Jane of Arcadia

y_llib's sawhorse
I'm continually wowed by the excellence of this show, 'Joan of Arcadia.' This season's picked up where it left off at the end of last season, with Joan having returned from a lengthy stay at "Gentle Acres (Joan terms it "Mental Acres"...heh), convinced by her family, shrink and apparently God Himself that she's been delusional about the whole God business.

There's just so much going on. The best scenes are usually between Joan and the various figures God uses to show Himself and communicate with her. Tonight's angry hair flip at God's character in the school hallway and her dismissive "I choose a life without You!" declaration were just spot on. If people could see what they look like in their relationships with God, I think this comes close. At least as close as TV will ever come.

One scene though, not between Joan and God late in the show, I almost got worried. She's talking with Adam, and she proposes, "maybe it's not important who WE are, but it's what we DO for one another that's important...??" Adam then addresses her as "Joan" (uncharacteristic for him by now, but he's apparently trying to appease her for her angry statement she made in a heated exchange the night before that she's not "Jane."). She immediately corrects him and says to him, "Jane." While it seems just a bit to demonstrate all is forgiven, it also creates tension with the idea she's just proposed to Adam.

She's said maybe it doesn't matter who WE are, then immediately upon being "mis-addressed" by Adam (as 'Joan'...I know, it gets confusing if you haven't watched the show), she corrects him. She recognizes (and misses) Adam's term of endearment for her...for the real Joan: "Jane." If who WE are isn't important, why make that move?

I contend that, if we are created in God's image, it definitely is important who WE are, if for no other reason than that WE are who we are in direct relation to our creator. Besides, if personality doesn't matter, why make individuals in the first place?

It seems obvious (to me, anyway), that we're discrete persons. That's the way we're made. Thank God for it. All this is not to say that what we DO is unimportant. But the fact of our individuality actually lends more importance to our interactions with one another. Because I am not you, and vice versa, it matters how I treat you.

My head hurts now...