The Sands of Time

A lot of our culture revolves around telling stories. And by “our” culture, I mean humans’. All of them. All humans, all cultures. We tell stories.

The details come in and out of fashion, but it’s awesome how universal some themes become. I’m not one of those people that laments the fact that modern cinema and television seems to endlessly recycle the same source material, reboots and adaptations and prequels and all that. I think it’s extremely natural (and I can pick and choose what I want to experience anyway, so why get mad?).

I think that we look for stories to help bridge the gap between us. Shared experiences connect us, but the later in life we meet someone, the fewer opportunities we’ve had for shared experiences. So instead we look for cultural touchstones – music, movies, books. We grab the stories we love and we look for others who love them too, because then we already have a foundation for communication.

So I’m happy when a thing gets revisited. Now people have a way to connect not just across space, but across time. I didn’t think the Star Wars prequels ended up being good, but sharing the story of how I stood in line to see the first showing of the first one let me connect in a new way with my father, who had done the same for A New Hope. That’s a neat thing.

Anyway, I’m off to see Dune. I hope it’s good – but it doesn’t really matter. It is, and it will be again, and we’ll talk and talk and talk. I look forward to it.