Robert Jewett's piece, "Stuck in Time: Kairos, Chronos, and
the Flesh in Groundhog Day," inspired deeper thinking. Originally I tried
to understand Groundhog Day through the character Phil's perspective. Jewett
made it a much bigger issue. He focuses on the inferences of flesh and spirit from a
Pauline perspective. What struck me the most however, was the quote he took from
Richard Corliss, which stated "most folks' lives are like Phil's on
Groundhog Day: a repetition, with the tiniest variations, of ritual pleasures
and annoyances. Routine is the metronome marking most of our time on earth.
Phil's gift is to see the routine and seize the day." This quote was
important because beforehand I was looking at the movie in an external sense; separate
from myself. Corliss makes that sense an internal one. We as humans do not have
the ability to relive our days to perfect them, we have only the present.
Sometimes we pass through life and do not make the most of it. Our lives can
become repetitious through routine, to the point that we no longer appreciate
what life is, and what it means. Also any pleasure brought about through flesh
is always temporary, even drugs wear off. Pleasure through the spirit can
transcend the flesh and bring purpose to one's life.
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