The Karate Kid and Ali with an "I"

Several weeks ago, a specific scene from the Karate Kid movie went through my mind.  Why the Karate Kid?  I don't know... Remember the 80's, I guess?

The scene was where Daniel LaRusso first learns Ali Mills' name.  Daniel had met Ali earlier at the beach and got the crap beaten out of him by Johnny Lawrence, Ali's old boyfriend.  Fast forward to the start of high school, and Daniel is trying out for the soccer team when Ali comes up to him.  They talk for a bit, and as she starts to walk off, Daniel asks her for her name.  Here is the dialogue, and I will post the video in case you want to see it (it is a longer one to get to the specific dialogue, but the bonus is we get Bananarama playing throughout):

Daniel:  Hey, you got a name?

Ali:  Ali... with an 'I'.  Hey what's your name?

Daniel:  Daniel... with an L.

It was that dialogue, and their names, that stood out for me, just like things have in other instances.   And of course it would since, you know, the name thing I have going on right now.  

So, I dove into looking up Ali's name.  There is an Ali as in an Arabic name, but that isn't what we are going for here, I don't think.  This is clearly Allie, a feminine name .  This name can be a nickname for other names (e.g., Alison, Alexandra, etc.).  Which could all work.  Or the name itself can be taken on its own as a diminutive and feminized form of Alan.  This is where I landed primarily because one theory of this name has it coming from Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland.  Per Wikipedia:

 

In Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland, Alan may also be an Anglicisation of an Irish word (with diminutive suffix) meaning "rock". For example, the modern Irish ailín means "little rock". Similarly, according to Patrick Woulfe, the Irish name Ailín is derived from diminutive ail, which means "noble", "rock".

Thus, noble (exalted) and rock or Stone are the proposed names for Alan, and its counterpart Ali or Alie.  I am going to use both of those and say we may be dealing with an Exalted Stone.   And William Tychonievich just posted something with the title "GAEL" in it, so I am inclined to take some Gaelic-specific meaning here and be OK with it.

My story includes an Stone that accompanied a Being into the Heavens, and both Stone and Being are not exalted.  That Stone was the Ithil Stone, I think.  When I first learned that Ali's name could mean Stone, my mind first went to Eowyn and the Ithil Stone.  I then, potentially too imaginatively, saw some meaning with the emphasis of the dialogue of "with an I".  I mean, it is really clunky, unnecessary phrase to throw in there with her name, so why not apply some meaning here?

The Ithil Stone, of course, starts with an "I", and this is where my mind went.  I also heard the phrase as "eye", as in being able to see.  One who is not blind, perhaps.

Ali of course then asks Daniel what his name is, and he responds by adding a letter to his name.  The letter L.  Although, when I heard it, I heard it as the Elvish word "El".  A Star, which I have also used synonymously with Stones.

There is a Star specifically associated with the name Daniel - in my story at least - and that is the Sawtooth Stone.  I currently have this Stone as the one that Daniel's dream interpretation and prophecy had being cut from the Mountain without human hands.  Readers of the blog should know very well by now that I believe that prophecy was about a real, not symbolic, Stone, and that the mountain it was removed from was Williams Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.  Crazy, I know.

This story also involves the 'introduction' of these two stones.  The Ithil Stone is missing something, and that is the account found on the Sawtooth Stone.  The "El" of Daniel, and that will need to be remedied here at some point.

But, I don't think we are just referring to Stones here in this symbolism, or at least my imagination didn't stop there.  Like I said, the words from Ali, and learning of its potential meaning, had me think of not just the Ithil Stone, but also Eowyn who the Stone accompanied.  Similarly, in my story, it will Faramir who will come into possession of the Sawtooth Stone, perhaps in Tom Bombadil's Study.  I don't know.

The name Daniel itself means "God is my Judge" or "Judge of God".  I am going to go with the latter for our purposes here.  This brings the topic of Judgement into the picture.  As I have imagined it, at least, it will be Faramir who is charged at least with judgement of the 144, most likely representing here in that number the Family of Light.  Similarly, as mentioned before in other posts, Faramir also has the title of Ja-ho-e-oop or Jah ni hah, in my book, which are found in Joseph Smith's Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (or GAEL, as William pointed out).  The shorter explanation for this Being has him as one authorized to judge on behalf of the King:

Ja-ho-e-oop: An ambassador: one delegated with Kingly power; one authorized to execute judgement for the King; a swift messenger one whose power cannot be escaped, one next to supreme;

The judgment must be a just one, and prudent.  This will be in harmony with Jesus' words at Bountiful, where he describes this servant who he will authorize with this power:

And then shall a cry go forth: Depart ye [Israel], depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch not that which is unclean; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.

For ye shall not go out with haste nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel shall be your rearward.

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

As many were astonished at thee—his visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—

So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Daniel's last name is LaRusso, which if we take is as the Italian name it is likely meant to be, means "the Red", I think.  The Red Judge of God, is how I have it then if we put those names together.

Now, there is a better known reference to a Being dressed in Red Garments that you can find in Revelations 19.  I was going to use that one, but will instead refer to a revelation sourced to Joseph Smith and found in what is now D&C 133.  In that Section ,we have the following account of a Red Judge (starting in verse 46):

And it shall be said: Who is this that cometh down from God in heaven with dyed garments; yea, from the regions which are not known, clothed in his glorious apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?

