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Comic-con International/Lesson 3: Understandest What Thou Needest?

By Kent d Curry
July 17, 2006

            It wasn’t so supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be having fun.

            In my mind I had pictured endless wonder, laughter, excitement, and thrills; memories that would feed our imagination forever. There had been that, of course, yet there had also been arguments, tears, frustration, fatigue, and aggravation.

            It was July 2005, our first father-son trip ever, navigating the world’s biggest pop culture extravaganza, and we couldn’t get along.

From a father’s standpoint, Comic-Con International (CCI) is a sea of wonders. There were free everythings if you arrived at the right times: T-shirts, exclusive trading card sets, posters, autographs, wrist bands, books, buttons, trading card frames, and who knows what else? (I couldn’t be everywhere every day.)

There were hundreds of people dressed up as their favorite movie and superhero characters, autograph sessions with A-listers, Q-and-A’s with movies stars (Natalie Portman, Jack Black, Naomi Watts, Adrian Brody, the Rock), exclusive previews of movies (King Kong, Superman Returns) and video games (Ultimate Spiderman), popular cartoonists (the creators of Justice League Unlimited), and CCI exclusives (the voice cast of the Teen Titans cartoon did a script read-through before previewing the cartoon itself).

            However, from my seven-year-old’s point of view, CCI was a sea of wonders with only two islands of interest—and they both feature Legos.

            So it was that when I insisted we go find some free stuff or visit a panel of creatives he had never heard of, all I got was bellyaching.

            So it was that when he insisted we return to the Lego booths, all he got were rolled eyes and dragging footsteps.

            I insisted we experience everything this Pop Culture extravaganza had to offer, knowing there is nothing else like it. He insisted we imbibe in the mystery that is Legos, already understanding that nothing else matters when you’re experiencing the ultimate.

            We were both right. We were both wrong.

            Our primary course of action should always depend on the season of our life. Solomon explained there were many times, sometimes called seasons, to encounter in life (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). What’s most important is recognizing which one you’re living in and leverage its advantages.

            To accomplish anything important, we must shun even the most attractive distractions to remain focused on the necessary accomplishment.

            To replenish and reach out to others for the Kingdom, to understand who we are and how we’re unique, to relate to those who are different than us, we must be willing to release our grip on the familiar so that we can imbibe in the unfamiliar, so that our body and soul can be fed from new sources. We must be willing to change, mature, and grow, giving God more to use within us.

            My boy was only mature enough to handle the narrow. I was depleted enough to hunger for the new. The rough waves of adversity we created for each other were necessary so that we’d both be better at journey’s end. I spent more time observing his abiding joy in Legos. He spent more time experiencing the shock of the new than he knew existed.

Between us, the memories are divine.

© 2006, ninetyandnine.com

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Kent Curry is an executive editor at ninetyandnine.com.