Deadwood’s own Cain and Abel

    I was watching Deadwood last night.  Deadwood is an HBO series that tells the story of Deadwood, a frontier camp that hopes to get annexed to the United States during the age of the gold rush.  The show contains nudity, coarse language and very adult themes, so be cautious if you choose to watch.  But the reason I mention the show - the episode I watched featured two brothers who owned a gold claim together arguing about whether they should sell it or not.  The one man decided that selling was the more profitable venture and so shot his brother and kept all the money himself.

However, the story doesn’t end with the live brother taking his money and living happily ever after, instead we watch as the murderer goes through a range of emotions dealing with what he has just done.  He first becomes resolute, accepts the money and his actions, he then gets frustrated at all types of people and events that don’t warrant his frustration, and finally decides to threaten some very deadly people in an attempt to perhaps get himself killed.

In true Biblical fashion, the man is shot, but does not die.  He suffers for many days, but the doctor is able to help him and his chances to recover are good, however painful.

In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain kills his brother out of jealousy at Abel’s favor with God.  God punishes Cain, not by killing him back, but by forcing him to live with what he has done - in fact going so far as to make it impossible for Cain to be killed save by his own hand.

The interesting parallel made by our bible story and a very violent television show seems to be how a person might deal with such a terrible act.  As the snow falls peacefully outside of my window here in Jefferson City, MO I am reminded that our world is not as peaceful as many of us would hope.  That all over the world, arguments blossom into wars that pit families and friends against each other.  Right now, we fight a war based if not directly, then indirectly on the way we think things ought to be - whether those things be whose religion is best, the price of oil in the U.S. or which kind of government is best democracy or theocracy.

I don’t pretend to have any answers and perhaps people who do or pretend to are the reasons some wars are fought.  What I do know, is we can learn alot about what murder does to a person’s soul.  Cain was almost hoping someone would kill him after he realized what he did.  The murderer from Deadwood went looking for a reason to be shot.  No answers, only more questions.  How does one reconcile one’s extreme actions?

I could end this by looking at ways to reduce murder rates and giving spiritual direction for dealing with terrible things like murder in our world, but I’m more interested in the discussion this open ending might generate.  So what can we do to change the way people seem to act?  Can we do anything?  What do you think?

~ by djones58 on February 12, 2008.