New Identity Magazine

The Monsters & The Stranger Things

Steve Limkeman — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 16:43:12 +0000

They’re out there. Lurking in the woods, hiding in the shadows… waiting for the cover of darkness to strike. Monsters are heralds of death, ever seeking new victims whose bones will be discarded with the host of prey they have devoured. The grotesque, horrifying nature of their attacks terrifies us, but in the context of the story, it also feels right. Why do we, like Mike Wheeler and his friends…

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(Super) Natural Consequences and the Wrath of God

Steve Limkeman — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 19:14:37 +0000

Faced with the prospect of his own death, all Kaecilius wanted was to live. We all have an innate aversion to death, though experience or philosophy might teach us to try to embrace death rather than to run from it. Most of us, if we believed such things were possible, would choose life. Thus, many have enshrined myths regarding a quest for immortality, whether through the discovery of the…

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Evil Will Come

Steve Limkeman — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 16:54:21 +0000

Do not open your heart to evil… because if you do, evil will come. Yes, very surely, evil will come. It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.” – Hercule Poirot, Death on the Nile Hercule Poirot is the best detective ever to grace the pages of a novel. Before you object, let me explain. Yes, I have read every single…

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Tumbling Down The Rabbit Hole

Steve Limkeman — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 21:27:31 +0000

The Matrix Trilogy is fully loaded with Christian symbolism, so much so that anyone familiar with both Christianity and The Matrix will not be surprised to hear that the overarching narrative is nearly allegorical in nature. The protagonist, Mr. Anderson (who goes by the hacker alias “Neo”), is pegged from the beginning of the first film as a Christ figure, though a first-time viewer might miss…

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Tenants of the Tenet

Steve Limkeman — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 21:29:09 +0000

“Mine.” “No, mine.” “NO, MINE!” If you’re chuckling and shaking your head right now, it’s because you’ve spent some time around small children lately. I have two of my own, ages 2 and 4, so the conflict is very real, very personal and always lurking in the background of what is mostly a cute and loving sibling relationship. There’s something especially threatening about someone…

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A Hidden Life

Steve Limkeman — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:38:57 +0000

“For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” –George Eliot It happens all the time. We’re going about our lives, our work, our play, our families and our friendships, and then it hits us.

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Eatable Heroes

Steve Limkeman — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:35:27 +0000

When I learned that Chadwick Boseman had died of cancer this past August, I was both shocked and deeply saddened: shocked because I never even knew that he was sick and deeply saddened because I admired him so much as an actor – not just as the Black Panther, but also as real-life heroes Jackie Robinson in 42 and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. I’ve come to appreciate him even more since that time…

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Memorable Middle Earth

Steve Limkeman — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 17:06:34 +0000

That conversation between Frodo and Gandalf, held deep within the Mines of Moria, is probably my single favorite moment of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. It shows a young hobbit, feeling inadequate to shoulder the incredible weight of the historic moment that has been thrust upon him, feeling overwhelmed by the associated suffering that this evil device of Sauron has wrought in his world…

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Getting Out of The Good Place

Steve Limkeman — Mon, 04 May 2020 19:56:42 +0000

What do you hope will happen to you after you die? There are so many things we might wish for that cannot be fully realized in this life: reunification with family or friends who are no longer with us, release from suffering and pain, restoration of what is damaged and broken, justice for what’s been done wrong, perfect loving relationships… the list could go on forever. Do you believe that there…

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The Fatal Flaw in the Philosophy of the Force

Steve Limkeman — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 17:45:04 +0000

In The Force Awakens, Han Solo reflects, “I used to wonder about that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. A magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light? Crazy thing is, it’s true. The Force, the Jedi – all of it. It’s all true.” A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we are told that Luke Skywalker, the heroic Jedi who defeated the evil Galactic…

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