The Fast Runner

I watched The Fast Runner a few days ago and knew within five minutes that I had found a treasure beyond description.

It is the first and only film made in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit peoples who live within the Arctic Circle. The movie is a telling of an ancient Inuit story of evil and redemption.

Watch this movie if you can open your heart and remember what it is to be moved by myth.

Myth laughs at centuries and leaps across millennia. Myth punctures our provincial culture sacks and seeps into the world. Myth is patient, though not always kind. Myth is the soft womb out of which we came and to which we would return if we could.

Myth is the language of God. It is the larger and older language of value that has birthed us and created us in its image.

I wish more Christians would embrace the myths of the bible and not be afraid to name them as such. To force a brutal literalism on such powerful stories is like bitch-slapping your mother because she’s slowed down with age.

Show some respect, for Christ’s sake. Return to your mother. Feel the skin on her cheek. It is still soft. Marvel at her hands, which once held you and can still give comfort. Bring her close to you. Rub your nose and lips against her cheek. Close your eyes and remember.

Read Mother Scripture. Close your eyes. Remember.

The Preacher

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