Solving crime one moment at a time - saving the world.. your community day after day - it has its tolls. We here at The Bodhisattva feel this sacrifice and reward on a daily basis. So it’s nice to give a little shout out, I think, to the peeps that do it best in one of my favorite not so little shows: NCIS: New Orleans. God dammit, are they good, but they’re not just goodie two shoes. They’re sexy, sauve and incredibly smart as well. It makes for good viewing - nay - the best viewing, and so here I am forwarding my thoughts on the crux of such an iconoclastic success.
A crux: the decisive or most important point at issue; like in NCIS, or any good show back from the golden days of Lost’s Sawyer and Jack, or Battle Star Galactica’s Adama and Starbuck, to today’s Scott Bakula as NCIS New Orlean’s Dwayne Pride - is the show’s characters and their growth, their arc, as people.
Their journey evolves as we hangout with such colorful characters through thick and thin, loving each moment we take in stride as we grow with and fall in love with such plush character development. This artifact is what we all hold so sacred - mi famillia, people - these golden characters and fruitful arcs of yore that contribute to a narration about family of yesteryear like in band of brothers, the Godfather, or Taunto and his Ranger. A culture of golden people writ large that has defined the 21st century as togetherness, universal Brotherhood and sisterhood - Philadelphia.
From this cinematic and tv culture, to our daily lives living as families depicted and as defined by these wonderful stories, Hollywood has produced some sort of enigma machine, America way, that has revolutionized the world around family. But there’s something else there - some sort of spirituality that exists too, of romance and belonging to bonds beyond blood but, that of unconditional love of your fellow human being, i.e, mi Familia.
Like an Italian New York migrant family in the 20s and 30s, this ideal of love and life, romance and perspective, has been America’s defining strength since it’s inception - that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” etc. etc. from our American Declaration of Independence, to the French Rights of Man by Thomas Paine which stated:
“Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be based only on public utility. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression..”
That we are united by our common cause of life, love and laughter - the pursuit of happiness.
And what is so flawlessly and beautifully captured and portrayed in the greatest pieces of art the world has ever scene: American tv shows like NCIS New Orleans, among them, leading the pack. An extraordinary glimpse into American life, or our crux - our growth as individuals as we become ever greater, as individuals and a community, and by extension our extenuated fate as mankind: for the sake of our loved ones and every damn person on this gorgeous planet we call home - mi familia. To resist oppression, sure, but to also form a more perfect union. A world of universal brotherhood and sisterhood in which we are united by our common differences, to overcome them, and to love one another in holy matrimony. Namaste.