A few years ago I watched Sense 8 (it’s on Netflix) and enjoyed it on many levels. Yes it’s got violence and many varied approaches to sex, but all that’s just to trigger default human emotional responses. What really interested me was the character development. I love good character development and here are eight characters (and all their key relationships) discovering themselves as they discover each other. Their strengths and weaknesses working together. It’s a sensual show with fantastic music, action, culture, drama, and viewscapes. Most shows create drama through avoidance, and there is certainly that, but what I love is how the characters move forward to face their challenges instead of avoiding them, and it’s that inevitable motion forward that creates the drama.
I’ve been thinking about oneness a lot lately. Some believe when Christ said I AM or when Moses asked who sent him and gets I AM as a response, they were referencing the same thing Descartes discovered as the only real truth we can know: I am. It may also be the absolute unbounded oneness (Thomas Campbell) or the abiding non-duality (Jed McKenna). Many religious and spiritual traditions have within them a concept of oneness which some figure out, but most do not. These few enlightened individuals become one with everything and others get confused when they describe themselves to be one with God becuase they are God in the sense that all that is not God is mere illusion. If the word “God” has too much baggage for you, that’s okay, just go with Truth. Absolute, undivided, eternal, and outside of time and space Truth.
This show, Sense 8, I think explores a bit of what it would be like to truely experience everything together as one. It gives a glimpse of what that evolution to oneness might be like (or might have been like, before we separated). I pretty much love everything the Wachowskis have created, starting with the Matrix which was a pivotal movie in my life, and this series is no exception.
Corinne and I started watching Sense 8 together last night and binge watched it all afternoon today and into the evening. We finished season 1 together. Why is that important? Well, the show covers a lot of topics I grew up judging into my adulthood. Things I labeled evil. Things I didn’t understand. It touches on so many taboos and fears and stereotypes and cultural barriers and while honoring them on one hand, it smashes them all down as well. I enjoyed watching it with Corinne because even though some scenes are uncomfortable, we enjoyed the show together, without judgment. It was a wonderful day together. I slept in and got a two mile run in this morning, she had a long lunch with a friend, and the kids enjoyed playing on their computers with friends or discovering new games (Devon’s going to teach me Japanese Chess or Shogi which he learned today). We just truly relaxed, and it was wonderful.
I’m looking forward to season 2 and the two hour finale. It has been so long since I watched it last that I had forgotten just how good the show is. At least, good for me anyway. Not everyone has to like it, and that’s okay too.
