Lost in "Lost"

Alright I admit it... I got addicted. Last summer our friend Morgan asked if her boyfriend, Mark, could stay at our house while he worked at his internship for school. Mark is a senior engineering major from Penn State. Well, Mark and Morgan began to watch the TV show "Lost" from season 1 all the way to season 6. With the DVD's hanging around I began the journey. I never thought I would get into it but I could not turn away. The show sucks you into the mystery and many of the episodes end with great cliffhangers. Once you get to the 4th season you realize that the show is going downhill but you've invested so much time that you feel obligated to finish. You want to see how it will all end. Are they really on a desert island? Are they in hell? Are they in heaven? Are they dead? Are they alive? Will they get off the island and return to civilization? Once they get to civilization, will they return to the island (are you kidding me? no I'm not kidding you)? It gets pretty pathetic. At some points it was so bad that my wife accused me of being lost in my "Lost world". I was lost in "Lost".

Well, I finished in December. In the final episode one of the main characters, Jack Shepherd, is having a conversation with his elderly father in which he is attempting to make sense of everything that has happened to him. He's struggling with understanding where he is. What is real and what is not? Is the world that he is experiencing his life or some after life? Why are there people from the island in this place?
Dad- Everyone dies sometime kido. Some of them before you, some of them long after you.
Jack- But why are they all here NOW?
Dad- Well there is no NOW. Here.
Jack- Where are we dad?
Dad- This is the place that you all made together so you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them and they need you.
Jack- For what?
Dad- To remember... and let go.

Interpreting art is difficult but not impossible. After watching every episode I've grown more to understand much of the post modern mindset and I sense this final dialogue was valuable in explaining what the mass Western culture believes about the afterlife. On the whole we believe that..... part 2 coming next week and yes it is already completed...