Twilight: The Redeeming Quality

As I have been outed by Clint to his wife for listening to Twilight on my way to and from the hospital (what else am I going to do with those 30 minutes each day?) and from his wife to the rest of the women Melissa hangs with (lets face it you make up 50% of the readership of this particular blog) it is time to post my first of possibly many thoughts on Twilight. That last sentence may not be grammatically correct, but lets face, it I'm a doctor who majored in Exercise and Sport Science. You'll have to excuse me if English is not a very good part of my repertoire.

Since we were married 8.5 years ago Melissa has imersed herself in sports. She has taken it upon herself to be knowledgeable when watching a game so as not to pester me with questions (asking what Peyton Manning's towel is for, just as he snaps the ball in the last minute of the game on 4th and 3 is an example of a pestering question). She has been known to even enjoy a game or two, but in the end we both know that if I were to die tomorrow she would be perfectly content to never watch another sporting event on television, except for swimming, water polo, and some of the not-to-be-named lesser sports in the winter olympics. She watches sports for me. She knows it and I know it. With that in mind I decided to read Twilight.

I am just over halfway through Twilight. I am about as impressed as I was by the movie which is to say I am not overly enjoying the book. I have almost stopped listening numerous times, but as Melissa still watches sports with me I can't quit yet. It's not that I think it is a horrible book or that I'm offended in any way. I don't harbor bad feelings toward Edward as he makes me look like a pathetic excuse for a man playing the hero in every aspect for his beloved Bella. Heck, the best I can do is trying to convince Melissa that my reading of this book is a gift to her. How pathetic is that? The story is just not interesting to me. I think it's the same way that many women (not all mind you, I don't want a bunch of hate male) do not enjoy watching sports on TV. Stephanie Meyer does not bring anything earth shattering to the vampire story and the love story just doesn't do it for me. That is what I thought until this morning when I heard the following:

"So where did it all start? I mean, Carlisle changed you and then someone must have changed him, and so on..."

"Well, where did you come from? Evolution? Creation? Couldn't we have evolved in the same way as other species, predator and prey? Or, if you don't believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?"

Awesome! Finally something I can wrap my mind around. None of this mushy love human-vampire stuff but an actual theory as to where vampires came from, and to top it off one that involves a creator. The whole story takes on a new meaning for me. Edward and his family are struggling just like the rest of us. Sure the temptations are different, but the morality is the same.

Now certainly I don't believe in vampires, but I once read this book about a bunch of guys that lived for almost a thousand years.

I also don't know the origins of the vampire stories, but I'm betting it was related to religion in the beginnning. We're talking about a species who can only survive by drinking blood. That sounds vaguely familiar to something those old guys in the previous paragraph talked about. The best part for me is that with Edward being moral and all, the idea enlightens me rather than making me feel blasphemous.