Reverence
Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today!”
These are alleged to be the most powerful eight words in the universe. This, according to the cartoon series “Phineas and Ferb.” which the Maker’s kids watch all the time. It is a wonderful series, interesting viewing both for kids and aging men such as the Maker who likes to see beyond surface narratives. Such literary devises as indeterminate endings, unconnected parallel experiences, the predominance of chance, the importance of text and its nuanced meanings, fragmentation, are staple in the show. The narrative can always be read at many levels. The kids see one thing. But the father sees entirely another. Thus, the Maker concludes this is a series that has been made by sharp minds.
The Maker suggests you should see the show. This is good advice for everyone but most especially for those who want to know more about post-modernism and the contemporary style. Surf the cable channels for it or ask a kid where to find it. It is easy.
Phineas and Ferb are young kids trying to find a good thing to do with their “104 days of summer vacation.” Always, they end up inventing something. As the show’s theme song goes: “Climbing up the Eiffel Tower/ Discovering something that doesn’t exist/ Or giving a monkey a shower…” The show’s bad guy, Heinz Doofensmirch, is of course an evil genius who is also an inventor. Their lives always interconnect especially at the critical moment of plot resolution but they never really know the other exists. The only link between them is the family pet, Perry the Platypus, who in his secret life is also “Agent P,” Doofensmirch’s nemesis.
The series gets better as one becomes more familiar with the characters. You could also do parallel online readings on semiotics and post-modernism just to make things more interesting. You might as well ask what makes this show different from others like “The Simpsons” and “The Family Guy.” My answer would be that the show is that much more “reverent” and thus safer viewing for kids. I mean no offense by the word “safer.” In operational practice, this simply means I do not have to explain too many things to the kids while we’re viewing it as this can be quite a drag sometimes. Parenthetical statement: I always talk about post modernism with the kids during commercials or in between shows.
But reverent is a nice word and concept to think about these days. It seems lighter to the mind and feels a bit safer than the word “faith.” Faith would seem an innocuous word. It is a monosyllable that feels good and restful in the mouth. It starts with the upper and lower lips softly closed, the teeth apart. There is a longish expiration of air as the lips begin to open. One should feel this air gently caressing the wetness of the mouth as it gently produces the middle syllables, the “ai.” And then the tongue closes into the back of the upper teeth to finish the word. It is actually a long word, which to the Maker is indicative of its complexity and indeterminacy of meaning.
“Faith”? Faith in what? If a claim can be proved with overwhelming evidence then the claim requires only belief, not faith. Yet for faith to work it can only be applied to things inherently unprovable. True believers if they are faithful to their faith must always believe as if their belief is stronger than anything else, stronger than science, stronger than history, stronger than life itself. The ideal is to have the unquestioning faith of a young child. Faith is an argument that carries with it its own counter argument, its own “refutation.” This does not mean faith is no good as a word and a concept. It simply means it is an inherently dangerous one. It is a daunting word that bears with it the perils of a fleet of warships, battle tanks, robotic missiles or a pack of dynamite wrapped around an anonymous person’s waist.
Reverence is so much more safe. It is just as beautiful. It is a word pronounced as two syllables. The lips are open at the onset, the tongue positioned in the mouth’s mid area near the upper palate to make the “rrr” sound. The lips close lightly to end the first syllable. Then the cycle repeats with the next “rrr” sound but ends differently with lips slightly open and teeth together but not bared. The “s” sound fades softly into the distance for it is a word which searches for a destination, an object for itself, a “deeply respected one”, just like faith. Yet, it is a wonderful, peaceful word that speaks not of duality as faith does. One can only either believe or not believe. Faith tolerates no compromise. Reverence speaks instead of a crowded world of many facets and layers. One where humans collect themselves under different umbrellas of faith which must inevitably collide. What will they do when they do? Will they fall on the differences of their faiths? Or will they look instead to these differences with reverence?
“Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today?” Let’s make a machine, a song perhaps, that will turn this into a common greeting as famous as “hello,” an ending for all the quarrels of the world: “I can live with that even if I can’t live by it.” Reverence.
