Reflections From Arcadia

My Dear Sean got me these episodes from US of a series called Joan of Arcadia and I frankly loved the concept and I actually thought that it was something that I related to after Ally McBeal and that states a lot. I am waiting and wondering if they will show the series here.

I always get the signs when I am ready and Joan of Arcadia set another chain
reaction.

I am sharing my favourite quotes from Joan of Arcadia, some of them touched me deeply, just so you all know, it is about a girl, who encounters God in different human forms and she talks to God.
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God: [when Joan refuses to talk to Him or even believe that He's real] Don't
you miss me, just a little?
Joan: [lying] No.
God: Don't you miss yourself?
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God: Stop underachieving. Stop squandering the potential I gave you. Have
some pride.
Joan: What about humility?
God: Humility isn't actually humility unless there's something you're good
enough at to be humble about.
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God: Let me explain something to you Joan. It goes like this: I don't look like this. I don't look like anything you'd recognize. You can't see me. I don't sound like this. I don't sound like anything you'd recognize. You see I'm beyond your experience. I take this form because you're comfortable with it. It makes sense to you. And if I'm "snippy' it's because you understand snippy. Do ya get it?
Joan: Sort of.
God: Good, cause I'm really not snippy. I've got a great personality. You'd like me.
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Joan: Let's see a miracle.
God/boy: How about that?
Joan: It's a tree.
God/boy: Let's see you make one
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God: I'm not appearing to you. You are seeing me.
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God: I'm omniscient, Joan - it comes with the job.
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Electrician (God): Look, you won't always know why I ask you to do things. You won't always see the effects. Just think about what you learned in AP Chemistry.
Joan: I didn't learn anything. I got the others to do it.
Electrician (God):The smallest catalyst can set off mind-boggling chain-reactions. One time, I said, 'Let there be light'.. all hell broke loose, figuratively speaking.
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Little Girl/God: I put a lot of thought into the universe. I came up with the rules. It sets a bad example if I break them. Not to mention, it shows favouritism. Why should one person get a miracle, and not everybody else?
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(The previous night God had appeared on TV and Joan's father turned off the TV)
God: Joan, you want proof? When you're all alone you practice french kissing in the mirror.
Joan: Shhhh. Why do you have to be so mean? Oh, and by the way, the other night, it was my father that turned you off, not me.
God: Oh, okay. He shall burn for eternity in Hell.
Joan: What? No, he's a nice guy and he didn't mean it...
God: I'm just kidding, where do you people get this stuff?
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Little Girl/God: You'd like to give me a slap, wouldn't you?
Joan: Yeah...but you're so cute.
Little Girl/God: By the way, as an instrument of Me, have some pride. Do better. Do your best.
Joan: Now I'd like to slap you.
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Electrician/God: Are you looking for me?
Joan: Um, I'm not sure.
Electrician/God: Cause when you're alone, that hideous song from Titanic makes you cry.
Joan: Why do you have to be so mean?
Electrician/God: Why do you have to keep questioning me? Most people would be on their best behavior.
Joan: Okay, you know, I've been thinking and I figured out that the reason why you had me join A.P. chem is so I can be a doctor, right?
Electrician/God: Okay, News flash, Joan, you don't need to tell me about what you've been thinking. I'm omniscient, remember?
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Joan: So my true nature is I'm a catalyst? That's mad anticlimatic.
Electrician/God: Anticlimactic. 'Anticlimatic' means you're...against the weather.
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Joan: God.
Electrician (God): Yes?
Joan: No, I was taking your name in vain, to be technical. Sorry.
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God: Just because I speak doesn't mean that anyone will listen.
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Mailwoman/God: (looking at a dollar bill) "In Me You Trust." Not entirely true.
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Joan: I meant that they'll see you.
Cute Boy (God): Yeah, I've noticed that this look turns a lot of heads.
Joan: It's called being hot.
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Joan: People will see us.
Cute Boy/God: Yep, the optic nerve was pretty inspired.
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Cute Boy/God: You didn't read the book, did you?
Joan: Oh, like you don't know. 'Cain, where's your brother?'. Very passive-aggressive.
