A Wide Gulf

Went tonight to see WALL-E with a couple that are friends of ours. The boyfriend and I get along, but at a bit of a distance (my wife and the girlfriend are the original couple). We don’t seem to understand each other when we discuss serious issues. When I asked him about Neil Gaiman, the review of whose American Gods I still have not finished, he was unfamiliar with the guy, which was unremarkable, though his long-time girlfriend, a fan of graphic novels, knew all about Sandman. We discussed the book only briefly, since he hadn’t heard of it, but I said the odd thing about it is that it has some huge holes, including the Greek gods, but even more startlingly, including Jesus. I remarked in passing that perhaps it was better that way, that I would probably have been offended by an inferior or wrong-headed depiction of Christ. The boyfriend, who has an infectious laugh, thought that was great. He was positively merry about it, about getting offended over someone’s portrayal of Jesus. It’s strange. I don’t ask that he be a Christian, or even have any sympathy for Christianity, but for him to be so humorously struck by the quaint notion … I’m not even sure he would describe it as quaint, for that would imply it has ever existed, that it at one time seemed reasonable to someone, if only of a benighted age. He seemed incredulous at the very concept, not just its wizened obsolescence. For him to be so struck merely underlined just how deeply different he and I are. To think! Being offended on behalf of Jesus!