This post was originally a post on an old blog of mine, before the whole “this side of eden” name struck me.  I tried to vow to always come up with new things to write…which meant that all the other stuff got scrapped.  So…anyway, I’m reposting this, originally titled “The Function of Dysfunction,” because I just finished watching Little Miss Sunshine again…and the movie always seems to strike a chord.  Pardon the duplex, for those that have read this before on the other blog.

I just finished watching “Little Miss Sunshine.” I’m not sure why I bought it off the pay per view…but, I decided too. I guess I had been hearing a little bit about it recently (with all the Oscar hype and all)…and I heard an interview on NPR with the directors and screenwriter of the movie.

The movie had moments of laughter…but it was somewhat disturbing.

In the end however, it came down to this family.

Probably the most dysfunctional family I’ve ever seen in a movie. And they totally pulled it off. It was an amazing bit of acting…but I’m not so sure it was entirely acting…I mean, aren’t all of our families dysfunctional at some point?

I would hate to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it…but at one point the Uncle and the Brother are talking. The brother is saying how life sucked…it was terrible. He hated his family. He hated his life.

The Uncle (played by Steve Carell, so this is said in a rather humorous way…) responds by talking about Marcel Proust, a French novelist. He says that Proust used to say that the hard years, the years where he really struggled, were his best years, because they made him who he was. He didn’t learn anything from the easy years.

In the end, this totally dysfunctional family, somehow, in their own way, pulls together.  It’s disturbing.  It’s scary.  But it’s beautiful. And it seems as though, while they totally struggled through this movie, that these were the best years for them, because it was making them who they are. 

And that, my friends, seems to me to be the function of dysfunction.

“Created for a place I’ve never known…Yeah, this is home.” – Switchfoot, “This is Home”

It’s been a while since I’ve written here…Believe me, I’m aware of that.  But…I was listening to this song this morning, and, while I’ve heard those words a hundred times…for some reason they stuck in my head, and I haven’t been able to shake them all day.

Lately, I’ve been telling alot of people my email address…which is also, “thissideofeden”, and quite a few people have asked about what that means.

I don’t think I could explain it any better than the song lyrics above.  We were created for a place we’ve never known…and when we get there, we’ll know it’s home. 

Eden.  Paradise.  Heaven.  Call it what you will, but we were created to live there, and we aren’t there now.  Right now, we’re stuck here…on this side of Eden.  It’s almost like we’re locked out.  All is not yet right with the world.  Heaven has not yet crashed into Earth.  Occasionally, we see glimpses of Eden through the gaps in the gate that keeps us out. 

That place is written on our hearts, for it is where we were created to be.  And I trust that, some day, that gate will be opened, and we will once again live in paradise. 

That is what living on this side of Eden is all about.  Trying to make it home.  Living life in such a way that we stand as close as we can to that gate, trying to catch as many glimpses as we can, until it is opened for us. 

I’m glad you could join me on this side of Eden.

Peace to you.