DPP: I Believe in You

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Believer or Not?





 
 

From very near the beginning of the series I was struck by the notion that Kara believed in the gods and Lee believed in Kara.  Something about the spiritual versus the rational (or more rational) really appealed to me.  How does the religious (or not) effect Kara and Lee?   And how do you see the spiritual aspect of their relationship?

Comments

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

Oh my, this topic really touches me. Especially from the angle of Lee's belief in Kara. When he gets that "You are my guiding star" look in his eyes about her and she gives him that terrified "No no no! It's too much pressure" face and I can't handle it and I just crumble.

Kara's earliest lessons in life taught her not to put her trust in people, which is why I think that she instead looked to spiritually and religion for guidance and not in the fallibility of other human beings. And I don't want to sound at all insulting to spiritual people, but I think that people with painful pasts or deep traumas will very often turn in that direction as a means for coping with those painful memories or to avoid despair.

Lee, never having been driven to the same depth of misery as Kara, never needed to seek that same comfort to survive. Perhaps as a youth he may have had that indifferent sort of religiosity that often takes a lazy residence in the hearts of untried people, but whatever else went wrong in his life, he had Zak. That was a huge difference between him and Kara. And I think Zak was his bright ray of hope in the world. His hope for the world in a way, came from his love and belief in this other person's goodness. After Zak's death I think he really struggled with not having any other compass to guide him until Kara eventually began to fill that role for him. Which is why he takes it so hard when she continually messes up. He expects so much of her. For both her and himself.

But I see both her belief and his reluctance to believe as being driven by extreme loneliness, and that their individual circumstances in the world just make them internalize that loneliness in different ways.

She finds hope in a greater power and he borrows that hope. She's like his conduit to the divine leading him away from the despair that comes in the absence of belief in anything. Which is also why she so often pulls away from him. I'd imagine that it's quite a lot of responsibility to be so invaluable to another person.

Anyways, that was rambly. *shrugs*

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I really like the idea that Kara finds religion as a place to put her trust because the people closest to her let her down early in her life. I also tend to believe that her views of religion and spirituality are very personal and maybe don't entirely line up with any particular sect.

I definitely see Lee as the sort who went through the motions of religion, likely following the motions of the mother who went to temple services because she ought to not because of any driving belief, but who stopped going unless forced once he wasn't living under his mother's roof. I like the idea that Zak was his beacon and once Zak dies Lee doesn't have much to guide him (likely creating his dependence of sorts on the military).

But I see both her belief and his reluctance to believe as being driven by extreme loneliness, and that their individual circumstances in the world just make them internalize that loneliness in different ways.

She finds hope in a greater power and he borrows that hope. She's like his conduit to the divine leading him away from the despair that comes in the absence of belief in anything. Which is also why she so often pulls away from him. I'd imagine that it's quite a lot of responsibility to be so invaluable to another person.

Or maybe I should have just nodded in agreement with this in the first place. ;D

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

I also tend to believe that her views of religion and spirituality are very personal and maybe don't entirely line up with any particular sect.

Yeah, I think her solo prayer sessions as well as her immediate defensiveness towards Roslin when she questioned her beliefs were signs of this. Her spirituality wasn't something she could share with other spiritual people, it was just for her. And it was very much a individual spirituality rather than a specific dogma.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Makes me wonder what would have happened if Kara's spirituality had been made public.