We All Have An Alias or Two

"Hi. My name is Aubrey and I'm an addict..." Last summer I became an Alias addict. I watched all five seasons of the television series, Alias, starring Jennifer Garner in less than three months! Now I'm watching them through for the third time with my parents. Jennifer Garner plays a woman who was recruited into a black operations division of the CIA. Her name is Sydney Bristow. However, she discovers that this black ops unit is not really CIA at all. It's actually the people who she has been fighting against. So, she becomes a double agent- loyal to the CIA, but remaining an agent for the people she originally began working for and passing on intelligence to the CIA. In the process of all her adventures she takes on a number of different aliases.

She becomes whoever she needs to be in the situation. However, Sydney has to lie to the people she loves; deception is a way of life. The life she lives is one where she must selectively trust others and a life in which she experiences many betrayls.

At the risk of trying to read too deeply into something, I'm going to share some thoughts I've had lately about this show. I was watching an episode earlier this week and there was a drama going on where Sydney was helping her boyfriend, Vaughn. In the process she had to hide some things from her father, Jack. I still remember a thought that popped into my head as I watched Sydney give her father a hug and lie to him. Wow, I thought, you never know who to trust. The truth is, though, people are not perfect and, if you trust everyone all the time you will find that trust has betrayed you in some way or another.

Sometimes trust is a funny thing. If you trust too much, you risk being hurt. If you don't trust enough, you risk being left alone. It's hard for me to find that line. In many respects I think we all have an alias or two. We trust and distrust. We laugh when we don't understand jokes. (Come on- don't pretend you haven't done it!) We put on a happy face when we are sad. We say we're okay when really we need a hand. How much easier life would be if we all walked around without any aliases; walking with total trust in others' ability to love us for who we are- with enough trust in the human race to deepen our relationships, and allow us to learn and grow.

Well, time for another episode of Alias...