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Cute Boy/God: Oh Joan, Would have been so much easier if you just read the book. Now I'm gonna have to send you to the basement.
Joan: You mean like, Hell?
Cute Boy/God: No, I mean, like, the basement. There's one in the school. Check it out.
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Joan: Oh, the package is C.O.D.? Uh, I don't have any cash...
God: You have 12 dollars in your pocket which you were going to buy a muffin and a frappucino with while you ditched history class, which you really shouldn't do, by the way.
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God: So I guess this mean you're not going to keep your promise?
Joan: What promise?
God: Oh, let's see, You'd study more, stop getting fresh with your parents and even go to church if I let your brother live.
Joan: So, are you here to... collect?
God: No. I don't bargain, that would be cruel.
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Joan: God joined the Army.
God/Navy Man: Navy. It's thematic – I want you to build a boat.
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Joan: So did you just pop up to keep me from telling Adam about you?
God/Old Lady: I don't pop – I abide. I'm eternal. No popping.
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Joan: Do you understand the concept of time management?
Housewife/God: I don't care much about time – that's one of your innovations.
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Deliveryman/God: Romantic love – I'm proud of that. Some of my best work.
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Businessman/God: Where do you think that kind of thing comes from in a person?
Joan: A mood.
Businessman/God: You have a mood, you eat French Fries. But when you have pain, there's a little more work to deal with it.
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Joan: How bad was it?
Businessman/God: It was evil...and I don't throw that word around.
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Homeless Man (God): Be not afraid, Joan.
Joan: Be not afraid? What's with that?
Homeless Man (God): Sometimes I like to sound old timey.
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Joan: Oh, ok ok, like it's really good for me to hear about people butchering each other for 100 years just because they believed in you!
Hot Dog (God): That´s not about faith. That's politics. It's sort of like the difference between friendship and popularity.
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Hot Dog Guy/God: What is it with you people? I give you very simple instructions and *boom* you're right back to false gods.
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Joan: What kind of system is it?
Little Girl/God: A perfect one. Trust me. (long pause)
Joan: I'm listening...
Little Girl/God: I'm finished.
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Flight Attendant/God: I find Career Day a little bit bogus.
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Cute Guy/God: Joan, there's nothing I could say about (dying) that would make sense to you.
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Power-Walking Woman/God: (talking to Joan) I understand you're confused. But there are no dilemmas without confusion, there's no free will without dilemmas, and there's no humanity without free will.
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Joan: (to Power-Walking Woman God) I always thought you'd be nicer!
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Painter (God): Martyrs did things the hard way and were willing to except the consequences, just like I'm asking you to do.
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DMV Clerk (God): You're apprehensive, just like you were when you got a training bra. (Joan looks around, nervously) And that's good.
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Plumber-God: Well, I'm God. My needs come first.
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Goth Kid (God): I wouldn't worry about self-defense.
Joan: Then why the psycho mission? Because I didn't sign up for martyrdom.
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Goth Kid (God): Have I ever endangered you?
Joan: Well, you never told me to ask evil out on a date before.
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Goth Kid (God): Almost everybody has some light, somewhere. And light is always worth fighting for.
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Joan: So what do you want me to fail at this time?
Older Woman (God): Now what makes you think you failed? You did exactly what I asked you to do - you observed.
Joan: Hmm! And what good did that do anybody? Ramsey's going to jail, Adam hates me even more...
Older Woman (God): Observation is a more powerful force than you could possibly reckon. The invisible, the overlooked, and the unobserved are the most in danger of reaching the end of the spectrum. They lose the last of their light. From there, anything can happen.
Joah: (sighs) Okay. Fine, I observe Ramsey, his life is still ruined.
Older Woman (God): His life wasn't the only one at stake.
Joan: What do you mean?
