From One Stranger Thing to Another

It’s true, I’m a Stranger Things junkie. Big time.

Nearly ten years ago, my son - who had recently left home to start his military career - texted one day, instructing me to check out a new show on Netflix.

“I think you’ll really like it, Mom,” he wrote. “It’s X Files meets Super 8 meets Stand By Me.”

I comprehended and appreciated two of those three references - X Files and Super 8.  From the very first seconds of the first episode, I was hooked.

The opening setting of the show - November 1983 - would have found this fair heroine teaching junior high English. The 1980’s was the first decade of my adulthood.

Combine the nostalgia of a great decade - every detail nailed to perfection, with my own personal nostalgia of actually teaching little boys who reminded me of the main characters at that very moment in history, and I was totally invested in the ride I’ve been taking with this story ever since.

And here’s the thing: I hate monster movies. Like - HATE them, with a much bigger font. Dale went to see every Alien and Predator movie alone; I would not partake.

But Stranger Things is not about monsters. Not really.

It’s about friends, and community. And outcasts and pariahs.  It’s about bullies and letting people into your circle.  And common causes and possibly lost causes.

It’s about showing up for people who are counting on you that you wouldn’t have given the time of day to a couple weeks ago, because that possible lost cause is for sure a lost cause if you don’t work together. 

It’s about showing up for yourself when you were pretty sure you wouldn’t.

There are no monsters in all the wide world, real or imaginary, worse than the monsters every human lives with, the internal monsters of fear, regret, guilt, shame. Our darkest places of living, and the stories we take away from them, are the real monsters, and they often take a lifetime to heal.

These very real monsters became the weapons of the metaphorical monster formed in the Abyss - Henry Creel, aka 001, aka Vecna.  What a brilliant, sneaky way to turn this sweet nostalgic homage to our pasts into a sobering analogy of facing our worst demons, shouting them down - that we’re not afraid of them  - and that they will not control or define us - anymore.

This brilliant, sneaky story claims you can always choose to be different - better - and not let your past define you. This brilliant, sneaky story believes in redemption. And so do I.

To me, this story will always be a parable that used monsters to reveal the real stranger things - us.

I’ve spent ten years watching ordinary/extraordinary little kids show that humans are the stranger things. Strange enough to spend a lot of our lives feeling like aliens in our own bodies, on our own home planet, certain that we’re the only ones who feel this way.

The monsters we need courage to fight feel stranger than anyone else’s - but a destroyer whispers that to us when we’re alone or afraid or discouraged - in the dark.

The stranger things inside each of us might be uniquely ours, but we’re not the only human who has them.  Acknowledging that allows us to give each other kindness, knowing they’re fighting their own stranger things.

The destroyer is an expert at isolating and whispering things that might be a little bit true, but the spin will always sound worse once he’s got you alone and in the dark.

But a Creator whispers, “You are not your past. You aren’t your worst moments. You aren’t your habits. You can change right now, if you want, and I’ll help you. The only identity that matters to Me is that you are Mine.”

The more I get to know my Creator - I call Him Father - and recognize the dark force that pulls me away from Him - the more I’m afraid I turn almost everything into a parable about Him.

So from one stranger thing to another, I promise you this: I will do my very best to be kind to you when we encounter each other. I know your monsters are as real as mine, and we need each other to fight them.

The first thing Father asks of us is that we love Him first. This is the only way we can recognize authentic light from counterfeit - choosing the authentic because we’ve learned to prefer it.

And He wants us to love each other second so we can help each other do the first.

Because while monsters might not be real, the darkness is. And the fight is on.