Saturday, February 17, 2007

Problem-free philosophy

So today I saw a bumper sticker that said "With Jesus." Next to that was "Con Jesus" (Spanish for "With Jesus"). Underneath that was "Hakuna Matata," accompanied by a picture of a lion's head. Let me make it clear that this was all on one bumper sticker, not separate ones.

I was going to ask what interpretations you may have as to the exact meaning of this sticker, but just as I am writing this I realize that maybe it's meant to be taken all together, like, "with Jesus you'll have no worries." Like if you accept him, you're free sailing. As I just wrote that last sentence I realized there isn't much sense to that explanation either. Does someone have a better or more reasonable explanation for this? Am I missing something? Not that I minded the sticker. In fact, I liked it better than those ever-present (in L.A.) "Jesus is God, Read the Bible/ Jesus es Dios, Lea la Biblia" bumper stickers. It's much more upbeat, less forceful. The lion head visual was also a nice touch.

It reminded me of my favorite scene/deleted scenes in Talladega Nights when Cal (John C. Reilly) is telling everyone at the dinner table how he likes to picture Jesus -- "I like to think of Jesus as an ice dancer, dressed in an all-white jumpsuit, and doing an interpretive dance of my life" and "I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagles wings, and singin' lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band and I'm in the front row and I'm hammered drunk! " and "I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger"..."in a tuxedo shirt"...

So maybe from now on I will picture Jesus singing "Hakuna Matata," doing a little barefoot dance, his long, white beard swaying in the soft jungle breeze. He has a wooden staff to use in the performance -- Charlie Chaplin style -- and behind Him are his little jungle friends, like a warthog and a lemur, singing backup, harmonizing as they trot along the dirt paths following Him with a spring in their step. With a Jesus like that in the world, there really would be no worries.

4 comments:

laura h said...

i'm mostly happy to hear that hakuna mata is still alive and well and inspiring people all over. though i shouldn't be surprised at the lion king's lasting impact since my 30 year old sister's cats are named simba and nala.

Cayce said...

shanno, hello? it ain't no passin' craze!

hi linds. just checking in. i really like the blog. you know what the next step is....facebook. and if not that, then i think the next project should be the ryan adams fan project because that one never got the attention it deserved!

Lindsay said...

hey cayce. i was excited to see you on here. however, i have to state that i am unwilling to allow this blog to become a gateway drug to other internet mischief like facebook. but a revival of the RAFP is a possibility. how's your return to college life going?

Jeff said...

I have never seen that bumper sticker, but it does sounds much better than those "Jesus is God, Read the Bible" ones... or while we're at it, the "truth" fish eating the "Darwin" fish. And I don't mean to sound like some anal Bible nerd or anything, but Jesus does have a whole spiel about how we shouldn't worry about life, and how no one has ever added an hour to their lives by worrying, and how the birds and the lilies of the field don't worry, so why should we. I mean, that kind of does sound like "Hakuna Matata."