Older Woman (God): (starts pointing out different students in the hallway) There's Laura Eason, ninth grader. She plays the flute. She would have been one of the first to go (gunshot sound) coming out of Orchestra at the wrong time. And Andrew Bayer - he would have tried to save his friend Lawrence DiStasi and lost his life (gunshot sound). And Gavin Price (gunshot sound), and three other students in the cafeteria. And Mr. Harvey. And Ms. Schmidt in the library. And finally, Steve Ramsey himself. And for each of these faces Joan, there are twelve more whose lives would have come to an end today - lives altered forever by you. By the simple effect of being present, by entering the light, by joining the dance.
(Joan wipes away a tear)
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Old Lady (God): Observation is a more powerful force than you can possibly reckon. The invisible, the overlooked, and the unobserved are those that are most in danger of reaching the end of the spectrum. They lose the last of their light. From there, anything can happen.
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Joan: You're getting really good at showing up when no one needs you.
Old Lady (God): That's your opinion.
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Goth Kid (God): 'Evil' is not a word to use lightly. It's only the darkest end of a broad spectrum.
Joan: You mean like...light?
Goth Kid (God): Exactly like light. Nobody's born in total darkness. Most of you live on the gray end of the spectrum...a lie here, and there. Jealousy. Wrath. But you only get to absolute evil by doing one thing after another until eventually you're transformed.
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Creepy Guy (God): I leave hints all over the place. I'm all about hints.
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Joan: (to Dr. Halliwell (God)) You invented drugs, didn't you?
Dr. Halliwell (God): I invented rattlesnakes. Doesn't mean I want you playing around with them.
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Liquor Store Clerk (God): Joan, you did invite Adam?
Joan: Sure.
Liquor Store Clerk (God): And he realizes you're inviting him?
Joan: As in a date?
Liquor Store Clerk (God): Figure it out.
Luke: I'm sorry, he's approving your guest list?
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Cute Guy (God): Adam is confused.
Joan: Adam is always confused.
Cute Guy (God): Okay, well, you're introducing new levels of confusion.
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Joan: Adam will believe me.
God: Yes... but you don't know Adam that well yet. For example, you don't know how many burdens the boy is already carrying. And I'd like you to consider the possibility that it is you who should take on some of his burdens, not vice versa.
Joan: Adam has burdens?
God: Sometimes they look a lot like gifts.
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Joan: God smokes?
Liquor Store Clerk (God): I don't inhale.
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Joan: See, nobody thinks of you as fun.
Dr. Halliwell (God): And that's the problem.
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Joan: (to God) Shouldn't you be a better dancer? (doorbell rings) Excuse me, your all-mightiness.
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Computer Girl (God): (eating) Are you pro or con, Joan?
Joan: I'm annoyed. As long as you're asking, can I have a bite of that? I had to skip lunch for this, remember.
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Joan: (being wanded) What? I didn't set off any alarm! So unless you want to sentence me to death for possession of Gummi Bears, I would like to go to class.
Security Guy (God): You seem very upset, Joan. Take a breath.
Joan: Fascist God?
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Security Guard (God): Do you know what Grace is, Joan?
Joan: Yeah – pissed off!
Security Guard (God): (sighs) Do you know the meaning of the word ‘grace'?
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Security Guard (God): 'Suck' is a relative term, Joan. Things could be much worse.
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Security Guard (God): What, a lively exchange of ideas in search of the truth? Who wouldn't love that?
Joan: Uh, ME.
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Butcher (God): I don't exist because people believe in me. I simply exist, whether people believe in me or not.
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Security Guard (God): (to Joan) Do you know the meaning of grace? It is a touch of truth, that let's you see the world in a new way. It's a gift that can only be felt when you are open enough to accept it.
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Little Girl (God): Come on, I'll walk you home.
(Joan and LGG walk away hand in hand.)
Joan: Great, I'm being escorted home by a six-year-old.
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Joan: You didn't answer my question.
Concession Stand (God): I don't answer questions, sweetpea. And this you know.
Joan: But I gave you a dollar!
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Joan: (to Little Girl (God)) You're in charge until I get back.
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Little Girl (God): Everyone has a part of themselves they don't like, Joan. You carry it around like a weight. The lucky ones realize that when it becomes too heavy, you can choose to set it down. That's when you can see things the way they really are.
