Displaced Persons Bureau
The myth of the wandering, exiled timetraveler is quite old in our culture. The finest example is the Wandering Jew, said to have scorned Jesus on the Via and to have been cursed to wander the earth until He returns to grant him absolution. The WJ has shown up in various places in Europe over the past few hundred years-- now a highly cultivated gentleman versed in all of the forbidden arts and excellent to the ladies.
He is thus a timetraveler whose fate is keyed to the End of the World and Judgment Day, and who is supposed to be far "advanced" over the rest of us. Sound familiar?
My guess is that there is at least one individual, who is probably in Europe (by which I include the UK), who holds himself out as the Wandering Jew. Apparently he doesn't even need to be Jewish, by the way. We should try to get him on the forum here; it would be quite a feather in our cap.
On another subject, most male movie stars over 40 have the need to produce at least one picture in which a lone, vulnerable Action Hero must do battle with the forces of darkness; they are often connected with apocalyptic and postapocalyptic scenarios. Even Arnie has done a few of these, including one in which he was temporarily possessed by Beezlebub before he physically sent him back to the nether region.
Chuck Norris, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise (35? 40?), Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, all have wrestled on the cliff edge with Old Nick.
These are feeding into the public dream now raging in which, at the time of the End, we are "saved" by a lone hero who sacrifices himself to kill evil. My guess is that there are some out there who believe they are such heroes, and would even cause the End, or try to ignite it, just in order to try to save us.
Two invitations, then, to lurkers. Are you the Wandering Jew? Are you our Hero? Step forward into the light.
