I Changed My Mind, Mothra Is Cool Now
I was a much different man in 2021 than I am now. Cock-sure, spiritually immature, and a bit stir-crazy from those COVID months in isolation. I’m far from the man that I should be now, but every time I look back at my first article, I can’t help but feel embarrassed. I wrote that? I genuinely sat down and typed this schlock, and felt it was good enough to share with the whole world? Wow. I feel like a jackass just imagining that.
I can’t tell you how often this happens. I make something, put so much effort into it, then I look back in 6 months with utter disgust because it’s not up to my current standard. I want to delete it. I want to erase the memory of anyone who ever saw it, like the Men in Black.
I want to edit reality to keep me from ever writing it in the first place. But, I can’t. So I’m gonna correct the record.
In that 2021 article, I was tripping. I was hating, I was just looking for something to attack, something to critique, something to claw apart to show that I was a good little Catholic. It was a virtue signal, in a real way. Not good. Really cringe, really gay, really lame. Do I still have a problem with the whole Eco-paganism angle for Mothra? Sure. But in the time since that article, I have seen what a purity spiral looks like. I experienced first-hand how it feels to be on the other end of that barrel. Not nice.
Should I give up on ever engaging with Greek mythology or philosophy because of its pagan roots? If you go far back enough, every story, every piece of art in human history has “pagan roots”. It’s a meaningless accusation.
If the content is licit, the intent should matter much more than the subject, right? I think that’s reasonable.
But what about Mothra?
She’s a big flying kaiju, man. What do you want me to say? Of course she’s cool. I’m not going to pretend I don’t like her just to score some performative piety points. I’m over that. I’m getting too old to chase validation and approval from anyone but Christ and His Bride the Catholic Church. If they ever tell me Mothra is out, then Mothra is out. But until then, the big dumb bug gets a thumbs up from me.