And he shall say: I am he who spake in righteousness, mighty to save.

And the Lord shall be red in his apparel, and his garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat.

And so great shall be the glory of his presence that the sun shall hide his face in shame, and the moon shall withhold its light, and the stars shall be hurled from their places.

And his voice shall be heard: I have trodden the wine-press alone, and have brought judgment upon all people; and none were with me;

And I have trampled them in my fury, and I did tread upon them in mine anger, and their blood have I sprinkled upon my garments, and stained all my raiment; for this was the day of vengeance which was in my heart.

 

Traditionally, this Being has obviously been identified as Jesus.  In my story, however, I will suggest that we have this wrong.  It is actually the Being who is authorized to act in judgement on behalf of the King:  Ja-ho-e-oop, or Faramir-Eonwe, who is also the Holy Ghost.

So that is the Being represented by the name Daniel LaRusso, I guess.

Back to Ali, her last name is Mills.  This can stand for two things.  First, and most apparently, a Mill is something that grinds grain to be used for food.  Bread is one of the primary products using ground grain, and we have connected Eowyn with Bread in the past.  Kind of a connection there.  But Mills is also a form of the name Miles, I found out.  Miles has come up before, and is apparently a form of the name Michael.  Michael = Faramir-Eonwe in this story, and so it was interesting to note a form of that name as Ali's last name.

Anyway, at this point, all of this seems interesting, maybe or maybe not, but that is where the names took me (some of the above being some stuff I was thinking through as I was typing now).  It might get a bit more interesting, though, and I feel a bit more confident that we may be onto something, when we look at the name of the actress who plays Ali Mills.

Elisabeth Shue

The Karate Kid scene was from several weeks ago, as mentioned, and I did most of this thinking back then.  However, yesterday this scene came to me again, and I had a very clear thought to look up what the actress' name might mean.  Elisabeth Shue played the role of Ali, and I had already noticed Elisabeth.  That name, and forms of it, I have already associated with Eowyn-Ilmare, so it was obviously noticeable and seemed to fit very well with tying the character name of Ali to both Eowyn and the Ithil Stone.

At that time I had looked into Shue, but didn't remember anything special about.  Yesterday, I gave it another quick run, and determined that Shue must be the anglicized form of the German Schuh or Schue.  At least this was the general internet consensus.

That didn't really give me much, however.  A last name that means a single shoe didn't seem to clearly fit with anything, and I concluded that either I am missing something or its meaning will be apparent at some point.  I did briefly have the thought that I had just written a post that had Joseph (Eowyn-Ilmare's twin) "shoo-ing" Dairon away, so maybe that tied in, but it didn't seem very clear to me.

Enter William Tychonievich's latest poetic entry entitled Concerning Shoon.  In the first stanza, he wrote:

The Man in the Moon

Wears silver shoon,
But gold costs twice
As much. That price
Is far too high,
And that is why
The Girl in the Sun
Wears only one.

Shoon means shoes in the plural form, and he closes out this opening passage with a reference to a girl wearing only one shoe.

Now, there might be many meanings to this, and the one on my mind might not be even one of them, but my mind instantly went to Elisabeth Shue, whose name I had just looked up yesterday and was left with the riddle of what do do with the last name that meant a shoe (just a single shoe) and for which I had no really good ideas.

And by Elisabeth Shue, I mean, of course, the Being who I had been thinking was represented by her in the form of Eowyn.  In reading the line of the "Girl in the Sun", I think we might have an interesting clue verifying that this might be the right line of thinking.  I thought this next part was interesting, at least.

At the end of the LOTR, in the chapter "The Steward and the King", is the account of Eowyn and Faramir meeting at the Houses of Healing.   Eowyn's own healing would not ultimately take place until she understood her heart and decides to be married to Faramir.  That healing was described with very specific Sun imagery, and it goes like this:

Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it.  And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.

'I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,' she said, ' and behold!  the Shadow has departed!  I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, not take joy only in the songs of slaying.  I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren." And again she looked at Faramir. "No longer do I desire to be a queen," she said.

One might be in the Sun literally, or one might be in the sun as in its presence or under its shine, for instance outside, as a common English expression goes.  This is Eowyn's moment of healing, and it is all Sun imagery in highlighting this.  Further sun descriptions are used when they were said to kiss "under the sunlit sky.... and many indeed saw them and the light that shone about them as they came down from the walls and went hand in hand to the Houses of Healing."

The sun shone on Eowyn - she is 'in the sun' - and this was the beginning of a journey, at least as I see it, which would ultimately result in the present situation I believe she finds herself in now.  She wanted to be a healer, and the story that she has to share, and which she departed from our world to go and find, I guess, is what will heal us, I believe, and bring some kind of restoration and redemption.  At least that is what I imagine.

So, I am not sure exactly if that is why Elisabeth Shue's last name was something I thought to look into yesterday, but it seemed to fit with this notion of a "Girl in the Sun" wearing a single shoe, for whatever it's worth.