help them disarm it.  Anyway, the DHARMA "scientific" group came into conflict with another group known as the "Hostiles" who were island natives. They resented the scientific expeditions and accused DHARMA group of murder and mayhem through their many years as island inhabitants.

Hostiles frequently stayed on their side of the island and the DHARMA initiative erected complex electronic fences around their compounds. The two groups finally formed a "truce" in the 70s, but DHARMA occasionally violated the peace accord.

Survivors from Oceanic Flight 815 became even more confused by these two groups, each making what appeared to be valid accusations about the other people. Some survivors of the crashed airplane sided with the DHARMA group and some survivors took up the cause of the Hostiles. Did I forget to mention "Jacob" was a mysterious figure of authority of the Island who was "in charge" of the Island. Jacob would appear at various time points in history - sometimes dating back to the childhood of survivors of the "future" airline crash. The characters vaguely remembered him in their "flashbacks" in time, but this was also confusing. Who was Jacob? Who was his fraternal twin (the man in black) as he was portrayed as "evil" and why was Jacob going back in time to bring the survivors together on the island?  

What does all of this "taking sides" have to do with the "Lost" passengers aboard Oceanic Flight 815?

I guess this isn't easily answered in the short take I am doing here. It certainly wasn't always clear in the plot. I think sometimes both the actors and the audience began to feel "Lost." It was fun, I guess.

For the characters "Lost" was part delirium, part time travel and part confusion in discovering "truth." I was particularly amused at some biblical themes in the plot as the story aired. There was a resurrection (really, a dead person coming back to life), good and evil, a false prophet, lies, alcoholism, violence and murder, justification for doing wrong, struggles with guilt, and a sense of wanting to do something right given a second chance.

We were all entertained, watched faithfully (if you were hooked) and we ate our popcorn in front of the television. In essence, we were allowed to determine what the "door of light" at the end meant and could leave it to our own interpretation. This was designed to be a humanistic ending, encompassing all religious viewpoints and perhaps even embracing agnosticism.

What was the door of light to you? What is beyond our human experience; our lifetime of experiences? Do you ever feel lost like the characters on Oceanic Flight 815? Is life simply a "mindless wandering" through time?

The last thing I want to do here is get all religious here, but the film really took the "pot shot" at discussion spiritual things. What happens when you die? Will there be a reconciliation with long, lost friends? A reunion with a deceased father? A self-realization that you actually died? A casket in the back room?

If you are searching for answers, there are lots of places to begin from a religious perspective. For me, I found the answers in Christianity a long time ago. Some will say it was because I was born Caucasian, in Western culture and simply followed the direction my parents taught me. It isn't so, my embracing Christianity has everything to do with free will and making my own decisions.  I would love to share my own journey there, it had many curves in the plot just like the Lost film series. I also made many mistakes and hurt people in trying to get to that point in my life where Christ became a real person. Not a fantasy like John Locke, but a real person as revealed in the book of John. Better yet, find out what John has to say for yourself. Pick up a bible, just start reading John Chapter 1.   

Or, go back to eating popcorn. Really, it is all up to you....