Being Desmond Hume

(Tortured Scotsman)

The most epic show ever on your television screen was the seven season run of Lost.  I watched it voraciously, and I bought more than one copy of the box set when it was released.  One for a gift, and one for me.

(Box o'treasures)

As grand as the show was, I realized while I've been re-watching it, that the most touching and most compelling storyline of the show is that of Desmond Hume and his search for his love, Penny.  More than that, it's a story about a guy who constantly tries to get it right.  Kind of like a modern Charlie Brown.

Only Desmond finally gets the satisfaction of succeeding.  He gets to kick Charlie Brown's football that is perpetually snatched away at the last second.

 
Don't fret...this isn't a blog about some show you didn't watch that you know next to nothing about.  This isn't really, REALLY about Lost.  There's a metaphor in here somewhere.
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Desmond's story...

Desmond is the guy who could never get his shit together.  And I totally identify with the guy.

He is a lost soul who joins the monastery and is the most devout Monk in training that they've ever had there.  And verily on the last day of his Monk training, a man shows up and beats Desmond because Desmond had broken a girl's heart before he came to be a monk.  It's then that the brotherhood decides that he's not really "Monk material".  And it's literally when he's walking out the door, that he meets Penny.

(Calling anyone "Brutha" became cool after this show)

Desmond wants to feel worthy of Penny.  Desmond is poor.  Penny is one of the richest women in the world.  So, Desmond leaves her to join the Scottish ARMY. 


Still Penny stays with him.  Again and again, Desmond keeps running away...and again and again, Penny takes him back. 

It's only when Desmond leaves Penny to win an around-the-world race to prove to Penny's Father that he is man enough to be Penny's Husband, that Penny seems to give up on him.


So, Desmond leaves for the race.  His boat crashes on the island where Lost takes place.  And it's here that Desmond sits for years in the underground bunker pushing the button every 108 minutes to keep the world from ending. 

(Push that button, Des!)

It's here that we learn that the only thing keeping Desmond looking forward to another day is that picture of himself and Penny that they took mere minutes before they broke up.  Mere minutes before he was never to see her again.
 
That picture kept him alive.  Years and years passed and all he had to keep him moving forward was that picture of a future he hoped would still be there for him if he could ever get off the island. 

(The picture that was his anchor...his constant)

He is found by the survivors of Oceanic Flight 816.  He becomes one of them in their quest to get rescued.  And that's where we return to our Harvey Walbanger blog...Desmond is on the island, wanting to get off that rock only to see Penny again.
************Penny has been using her finances all along and has been searching the world for Desmond for all the years that Desmond's boat has been missing at sea.  She's longed for him as he's held out hope that she was out there looking for him.

The moment comes where a "rescue boat" is there for them.  At the last second of a man's life, you learn that the boat isn't Penny's boat, as Desmond had believed.  In fact, as Charlie scribbled on his hand, "Not Pennys Boat".

(Bye Charlie!)

So, Desmond knows that the boat he's been waiting years and years for and he thinks is finally there isn't Penny's.  And this scene tore at me and bothered me and was hard to watch.  It's as if he was Charlie Brown another time...the football got yanked away yet again.

As the story unfolds, Desmond and the Oceanic 6 (the six "survivors" that returned to civilization) end up making it back to Penny's boat.  They get rescued.  And this is where Desmond leaves the series.


(Reunited and it feels so good!)

The survivors go back to fame and notoriety.  But not Desmond.  He's never heard from again.  Neither his character nor Penny are ever mentioned again.
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And it's here that I get romantic.  It's here I get to editorialize.  And it's here where all the metaphors start and all the show recap ends. 

After years and years of getting it wrong, Desmond gets it right.  Finally.


After years of being called "coward" and "weak" and "scared", he finally stands true and succeeds.  I identify so much with him because I've been called all of those. 

Either recently or in the distant.

(That's me...Coward McGee!)

The thing that I keep coming back to is that he knew that the first boat that showed up was the wrong boat.  "Not Pennys Boat". 

What made me think...what made me cringe and cry was my similarities to the character Desmond.  And then realizing, like Desmond...sometimes it's the boats you don't get on that save you as much as the boats you do get on. 

Desmond didn't buy into the salvation of the wrong boat...he waited for Penny's boat. 

And it saved his ass.

Here's to Desmond.  And here's to waiting and to being devout and to being patient for Penny's boat. 

Whatever that may be to you.

And more than that...here's to being thankful that you didn't get on the wrong boat.  



I know I am.

(Penny's Boat...may it be this beautiful for you when it arrives!)