The Contemplative Life and ‘Arrival’

“I used to think this was the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing. It doesn’t work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order… But now I’m not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings.”

With these words the film Arrival begins.

Arrival is a “first contact” science fiction story. It’s a thinking person’s sci-fi movie in the vein of Contact that explores themes of time, language, what it means to be human, and encountering “the other” in ways both timely and timeless.

As I watched it, I was struck with a number of images from the film that illuminate ideas related to contemplative spirituality and encountering the mystery of God.

Twelve ships simultaneously appear in seemingly random locations across the globe. We’re introduced to Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist who has experienced a tragic loss (that we see through flash backs). She’s recruited by the government and paired with Dr. Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist, in order to figure out why the aliens are here and what their intentions are.

You can view the trailer here. If you’ve not yet seen the film, you may not want to continue as there may be some spoiler-ish parts below.

Arrival points to the story of encountering “The Divine Other” and provoking questions about how we meet God. How do we cross that bridge between divine, holy mystery and common human experience? How do the sacred and ordinary meet?

The otherness of God

As our characters prepare to enter the shell they wear hazmat suits. They undergo radiation decontamination. They get bacterial boosters that make them sick. They take a canary with them.

The creatures have seven feet. They make sounds that are unintelligible. It turns out their written language is “non-linear orthography,” meaning it’s not bound by time. These are radically different creatures.

In one of my favorite Annie Dillard quotes, she writes, “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.”

In most of the church settings I’ve participated throughout my life, there’s a casual familiarity to the worship setting. Maybe I need a crash helmet. Maybe I need a hazmat suit. Like Mark Twain says, “God created man in his own image and man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.”

The radical miracle in the doctrine of the Incarnation is that the holy God, creator of universe, does indeed make himself accessible and familiar. But there is still a profound “other-ness” to the presence of God. This is what’s communicated when we call God “holy.” Holy means different.Human beings are made in the image of God, and yet there is a deep difference between human beings and God.

Mind, body, emotions

There are three central characters, Louise the linguist, Ian the scientist, and Colonel Weber. Upon their introduction, Louise and Ian immediately start bickering. Donnelly runs off a litany of questions he’s eager to ask. “How about we just talk to them first,” Louise fires back. Colonel Weber responds, “That’s why you’re both here.”

They might represent three different ways we can approach God: our bodies, our minds, and our hearts. The colonel represents the fight-or-flight of the body, the inquisitive man of science Ian represents the mind, and Louise the communication specialist represents the heart. We need a balance of all three.

As people our inner “center of gravity” tends to reside in one of those three. Me, I live in my head, so I have to pay extra attention to be mindful of both my emotions and my body as I live in the world and as I experience God.

The language of God

“Silence is God’s first language,” says St. John of the Cross.

Ian: You know, I was doing some reading about this idea that if you immerse yourself into a foreign language, that you can actually rewire your brain.

Louise: Yeah, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The theory that the language you speak determines how you think.

Ian: Yeah. It affects how you see everything. I’m curious, are you dreaming in their language?

As Louise the linguist is our main character, language becomes a major theme in the story, namely the idea that the language you speak determines your experience of the world. Sure enough, as Louise begins learning the heptapods’ language, she begins experiencing the world very differently.

Translation is a tricky thing. In an early scene, Louise challenges Colonel Weber to ask a colleague the Sanskrit word for “war” and it’s translation. “An argument,” he comes back. “What do you say it means?” Louise responds, “A desire for more cows.” Later in the film, the crew comes to a crisis moment in trying to figure out the nuance of the aliens’ use of the word “weapon.” Are they planning to attack? Or are they simply talking about a tool?

Language is complex. Translation between languages isn’t a one-to-one exchange. Translation is often messy. It’s more art than science. The aliens begin to offer a written language, and Louise gives herself, night and day for weeks, to learn it.

Is that any different than learning the “language of God”? As we become immersed over time in the narrative of God in the world, as we become fluent in the love of God, do we start experiencing the world in fundamentally different ways?

Experiencing God together

There are twelve “shells” around the world, Australia, Russia, China, United Kingdom, Pakistan, among others. While the film focuses on the story of the team working in Montana, there are eleven other teams trying figure out what’s going on. Early in the story, they collaborate and share what they’re learning. As particular groups grow more paranoid and fearful, one by one the teams start cutting one another off.

Louise eventually learns the heptapods she’s been studying represent one-twelfth of the big picture. She needs the collaboration of the other international sites in order to continue. “We are part of a larger whole,” Louise says.

The picture of the throne in Revelation 7 includes every language and every culture before the Lamb. God makes himself accessible in many cultures, and our invitation is to receive God together as many cultures, sharing experience as if we were each providing individual pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Experience with God is not just personal. It’s a corporate human experience.

Arrival is a special movie in that, in the way the story unfolds, it becomes a different experience each time you watch it. These are just a few of the ways that it speaks to the contemplative life. I may need to watch it a few more times.