sidenote: Jeff Who Lives At Home

“What’s the greatest day in the history of the world? Today.”

- Jeff

Jeff Who Lives At Home is a movie about the greatest day in the world, shared by two brothers that are polar opposites.

Jeff lives outside the box. He’s a burned out stoner, who at thirty has no job and lives in his mom’s basement. He holds a staunch belief in fate, that everything leads into something else, and everything falls into a cosmic orderliness.

Pat, the older brother, lives within the box. He supposedly has his life put together – he’s married, has a stable job, and is saving to buy a house. But Pat’s life isn’t as great as it seems, he has no awareness of what’s going on in his marriage, or how the puzzle piece of his life fits into a greater whole. Pat just lives by going through the motion without any sense of meaning.

Jeff and Pat don’t spend much time together, they’re too different. But one day Jeff receives a phone call asking for someone named Kevin, and Jeff is convinced it’s his fate to find Kevin – and that Kevin will somehow lead him to the next step, so he departs his safe basement in search of his destiny.

The rest of the movie is about their day together.

Jeff and Pat represent sides on an important life spectrum. On one side is office jobs and responsibility, and on the other side is artists and creativity.

To some extent Pat’s side makes sense. You have to fit within the box of society. You have to pay your taxes, show up to work, and shower.

On the other hand, by spending the time to reflect on life, you see the beauty of the bigger picture. You can find meaning in suffering, empathize with people's problems, and develop visions for a greater world. In short, you can develop a sense of appreciation for life.

An interesting piece of church advice I heard once. Take an issue like tithing an appropriate amount of money to the church - enough to sustain the church, but not too much that it's preventing you from paying your bills. Congregations are always leaning one way or the other – and the job of a minister is to nudge the congregation more towards the middle, towards a balancing point. Either end of the spectrum, say not tithing or tithing too much, is going to be dangerous.

I’ve met people like Pat – square and boring. You know they’ll end up with their 2.5 kids, 401 k’s, and car insurance paid on time every month. I’ve also met people like Jeff – irresponsible and draining on their families. You don’t know if they’ll ever stop talking about the meaning of life and writing about it on their blog. It’s hard to know where the balance point is, but it's probably important to find that balance.

But anyways, the movie’s great. Enjoy the greatest day in history of the world.

See you on the other side,

from ken

Feel free to comment! I would love to hear your thoughts.