Love is the first rule

Sunday, March 5, 2006 6:35 AM

I was reading my Visual Guide to Serenity this morning, and I looked at Mal's final speech, about how love is the first rule of flying. If you don't love a boat, he tells River, it'll toss you off sure as the turning of worlds. Love will keep it in the air when it ought to fall.

Man, what a great speech--it applies to so many things.

Y'know, I realize I'm not the greatest musician around--I've got a few reviews to point that out--but I play with love for my music, so it all works out. And I really can't play a tune I don't love. It just won't stick. Like Mal say, it doesn't matter if you do all the math in the world. Love is what matters--passion, energy, not precision.

They say that if something isn't hard, it's not worth doing. Well, it's love that allows you to do the things that are difficult.

Earlier in the movie, Doctor Mathias says that Simon is mad, because of all the very difficult things he's done for River. The Operative replies that Simon's motivation is not madness, but love. Yet it's fascinating to me how often one looks a lot like the other.

So the key to life is a passion so strong it looks like madness. That's what kept Firefly flyin' when it should have dropped off the radar. It's what keeps a bunch of us crazy Browncoats dreaming that we'll have sequels. It's what keeps me playing music no matter what anyone says.

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