But now I’m not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings.

Dr Louise Banks in Arrival

Some say, Arrival is about self-discovery and the importance of love. Like many good stories, this one, Arrival, is different for different people. Much depends on where you’re coming from, your perspective.

For me, the movie is much more. It is about the discovery of a whole different, new perspective. Of time. Not linear as we know it. But circular. About the possibility that there mightn’t be a beginning nor an end.

If that was true, we should, like Peter Fonda with his Timex at the beginning of Easy Rider, throw away our watches. Measured linear time doesn’t matter. We’re not prisoners of materialism, schedules of traditional life and its time, we’re free of all those constraints, we’re not living in Little Boxes, we’re free spirits, Born to be Wild, agents of our destiny, when we’re On the Road, moving, travelling, living our dreams. There is no beginning and no end.

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!” 

Advent comes around every year. The time when Christians prepare for the coming of Christ the Saviour. Every year. There is no beginning and no end.

Every year the hope is that the new year will be a better one. And there is always a ‘new’ year, every year. Light always follows dark.

I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

What does that mean for our plans? Plans don’t work in circles. Will dreams only come true in a linear future, not somewhere in that circle?

Ryan Tubridy said on Friday’s Late Late Toy Show that one cannot understand the Show unless you’re Irish or have been living in Ireland for some time. I don’t agree. What about people who don’t think that the promotion of an abundance of (more or less) throw-away toys and show performances by kids dressed and acting like adults, with the occasional awe-inspiring pop or sports star thrown in is fun? Never mind appropriate when beginning to prepare for Christmas?

We watched the Show with Pádraig yesterday and made a bit of an event of it. It was nice to sit together with nice food, around an open fire. What was going on in that Studio we watched on our screen felt like as if it was happening on a different planet.

Do I sound old saying that for me, Advent, “Coming” or Arrival, is a spiritual, not a commercial time of the year?

What I felt yesterday was the incredible privilege of being in each other’s company.

There will be an end to the darkness. There is no beginning and no end to our love.