It was probably a strange thought to have while watching the Bill and Frank episode of The Last of Us TV series but it was the thought I had. Near the end of the episode where Frank asks Bill to give him a good last day I couldn’t help but tear up a little and then I thought, “that is what turning the other cheek looks like.”
As I dissected my own thought and the episode rolled on and Bill decided that Frank’s last day would be his as well I concluded that if I were in that position I would make the same decision. Bill and Frank were relatable. Their relationship is the one we wish for. To meet someone under unusual circumstances, live in a small house with a white picket fence, grow old together, and then ride off into the sunset still in love. It is a beautiful and romantic love story. The fact that it is between two hairy (very hairy) large men dressed like lumberjacks is inconsequential to the beauty of the story itself.
That is what it means to turn the other cheek and it is why the anti-woke, red pill, dudebro crowd is so offended. It makes them confront their inhumanity.
Here is a beautiful and well constructed love story. Full of relatable moments, tenderness, happiness, and ultimately the sadness of those final few moments together. It is a portrait of true love. The highs and the lows of human emotion. It is impossible to watch and not feel.
Empathy is the enemy of the cruel hearted. Turning the other cheek isn’t about not retaliating. It is about making the aggressor confront their violence. If a Roman soldier backhands a common provincial then they should off them their other cheek to be slapped as well. It is the preverbal scene where a man is hit, knockdown, and keeps rising. While the mob might at first be filled with bloodthirsty lust eventually their sympathies shift to the beaten man who refuses to be beaten.
It is hard to continue to justify being on the side of abject cruelty. Only the most heartless of individuals could watch that episode of television and feel nothing for the characters. I do hope that somewhere at least one person that went into it ready to hate it because of Bill and Frank’s relationship came out of it with better understanding of their humanity.
David Huzzard Writes 