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Hippie Dog Walker (God): I work in mysterious ways, Joan. It's my thing.
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Joan: Please don't make me cancel on Adam. I can't stand him hating me again. It'd be like being in some Russian goulash.
Little Girl (God): Gulag.
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Guitar-Guy (God): (singing badly) I said yeah...
Joan: (interrupting) That was really humiliating. God should know how to carry a tune.
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Guitar-Guy (God): (singing show theme off-key) Just a stranger on the bus...
Joan: Grace was right. You do suck.
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Pizza Guy God: (After delivering Joan a pizza) No tip? I got it here in under thirty minutes.
Joan: Oh, like that's really hard for you?!
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Mascot (God): I asked you to jump. All you've done so far is fall. Go back and jump, Joan.
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Doctor (God): I don't punish you, you punish yourselves. You're so good at it I could almost retire.
Joan: Huh, why don't you?
Doctor (God): I like my work.
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Doctor (God): You should really learn to avoid unnecessary pain.
Joan: You should really learn how to pick on a supreme being your own size.
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Joan: Are you an exchange student?
Exchange Student (God): You might say I'm in charge of the exchange program.
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Exchange Student (God): Repeating myself is part of the job. ‘Vengeance is mine . . . ‘ sayeth me.
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Joan: You've never been to high school.
Exchange Student (God): You've never been to the Crusades.
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Joan: (walking away from Goth Kid (God)) You're not going to stop me?
Goth Kid (God): It's your choice to walk away. I just think it's interesting that of all the tasks I've given you, buying Cream of Wheat is the one you're abandoning.
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Joan: Are you there God? It's me, Joan...and you suck. (The power goes out.)
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Goth Kid (God): You don't need me, you're doing great.
Joan: Oh, okay, and so you're here to what, show me your new nose ring?
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Joan: And here's the part where you reassure me...
Goth Kid (God): It is scary.
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Joan: Yeah, well you can raise people from the dead, so just wave your hand and fix this stupid thing.
Piano Tuner (God): If you want special effects rent Lord of the Rings.
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Balloon Sculptor (God): Good is relevant. Beauty's relevant. Everything's relevant. Except for me. I'm absolute.
Joan: I thought that was vodka.
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Goth Kid (God): Everybody has a best feature, Joan. I saw to that.
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God: Faith is believing when there's no rational reason to believe.
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Joan: (to Cute Guy (God)) Great, you have a locker now. What do you keep in there – wrath?
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Joan: You might be God, but you're a little clueless.
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Joan: (to God) You want me to ace French? Why don't you make the language easier? Or make it...English?
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Rich Woman (God): You're always faced with difficult decisions. I can't make your choices for you - I'm really committed to the free will thing.
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Joan: Was that you in the bathroom?
Mascot (God): The point is, I'm here now. My name is I am, not I was.
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Joan: Why are you acting so mysterious all of a sudden?
God: I've always been mysterious. Without it, there is no faith... and we love faith.
Joan Who's Faith?
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Joan: I thought we were going with monotheism
Twin-Girl God: I'm impressed you know what that is
Joan: Why are you torturing me, And don't say I'm torturing myself
Twin-Girl God: Sometimes its hard to believe what you see, so you have to trust the world behind your eyes
Joan: There's a world behind my eyes, great because this ones in enough trouble
Twin-Girl God: People manage to believe in me, even though they have no idea what I am, they trust me even in the silence
Joan: O.K. Can you take care of the rash and the barfing, save the haiku for another time
Joan: Very matrix
Twin-Girl God: Got to the doctor, you are sick
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Joan: I never liked any of you. (points to Goth-God) Especially you!
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Joan: You are not real.
Little Girl God: So people keep telling me.
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Joan: I can't hear you.
Cute Boy God: But you can see me.
Joan: I'm ignoring you.
Cute Boy God: I'm used to that.
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Cute Boy God: Have you read this?
Joan: You stole that!
Cute Boy God: Well, technically, everything's mine.
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Little Girl God: All carbon atoms are the same. As are all protons, electrons, and neutrons. It didn't have to be that way, but it makes the universe beautiful.
