Imaginary Rivalries by Julie A. Ferraro

Recent situations in the news have revived some old thoughts I’ve had through the years, leading me to tell the story of four men—a tale that might not seem to have any bearing on Christian living, but I ask the reader’s indulgence and request an open mind be kept while perusing these paragraphs.

Allow me to set the stage:

As a youngster, when my father wasn’t watching the Chicago Cubs via WGN in Chicago (thanks to a very tall antenna that could be adjusted to catch just the right signal on a Sunday afternoon), a weekly series of Sherlock Holmes movies ran on that channel, featuring the actor Basil Rathbone as the Great Detective. I enjoyed these off-season movies and developed an affinity for classic films.

Masterpiece Theater, a Sunday evening feature of local Public Broadcasting Stations, ran a series of Sherlock Holmes stories around the time I began my own family, this time starring Jeremy Brett in the key role.

Within the past 20 years, both Robert Downey, Jr., and Benedict Cumberbatch (among others) have lent their considerable talents to portraying Holmes in rather unconventional fare.

I’ve watched them all—repeatedly.

A few quick internet searches will bring up scads of videos and forums where these options are discussed at length, including which was the “better” Holmes.

What a lot of the contributors to these conversations overlook is that the quality of the script, combined with the quality of the actor, determine the favorable outcome.

Rathbone’s first two movies, for instance, had semi-decent plots, but when the series was moved forward to the World War II era, the scripts became little more than anti-Nazi propaganda, causing the overall impact to decline.

Downey and Cumberbatch dealt with an odd combination of material, inserting comedic elements or modern twists, that also skewed their portrayals.

Brett, in the series produced by Granada Television in Britain, strove to stay faithful to the original stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, creating a much more effective scenario.

Yet the imaginary rivalry between these men continues to this day, thanks to each fan base expressing their own take on the matter.

The ultimate test would be—while quite impossible, since two of the men have been dead for decades—to give each of the actors the same script, the same director, and then judge the outcome.

The same can be said of our current division and general world turmoil. Asking any dozen people, it’s probable to receive 14 different responses to the same question. We’re all working from different “scripts,” as it were, judging the situation from often opposing angles.

And screaming our opinions at the top of our lungs, most times.

These are the questions we must ask of those who seek power, whether through the upcoming election or within a prominent corporation, or within the church itself:

• Is the person honorable?
• Does the person have a hidden agenda?
• Is money a guiding factor in the person’s actions?

There could be many more such points on this list, but these are the key ones to ask, whether of a politician or a member of the clergy.

As the late Robin Williams said, both in his stand-up act and in the 2006 movie Man of the Year: If people were required to wear outfits like race car drivers, with patches naming their supporters, the public would get a better idea of where they really stand.

This option, or working from the same “script” to assess the truth about prominent figures—secular and religious—will make it more feasible to objectively determine in whom we should place our trust. Then, like the four Holmes actors, we can choose the “best” based on the same criteria, rather than arbitrary and subjective differences.

We need to face the fact: even though the internet has the potential to instantly publicize the actions of church and secular authorities—good and bad—we can’t rely on the media to make decisions for us. We don’t need to engage in imaginary and trivial rivalries, but think for ourselves.

As rational human beings, we must look at what’s happening all around us and resolve to make choices so our words and deeds will better the world and our communities. ♦

Julie A. Ferraro has been a journalist for over 30 years, covering diverse beats for secular newspapers as well as writing for many Catholic publications. A mother and grandmother, she currently lives in Idaho. Her column, “God ‘n Life,” appears regularly in Today’s American Catholic.

Image: Sam McGhee / Unsplash