I don't know if it's the mood I'm in today, but this episode brought tears to my eyes. Chris moves us through a series of events by reading "Paddle to the Sea," a beautiful children's book. The whole episode is about the cosmos, the world we can only live in in our dreams. It starts out with Holling being given the news that Jesse is dead. Jesse is the huge Kodiak that nearly killed him when he was younger. It set up a hole in his soul that could only be filled by finishing Jesse off. He has been a character in other episodes, although circumstances moved him out of the picture. Holling starts out really saddened by his loss. The bones have been brought into the bar and the guys have reconstructed the skeleton. But like so many things, this is the mere earthly representation of all that Jesse was. Holling refuses to accept that this is really Jesse and goes off on a quest to find the real one. It doesn't matter if there is a real one. In other events, we have the arrival of a group of Japanese people who have come to see the Aurora Borealis and to visit Maurice. Of course, they are staying at the bed and breakfast owned by the two gay men. Maurice shows off his ugly side again, filled with hatred. He finally agrees to speak to the visitors when he is buttered up enough. It turns out that the motives of these folks is something totally unexpected. It does feature again the need for human beings to go beyond the bands of earth.
Finally, we have the arrival of heavily worn package full of postage stamps from all over the world. The address is a name and Cicely, Alaska. It is mysterious. It whets the curiosity of everyone. Joel gets on his high horse, defending the U. S. Postal Service. Maggie keeps banging away when an x-ray doesn't do the job, and finally the people of the town decide that it needs to be opened. Chris does a beautiful job on his radio show of explaining why these efforts on the parts of human beings are so important. Just the joy of what we may never see is what drives this episode. One of the best shows I've seen.
Finally, we have the arrival of heavily worn package full of postage stamps from all over the world. The address is a name and Cicely, Alaska. It is mysterious. It whets the curiosity of everyone. Joel gets on his high horse, defending the U. S. Postal Service. Maggie keeps banging away when an x-ray doesn't do the job, and finally the people of the town decide that it needs to be opened. Chris does a beautiful job on his radio show of explaining why these efforts on the parts of human beings are so important. Just the joy of what we may never see is what drives this episode. One of the best shows I've seen.
