Labyrinth

Yeah. I know I wrote about Smallville yesterday. After the episode I saw last night though, I had to write again. My Dad and I were having our normal Thursday night viewing of the new episode that was called Labyrinth. It starts with Clark in his barn and his dog starts barking. He goes up to the loft and something knocks him to the ground. He wakes up in white clothes and people all around laughing and calling him Kal-El and talking about his “super speed” and a Dr. Hudson informs him that he has been having breaks from reality where he imagines that he’s an alien with super powers.

<> At one point, Lana is with him in the vision and he’s told that he’ll be cured of the delusion if he undergoes a final treatment. Lana says she has been told she can be there with him for it and asks a poignant question. “Even if this was an illusion, would you want it to end? In your supposed world, I’m engaged to your worst enemy and you have to hide yourself from me and everyone else. In this one, you and I are in love and I’ve always loved you and always will.” This isn’t a verbatim quote. It gets the gist of it though.

This leads to an important question. Imagine you creating your dream world. It has the person you’ve always loved committed to you. It has you living the life you’ve always wanted. You don’t have the pain that you carry in this world. There’s just one problem. It’s not real. Would you choose it?

<> For me, I’d have to say no, and I did think about ladies I’d loved to have married and problems I’d love to be free of. However, why go for it? Would it not be best to learn and grow in reality than an illusion that will merely crumble to ash in the end?

<> What does this teach us? The value of suffering. We could live in an easy world, but we’d prefer to live in the real world.  Why? We know that that experience will make us stronger. We’re better for the real world. The dream world is nice, but it’s meant to be held up as a real hope. It’s not meant to be lived in replacement of the real world.

Fortunately, Clark does break out of it. Sure, he could have had everything he wanted, but it would not be real. The real world needs him. You and I can help in the real world as well. Will we?