“Remember, we see the world not as it is but as we are. Most of us see through the eyes of our fears and our limiting beliefs and our false assumptions.” ~ Robin S. Sharma
I’m still recovering from being sick. This is a bit annoying since I don’t get sick very often. Part of me wants to be finished with the hacking and fatigue, another part realizes that healing takes time and I just need to rest. Pushing myself to get well will only prolong the process. It’s another aspect of the lesson of living in the now and not assuming events will go a certain way.
While I’ve been sick, and even before, Barry and I have been watching all the Marvel Universe movies in preparation for the release of Captain Marvel, and then Avengers: Endgame. I don’t know why, but when I watch each of these movies, I notice the assumptions the characters make about each other and their role in the grand scheme of things that end up causing all kinds of problems. We do that in real life too. We make assumptions then get angry and upset when things don’t go according to plan.
Last night we watched Dr. Strange. It’s a story about the different ways we seek healing. Dr. Stephen Strange is a brilliant neurosurgeon. He’s arrogant, confident in his abilities, and sure of his path in life until … he’s in a devastating car accident that injures his hands so badly that he will never be able to operate on anyone again.
That kind of life shattering event sends some people into the kind of despair that they never get out of. But not Dr. Strange. He’s convinced there is a way out and he spends every bit of money he has to find a cure. At one point his physical therapist tells him of a patient he once had who was paralyzed from the chest down. The patient worked hard to recover, but one day he just stopped coming for sessions. The therapist thought perhaps the patient had given up and either killed himself, or just accepted his situation. Then one day he passed the patient on the street, walking. Of course, Dr. Strange is skeptical but the therapist produces the file and Strange seeks out the patient. The man tells him he was healed at a place called Kamar-Taj in Nepal. Going there is the first step on an unusual journey of altered realities and magic, things Dr. Strange never would have considered possible before his accident.
Every story needs an antagonist. In this one a former student of The Ancient One at Kamar-Taj, Kaecilius, begins to wreak havoc on the world. He sought out The Ancient One so she would heal him. Though she did what she could, he didn’t ever accept responsibility for doing his own healing work. When the process didn’t turn out the way he assumed it would, he got angry and vengeful. He blamed The Ancient One for the fact that he still experienced the pain he wanted to avoid. Since she didn’t heal him, he wants her to pay.
Every time I watch this movie, I think of people who attach all importance onto their pastor, teacher, or mentor and when they discover that person isn’t perfect, they are devastated. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes and it’s not wise to hang all our hopes and dreams on someone else. We are, after all, responsible for our own lives.
Dr. Strange doesn’t do this. He knows The Ancient One is not perfect. He embraces what she can teach him, then takes responsibility for his own healing and spiritual expansion.
I don’t know why but being sick makes me reflective and I’ve been thinking about who I think I am as opposed to who I really am. For some reason watching Dr. Strange added to the mix. I’ve been doing some fundamental self-examination which I hope to continue this year. I’m convinced that there is so much more to life than we experience on a daily basis and I want to expand into a larger part of myself.
Okay, all of that is a bit of a muddled mess of ideas. I do like these new superhero movies because they are our new mythology. They make us see the world in new ways. Anyway, I’ll blame this post on my weakened state of health.
Have a lovely weekend. Thanks for reading, commenting and liking. And thank you to my new followers.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2019
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a little bit like Outlander in that it’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, novel. Only Jenna joins consciousness with her three-times great-grandmother, Morgan, instead of traveling physically. She is able to come back at intervals and apply what she’s learned to her own life situations.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news on the audiobook version Lucinda is working on. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
Sage Woman Chronicles 
Doc Strange is not one of the best Marvel movies. But even an average Marvel movie is still pretty good! And I do like Benedict and Mads in their respective roles (and Tilda Swinton of course). For a movie that is a bit muddled plotwise, and pretty abstract in its visuals, they do a good job of giving it life and resonance.
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Christopher, when I watch a movie it’s all about the story for me. What do the characters experience and how do they cope with the problems they face. For that reason I love this movie. Dr. Strange ends up in a very different place at the end from where he began. And I find it interesting that The Ancient One shares her last moments with him. It could have been any of the other characters but it wasn’t. He understood something important that maybe others couldn’t. Just my thoughts.
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Oh, I agree! It was by no means a bad story. Probably what I would call underrated. But for me not as coherent or powerful as some of the other Marvel movies. That, as they say, is my humble opinion. By the way, it is very difficult to make stories with DS I would say, because his power is nor clearly defined, at least not in an understandable way. Spider-Man can lift this and that and there’s a limit. Also his body is vulnerable. DS – you never know if the writer lets him have a spell, or willpower enough to use a spell, that might just tip the odds. The best comic book stories therefore, still IMHO, played with settings, moods, philosophical questions and, of course, his relations, eg to his apprentice Clea. So…just, I hope, to clarify s bit what I’m measuring against.
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