Foreshadowing
10/11/12 05:30
We’ve been living without Daylight Savings Time for a week now and we seem to have made the adjustment without any major problems. The clock that controls the bell tower at the church was successfully changed. The bells ring at the right time. People have been showing up for meetings at the right time. The church office hours were observed. We’ve been making the change for so many years that most of us don’t think about it very much..The shift means that it gets dark earlier in the evening. Sunset was about 4:30 yesterday and sunrise will be about quarter to seven this morning. The times also reflect the short days and long nights of approaching winter. We’ve got more than a month of shortening days ahead of us as we enter the darkest season of the year.
The dramatic shift of one hour in a single day resulted in my noticing the approaching dusk and the lengthening shadows more than usual. As I went through my afternoon activities this week I was aware of shadows. The weather has not been bright and sunny all week. In fact yesterday it was foggy and misty all day long. So the shadows are not the stark, long companions that we are used to when it is bright and clear and the sun sinks low enough to create elongated shapes on the ground. Rather, the world seems to be full of dark places with insufficient light to see what is happening. Driving in the fog after dark yesterday was an experience of dwelling in a world that is mostly shadow.
The name “Dark Shadows” was chosen for a popular movie directed by Tim Burton and starting Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer. I am not much of a moviegoer and I haven’t watched the picture, but I’ve read a couple of reviews and there isn’t much in what I have read to attract me to the show. A vampire who has been imprisoned is somehow set free and returns to his ancestral home where he works to save his descendants. Not believing in vampires, the basic premise of the show eludes me, but I understand that vampires are very popular in contemporary culture. We like things that give us a fright without really being dangerous. I’m not much for scary movies or for thrill rides at amusement parks. Life itself has enough experiences of real danger to satisfy my need for adrenalin. Driving in the dark in the fog on slippery streets with inexperienced drivers during the deer rut is enough to garner my attention. Who needs a movie to raise the hairs on the back of your neck?
But I like the name “Dark Shadows.” Actually, I think the movie got the name from a 1960’s TV soap opera. I don’t watch soap operas either.
Shadows are not reserved for unlit corners and television and movie portrayals. Foreshadowing is a long-established literary technique. Shakespeare was a master of it. Early in the story of Romeo and Juliet, both partners declare that they would rather defy their families and be in love. Their declarations set up the drama that is to follow. Foreshadowing is common in novels and in movies. One of the classical uses of the technique is the music used in the 1975 movie Jaws. It has been decades since the film was made and still people will mimic the soundtrack of the movie to indicate that something dramatic is about to occur.
Foreshadowing is also a parenting technique. Most parents employ foreshadowing without even thinking about it. They simply talk about what is going to happen as a way of preparing a child for the events of the day. A parent will casually mention upcoming events to motivate a child: “After you get dressed, we are going to go visit grandma.” The promise of a reward motivates behavior in advance of the reward. The problem with the technique is that at different ages and stages of development children have less or more ability to envision the future. A two-year-old, for example, might have a notion of now and the future, but can’t conceptualize something that is weeks or months in the future. “Is it my birthday, yet?” starts right after the second birthday. The next birthday is a half a lifetime away from the perspective of a two-year old. I’ve often witnessed parents rattling off a list of events and the child focusing on one of the events while ignoring the rest. For example, a parent might say, “After breakfast we are going to clean the house. Then we will eat lunch, take a nap and after that we’ll go swimming.” The child finishes breakfast and goes immediately to put on her or his swimsuit, forgetting all of the other things that the parent described.
We all have limits to our ability to delay gratification. Foreshadowing helps us to deal with the delay. When I remind myself that something good is coming, I have more energy for the mundane tasks that lie between the present and the reward.
But there is a big difference between fiction, such as a novel or a movie, and real life. In real life there are genuine surprises. A movie director or novelist has to know what is coming in order employ foreshadowing. In real life, we often do not know what events are ahead. Starting a day with one set of expectations and ending it with an entirely different set of experiences is common in my life and work. Things are continually happening that surprise me and change the direction of my actions. Sometimes I will comment to a friend or colleague that my life needs a soundtrack. It would be nice to have dramatic music to warn of surprises or dangers that lurk ahead.
The bottom line is that we don’t know the future.
But I think there is a bit of foreshadowing in our lives. Experiences of love give us a glimpse of the love of God. Times of drawing close to God give us a sense of the realm that lies ahead. Facing the deaths of loved ones gives clues to the facing of our own deaths.
It may be that what we need is to listen more carefully for life’s soundtrack. In my case, I need a bit of silence every day to listen. When I make sufficient time for quiet I am always reminded that there is something good that lies ahead.