opening notes on Kino's Journey

These post follow from a recent summer conference where I taught 3 John and I wrote notes and study materials. We have to say thanks to ADV films who gave permission to show part of the anime series.

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Kino’s Journey キノの旅 – The Anime and the “Why”

Destination is a state of mind.

Travelers not only find themselves in a variety of countries and landscapes, but we can see both their own and the new country’s values and traditions. Kino is such a traveler. The world of Kino and Hermes, a talking motorrad or motorcycle, is full of strange locales, each with its own traditions, values and cultures.

Kino's particular rule is to never stay more than three days in a country before moving on. That amount of time is just enough to get a real feel for a country, plus if you stay longer that's time not spent in another place. Each country has its own set of rules and laws, but there are some basic ones that apply to Travelers.

Kino’s Journey is a thinking person’s anime, and follows in the great tradition of tackling worldly philosophies that many great thinkers have been trying to sort out. Similarities can be found with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and, Che Guevara’s autobiography The Motorcycle Diaries is considered an influence.

The traveler is actually an old motif for the Christian life and a counter against the world in which we live. Our worlds are full of values and traditions, which distract and remove us from the reality of a God-given world and a life lived in partnership, in co-existence with God. The traveler motif is a pilgrim motif and was written into God’s warning to the Israelites and is embedded in Scripture. Deuteronomy is peppered with a call to remember Egypt and the desert time. Deut 8 “For the Lord is bringing you into a good land … when you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God … otherwise when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down … your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.” Paul said “Since you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3 1-2) Jesus instructed “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth … but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21)

Where are your treasures? Where is your heart? How can you find out?

We are mired in our own worldview, literally stuck and it takes at minimum cross-cultural missions trips, getting out of our comfort zones, and an authentic desire to discover our blindness as God removes the scales from our eyes. Only in traveling either literally, metaphorically or simply with our minds, hearts, and souls can we discover whether we are worshiping the gods of the new land (see Deut 6:14) or God Almighty.

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