Desmond and Meaning

On Lost last night, Desmond (aka Jesus in the Gospel of John, as I recently found out) got into a little argument with Eloise Hawking over whether he should return to the island.

Ms. Hawking was responsible for Desmond being on the island in the first place. On the island, Desmond had to type in a set of numbers every 108 minutes in order to save the world from utter destruction. Or so he thought. Actually, he was protecting the island from an electromagnetic overload (or whatever that was on the last episode of the second season).

And Desmond had to perform this activity for four years of his life, during which time he was separated from the love of his life, Penny Widmore. Good thing for him that Penny kept looking for him! That was a lot of love on her part!

Now, Desmond is happily married to Penny, and they have a little boy named Charlie. Desmond has a life now. But Desmond recently had an encounter with Eloise Hawking. She told him, "The island is not through with you yet, Desmond," and Desmond responded, "The island may not be through with me, but I am through with the island!" He then angrily left the room.

A big theme that recurs in Lost is meaning versus meaninglessness. As far as Desmond is concerned, those four years of his life on the island were a total waste. He could not start a meaningful life, since he was continually typing in numbers for no purpose (or so he thinks). And his situation probably stunk. Imagine having to type in numbers every 108 minutes! You couldn't sleep for a long period of time, since you'd be up every 108 minutes. You couldn't get too engrossed in a book or a movie, since you'd be interrupted every 108 minutes. I wouldn't want to be Desmond in that situation!

Desmond may see meaninglessness in his activity on the island, but was there actual meaning in what he was doing? And is there a larger meaning in aspects of our lives that appear to be meaningless?

I have one more Lost thought: Every now and then, I watch old episodes of Lost on the Sci-Fi Channel. I recently saw one from the first season entitled "The White Rabbit." On it, John Locke encourages Jack to become the leader of the survivors. That reminded me of how I viewed Locke at the time: as a wise sage, a fair-minded man, someone who was willing to take second place, a larger-than-life figure. But that view has been challenged over time--when Locke hit Charlie, when he threw a tantrum because Ben said Jack was the leader, when he showed no emotion after seeing the long-lost Jin. What's strange is that I still like Locke, even though he was knocked off my pedestal a while ago. Now, I appreciate him more as a human being, someone with wants, needs, and insecurities.