I love the movie "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" It was written by Carl Reiner and he also appears in the film, which stars Alan Arkin. A Russian sub is caught on a sandbar off the coast of New England, where it had no business being but was ordered by its curious captain too close to the American shore. He wanted to catch a glimpse of the US. He has no business there and he knows it and so does his crew. They realize that the Americans will deal harshly with invading Russian military forces and want desperately to get the hell out. But, the sub is stuck. The captain sends his best and smartest men ashore to steal a powerful boat just long enough to free the sub. This is all during the Cold War and Americans are frightened and on the alert. So, everybody is aware of deadly danger, real or imagined or both.
To my mind, the movie is beautifully put together and is a lovely exploration of daring, fright, faith, hope and charity. I think of it often. I think of a very minor character who hears the sheriff say that yes, there do seem to be Russians on the island. That is more than enough for my man. He immediately intuits that his life and that of all his fellow Americans is over. He runs off, shouting, "It's all over! We don't have a chance! Not a chance!" He has heard one sentence from the sheriff. He has seen no Russians or damage or threats but the idea and his mind take over.
I have a lot of respect for Marcus Borg, the Oregon professor of religion who writes about Christianity and its future. In The Heart of Christianity, he says that there are certain components of living a satisfying life and one of them is faith. Just faith, just the firm moving forward into the future while not knowing how things are going to work out. How can we be optimistic? We decide to be. We can check every now and then, if we are moved to do that, and see if there is a compelling proof that it is all over and that we don't have a chance. Lacking that proof, we can proceed about our business. If we are presented with such a proof, we can look it over to see if it genuine, an actual proof. If it turns out to be, we may still find a way to worm out of the deal, a way around the end, a way to go forward, smiling and laughing and full of joy.
