Long time no post, blog!
I'm watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving a day late and I don't care. While I don't think the Thanksgiving special is as good as the Great Pumpkin or the amazing Christmas special, the Thanksgiving one has its own set of joys. It has the usual Snoopy antics, the consistent worry of Charlie Brown, and the fun of characters like Peppermint Patty ("We'll keep these intimate feelings between us, Chuck"), Lucy (Always the trickster), and Marcy ("What do you think, sir?") Ever since I was young, I've loved the Charlie Brown holiday trilogy and I hope my love for it remains for the rest of my life.
Something Lucy says early on in the special got me thinking. The quote of the blog post refers to the proposed tradition of kicking the football before every Thanksgiving, which Charlie Brown believes and of which suffers the consequences. But what got me thinking is how things change and stay the same, almost always simultaneously. For example, holidays always look and feel different for different individuals, but it seems there are always consistent feelings toward the holiday season. Some people get all excited and happy during the season, while others are prone towards loneliness and alienation. It makes me think of a quote from the film Enemy at the Gates, "We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there's always something to envy, a smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love." I think that the holiday season brings about rich and poor in immaterial ways. Some people are rich in love, with families and friends surrounding them. Others are poor in love, feeling little to no community or warmth from those around them. I think our response to this should be two-fold. I think everyone ought to examine their own life in order to recognize the richness and poorness around them. Maybe you're feeling lonely because you don't have any significant other. Maybe that person you care for doesn't care back. Maybe someone in your family died recently. Maybe everything is going really great for you and you have an abundance of joy. Maybe you won't shed a single tear of sorrow this December. Regardless, I think it wise if we all remember to count the joys in our lives and also be mindful of the pain around us. Ultimately, I think Marcy sums it up well:
"Thanksgiving is more than eating, Chuck...we should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by 'thanksgiving.'"
Friday, November 28, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Archipelago
Welcome 2014!
Anyway, I'm rewatching a movie called The Descendants. It's a movie about a father trying to handle his family situation dealing with the recent tragedy of his wife being in a coma following a boating accident, all the while dealing with two daughters he is not very close with. To further complicate things, he finds out his wife will not recover and in addition she was having an affair before the accident. All-in-all, it's a pretty good commentary on family and life. George Clooney plays the father and does it all, and his children do a good job of portraying the realistic difficulties of family life. All this, shot in the rarely-used backdrop of the Hawaiian islands.
There are two things that stand out to me in this movie. The first is the examination of family. Early on, Clooney's character describes his family, "A family seems exactly like an archipelago. All part of the same whole, but still separate and alone and always drifting slowly apart." I think this quote is very reflective of the culture we live in. Media dominates all of our lives and with the growth of cell phones, personal screens becoming escape routes from dealing with real life situation. I think there is a growing longing to return to older times, times not filled with images and flashing lights but defined by conversation, relationships, and community. Throughout the movie, the family first shows this separation very well and then slowly brings them together in the necessary community of family. And I think it is necessary, which brings me to the second thing that stood out to me. In an emotional scene with his wife after finding out both that she will die and that she was unfaithful, Clooney's character states, "Isn't the idea of marriage to make your partner's way in life a little easier? For me it was always harder with you." In a lot of the recent weddings I've attended (mostly very Christian), there has been multiple instances of "maintaining your marriage as the primary relationship in your home." I think this is very much a necessary statement to make. This has obviously been a difficulty since the Garden of Eden, but it is such a prevalent issue in modern times. Most often couples focus their attention and affections on the children, or on work, or on home life. It's no wonder divorces are so prevalent these days. Marriage has become so outside focused that often couples grow distant from each other. In The Descendants, Clooney's character focuses on his law practice more than on cultivating his marriage or raising his daughters. Not to say that it's not his wife's fault for her adultery, 'cause she made the choice, but the husband is never blameless in marital infidelity.
At this point, I want to return my focus to the movie and so I will end here.
Anyway, I'm rewatching a movie called The Descendants. It's a movie about a father trying to handle his family situation dealing with the recent tragedy of his wife being in a coma following a boating accident, all the while dealing with two daughters he is not very close with. To further complicate things, he finds out his wife will not recover and in addition she was having an affair before the accident. All-in-all, it's a pretty good commentary on family and life. George Clooney plays the father and does it all, and his children do a good job of portraying the realistic difficulties of family life. All this, shot in the rarely-used backdrop of the Hawaiian islands.
There are two things that stand out to me in this movie. The first is the examination of family. Early on, Clooney's character describes his family, "A family seems exactly like an archipelago. All part of the same whole, but still separate and alone and always drifting slowly apart." I think this quote is very reflective of the culture we live in. Media dominates all of our lives and with the growth of cell phones, personal screens becoming escape routes from dealing with real life situation. I think there is a growing longing to return to older times, times not filled with images and flashing lights but defined by conversation, relationships, and community. Throughout the movie, the family first shows this separation very well and then slowly brings them together in the necessary community of family. And I think it is necessary, which brings me to the second thing that stood out to me. In an emotional scene with his wife after finding out both that she will die and that she was unfaithful, Clooney's character states, "Isn't the idea of marriage to make your partner's way in life a little easier? For me it was always harder with you." In a lot of the recent weddings I've attended (mostly very Christian), there has been multiple instances of "maintaining your marriage as the primary relationship in your home." I think this is very much a necessary statement to make. This has obviously been a difficulty since the Garden of Eden, but it is such a prevalent issue in modern times. Most often couples focus their attention and affections on the children, or on work, or on home life. It's no wonder divorces are so prevalent these days. Marriage has become so outside focused that often couples grow distant from each other. In The Descendants, Clooney's character focuses on his law practice more than on cultivating his marriage or raising his daughters. Not to say that it's not his wife's fault for her adultery, 'cause she made the choice, but the husband is never blameless in marital infidelity.
At this point, I want to return my focus to the movie and so I will end here.
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