Billy the Bud(d)

I watched Billy Budd  yesterday and was gratified that it did not seem corny or juvenile to today's me.  And while I did not sob as I remember doing so many years ago, I was still touched and moved to tears .........of what sentiment(s) I do not clearly know how to label.   The themes and qualities depicted in the film I resonate(d)with were:

1) Trust
2) Honesty
3) Simplicity
4) Humor and/or good-naturedness
5) Forgiveness
6) Penetrating understanding
7) Gratitude
8) Empathy

and........

9) the "fatal flaw(s)" of humanness


Billy Budd  was released in 1962.  I would have been 11 or 12 at that time.  However, I do not remember watching this film in the theater, but rather on the small screen of my parents television; alone, in the dark, and late at night.  Based on this memory, I place my age of viewing at mid to later teens.  I cannot remember identifying with any of the characters, but I do remember aspiring to the values Billy Budd naturally embodied.  I do still.

So what does this have to do with the journey I am embarking on?  Well, the tale as written, is, in many ways,  the same tale of Jesus and his life.  I remember making the connection so many years ago, and through this connection, for the very first time,  experiencing the biblical story of Jesus as "real", having sprung from human flesh and divine spirit.  Up until then, it had been no different than any comic book tale, or any of the mythologies I had been so fascinated with, (2 dimensional entertainment).  With the movie Billy Budd, the story of Jesus leapt out of the background of my life? psyche? and touched/(torched) an "aliveness".