Kindred Spirits?

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of the release of The Dark Knight. This movie holds a special place in my heart because it is Heath Ledger's final finished movie.  I, of course, had to watch it tonight.  I observed it with the same mindset with which I viewed it ten years ago, on its opening night. I contemplated what may have been going through Heath Ledger's mind when he transformed himself into the Joker.

I've shared many times the dream I had two days before Heath Ledger died. It was what I deem one of my prophetic dreams. I had the same type of dream shortly before my mother died. I had another such dream when my younger son was a toddler, before he sustained a cut that required stitches. I've had several throughout the years, but the dream with Heath Leger was the first one that involved a stranger. That dream and his subsequent death caused me to feel a connection to him.

Watching The Dark Knight again tonight brought to mind a question we often hear: If you could meet anyone from any era, could spend time talking with them; who would it be?  I cannot answer with just one person. I have several.

Going back to biblical times, I would love to talk with David, Peter, and Paul. I say these three because none of them were perfect. In fact, they were all highly imperfect, but God chose them anyway. Each one of them disappointed God at some time in his life. Each one of them was stubborn. I can relate to their flaws - and to the grace God showed them.

I would love to meet St. Francis of Assisi and St. Patrick. I'm not Catholic, but I've always felt a connection with both of these men. I often wear a St. Patrick necklace and have a St. Francis statue by my front porch.

I have done so much research over the British Industrial Revolution and the fight for equality for the poor, I would love to meet one of my heroes from that era - Richard Oastler, who fought Yorktown Slavery or the conditions of the factory children. I would even like to sit down and talk with Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Now, I'm not a Marxist; but I want to meet people who tried to fight what they saw wrong with society - even if their solutions were not the best. I can relate to that type of fight. Not to mention, talking with them could really assist me with my current thesis. Talk about empirical research.

I would love to meet my trio of authors - Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Poe and Hawthorne looked into the heart of society and the hidden aspects of people. They had such insight. Thoreau just had enough of that society. I can relate.

My older son has really gotten me into the life and work of Vincent van Gogh. I have gained a new respect for him. I think he is another, like my favorite authors, who looked too deeply into the world's flaws.

Not too long after the death of Heath Ledger, I had a second dream about him. In my second dream, I actually talked with him. He was in a room full of cupboards. I asked him if someone knew something bad was going to happen to someone else, should that person reveal it to the one to whom the bad thing was going to happen. He told me no. What is going to happen is going to happen.

I have to add Heath Ledger to my list of people I would like to meet. In my research about his life, I've read the words of many people who knew him who described him as an old soul. I think all the people on my list could be described that way. They all saw something different in the world. They all had a different philosophical view, a different insight, than others. They looked deeply into life. They didn't necessarily like what they saw, so they tried to change it in some way.  Maybe I feel they're kindred spirits.