Desmond Hume.  Desmond is my second favorite character, second to Jack.  Desmond is great.  In many ways, he is the exact opposite of Jack.  Think about the situation in the stadium.  Desmond asked him what happens if you fix the woman?  Referring to Sarah, which was supposedly an impossible surgery.  Jack responded, “Well that would be a miracle, brother.”  And Desmond said, “And you don’t believe in miracles?”  And Jack responded negatively.  So that situation tells us that Desmond believes in miracles, at least a little bit.  Probably because of the call he felt he had on his life, to become a monk.  We see him indulge in alcohol a great deal, but this is due to the fact that he is stuck on the island, in a “bloody snow globe,” as he called it.  His ability to see the future is also very interesting.  We see him prevent Charlie’s death numerous times, until the unfortunate season three finale.

I think the island taught Desmond what was most important to him, which was Penelope.  We see that he left his life to enter this race around the world, to impress her father.  Well he gets stuck on this island as a result, and comes to realize what the important things in life are.  We see Desmond accidentally kill Kelvin, and you could tell he was upset that he had.  I’m sure that completely changes you, after killing someone.  He chased Kelvin outside and followed him to find that he was repairing Desmond’s boat, in an attempt to leave.  He let the countdown timer run down to zero, consequently building up an electromagnetic charge, causing Oceanic Flight 815 to crash.  That is so amazing to me.

If I had to describe Desmond with one word, it would be persistent.  We see him almost allow Charlie to die, simply because he believes he can find Penny.  That is pretty dedicated.  He is a very good guy though, and we see him help out a great deal.  He is very caring too.  If you remember the season three finale, he intended to go down to the looking glass in Charlie’s place.  That is a very courageous thing to do, simply because he knew Charlie was going to die.  It takes a very good person to do something like that.

I think we can learn from the character Desmond, to realize what is truly important in our lives.  Sometimes it’s hard to see the whole picture, and Desmond had a problem doing so with the Penny situation.  He was so hurt by what her father said, he couldn’t see clearly about what he needed to do with Penny.  But it’s also arguable that he didn’t marry her because he was afraid, as the old lady in the watch shop says.  In life, we have to go after what we want, regardless of what others say, and do what we believe is right.