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Cute Boy God: Crazy is destructive. It tears down. I'm all about building up.
Joan: Then I suggest you take up carpentry.
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Joan: Why can't you understand that you are screwing up my life? I just want to be like everyone else!
Goth Kid God: I really have to give you the snowflake speech?
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Garbage Man God: This can be recycled. Do I have to make a new Earth every 7 days?
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Joan: So what I was growing...
Loner Loser kid God: Grew.
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Loner Loser Kid God: It's like, uh, everybody has something better to do. Until they're on a plane, and then they're all over me.
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Locksmith God: You were involved, Joan. That always makes a difference.
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Joan: Oh, I can't watch (Brian get beat up). It's too horrible.
Rocker Dude God: Multiply that by six billion and you'll know what I go through every day.
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Joan: Didn't you take history?
Rocker Dude God: I created history.
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Locksmith God: Mankind lives in a prison of its own making -- but you always call on me for the keys.
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Bad Stand-Up Comedian God: Here, what does this (dollar bill) say?
Joan: ‘In You We Trust'...
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Gay Male Secretary God: And stand up straight. I didn't create your slouch.
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Fortune Teller God: Technically, everyone has no future.
Joan: Oh god . . .
Fortune Teller God: That's me.
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Joan: Wait. You know my future. So why do I have to go discuss it with Price?
Gay Male Secretary God: That free will lecture doesn't land with you, does it?
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Joan: God shouldn't pinch cheeks. It never makes the world better.
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Joan: Can we focus?
Officious Hall Monitor God: I'm always focused.
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Officious Hall Monitor God: I multi-task. Well, if I didn't . . . well, you wouldn't want to know.
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Joan: God mocking humans? That's nice.
Female Custodian God: Belly flop. Eternally funny. Nothin' I can do about it.
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Joan: Would you care to be a little more specific?
Cute Boy God: For me, that is specific.
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Joan: You really are omnipresent, aren't you?
Cute Boy God: I get around.
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Joan: to Cute Guy God) Do girls always hit on you with that look? Oh, they do. Hitting on God. That's gross!
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Joan: Great. God is a pop-up ad. That's perfect.
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God: It's because you see each event as an end in itself. But they're all just small parts of something much greater. Something that never ends.
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Joan: I always knew God was an underachiever.
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Joan: You want to tell me why you're here.
Goth Kid God: It's a guidance session. I'm all about guidance.
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Goth Kid God: Design. I like it. That's why I put it everywhere.
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Johnny Broadway God: Nothing of value comes without a little struggle. Some of the most beautiful flowers in the world only grow after a forest fire. Literally out of the ashes, they blanket the ground with colour.
Joan: Yeah, but you could make that happen without the fire. People would like you more.
Johnny Broadway God: They'd just find something else to blame me for.
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Gay Male Secretary God: Singing, dancing, zombies, oh my!
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Joan: Even God can't bring back the word ‘nifty'.
Female Custodian God: Don't tempt me...
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Female Custodian God: Don't you just love the theater? People finding joy in creating whole new worlds. *chuckles* Couldn't keep that one to myself.
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Joan: You're not serious?
Gay Male Secretary God: I'm always serious. Which doesn't mean I'm not fun.
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Personable Woman God: I just thought I'd ask. Show I care . . . because I do.
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Joan: The other stalls are free. How about giving me a little peace in here?
Little Girl God: I'm all about giving you peace, Joan.
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Personable Woman God: They should really put benches at all the bus stops. Make the world a better place, one tush at a time. What do you think, Joan?
Joan: God says 'tush'?
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Joan: It doesn't make any sense.
Personable Woman God: It's a paradox. You're a hero. And you're not perfect. You were horrible to Dylan because you cared. Another paradox. If you accept that they both can exist simultaneously, then you can find peace in the contradictions, which is where you'll find me
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Joan: It doesn't make any sense.
Personable Woman God: It's a paradox. You're a hero. And you're not perfect. You were horrible to Dylan because you cared. Another paradox. If you accept that they both can exist simultaneously, then you can find peace in the contradictions, which is where you'll find me.
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