After six years and many twist and turns, we have now come to the end of Lost. And I have to say that it took some 'staying with', but it was all worth it!I remember watching the pilot episode and thinking that it would just be a run of the mill 'stuck on a desert Island' program, and that was still OK with me. However, we where soon to see that the Island had so much more, ranging from Smoke Monsters, Polar Bears, a Dangerous Tribe and Magnetic Fields. Also, and even more interestingly for me there was a number of people from diverse backgrounds, who all had their own history which had moulded and shaped them into the people they were (soon to be followed by flash forwards and sideways).Of course there are a number of themes which one can glean from the series, particularly the notion of fate. But what I liked most was the dynamic of community, and how their external environment (the need to survive, dangers etc) influenced the collective. And this subsequently highlighted the inwards focus of human nature when everything is taken away..... and it's only when we have a community which is based on something beyond ourselves can there be true altruism, or a higher ethic which can only come from something way beyond our own human moral standards. A community marked by a higher ethic is one which approaches conflict still looking for what is good in the person they maybe battling with , or the ability to lose out on what they may of wanted in the 'here the now'. In short, it becomes a community which in its centre becomes counter cultural, and in some ways attractive.
And in true Lost fashion, we can flash sideways and wonder what this new community could be and the effect it could have on our relationships on a micro and macro scale.But perhaps this side of heaven this notion is a little too Utopian. But for me, the hope still remains, that someday a community along these lines would come about..
