Walking into see the newest big-budget animated movie, Horton Hears a Who, I was expecting my 2.5 laughs out loud and waiting for the inevitable scene where animated animals dance in unison to some mid 90’s classic from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. The obligatory dance scene didn’t show up, but the more unexpected surprise was watching the way in which the filmmakers found a way to give such significance to a seemingly innocuous plot. And while Dr. Suess’ book continually repeats “a person is a person, no matter how small”, I was left walking away from the film asking myself, “how do I really know something is real?”
With scenes that are eerily reminiscent of first century Christians under Roman rule, or the Inquisition, Horton finds himself under constant pressure to recant everything he has said about this other world of Whoville he has tapped into (or, more accurately, has reached out to him). I’m not sure I’m terribly interested in “how strong can you stand in the face of adversity” as the climactic scene portrays. I’ve seen that movie a few times before. But I was fascinated by the way in which Horton responds when he hears a tiny whisper from Whoville. Watching him trample through the forest, flattening everything in his path, being laughed at by anyone within sight, just to hear another sound from this other world certainly made me pause and reflect.
I couldn’t help but think about the opening section of NT Wright’s book when he talks about “echoes of another world.” The question quickly becomes, what do we do when we hear these echoes? Do we dismiss them, and chalk them up to anomalies, or “glitches in the matrix”? Or do we run after them to see where they lead? And how fervently are we willing to chase them down? Perhaps even more pertinent today is how loud do they have to be for us to hear them? After all, Horton is just lying around by himself when he hears the Whos. Maybe there something to the disciplines of solitude and silence that Richard Foster talks so much about.
The real question that I couldn’t seem to escape after the movie, is “how do I really know something.” The kangaroo continually tells Horton that “if you can’t see it, or touch it, or feel it, then it’s not real.” And while she may essentially be espousing Materialism, Horton never really argues with her line of thinking: he simply can’t deny his experiences. He’s not interested in a philosophical or theological debate – he is just sharing his experiences. And no matter how much I try to think, or argue my way towards a point, it seems to be my experiences that dictate what I believe, how I behave, and what I hold onto and fight for.
What do I do with things that don’t seem to make sense? How do I process something that runs contrary to conventional wisdom? When logic, reason, or common sense collides with something I’ve experienced, what happens? How do I know something is real, or true….the only adequate response I can give is that I’ve experienced it.
