A New Look at an Old Movie

Patrick Deneen has a really interesting take on It's a Wonderful Life over at What I Saw in America. He argues that George Bailey really hated the town that ultimately saved him and that his actions of building a new suburb for low income families also worked to undermine the community that came to his rescue. It is a very interesting critique of one of my favourite Christmas movies and fits my views of the suburbs (sorry Jane!).

Turner and Communitas

Victor Turner wrote extensively about the way in which pilgrimage meant stepping out of regular structures producing a sense of communitas between pilgrims. Communitas is a kind of egalitarian community that occurs when the normal ways of relating including authority structures etc are suspended.

We experienced a little communitas this morning at Ascension when we arrived to discovered the batteries in the thermostat were dead and the furnace in the church hadn't been on for some time. It was icy cold so we moved the service into the hall. The whole feeling of the service changed with people sitting around the tables in a rather oddly shaped circle. People spoke back in the service and everyone seemed in great spirits as we moved books and brought in candles and improvised an altar. What fun!

Great Movie

I just got home from seeing August Rush and it was wonderful. It is a fairy tale - you have to accept that or it will just seem schlocky. It is the fairy tale of a boy separated from his parents at birth who has a gift that will reunite them despite many obstacles. And the music is great.

Bad and Good Movies

Superbad is just that, super bad. It got great reviews, 'it has heart,' 'it is crude but funny.' Well I watched 15 mins and never got to funny, just crude and decided life is too short and turned it off. The Simpsons movie on the other hand is funny...Spiderpig, spiderpig does what ever a spider can...

Oh my goodness

This is what has happened in the last hour!

Golden Compass

I went and saw The Golden Compass a couple of nights ago with a friend. As an escapist movie at the end of a very busy few weeks it was fun. There's all sorts of controversy around the movie and the novel it is based on because the author Pullman is an atheist and the bad guys in his novels are 'the Church', renamed 'the magisterium' in the movie.

I think that it is unfortunately that one Roman Catholic school board has responded to the books by banning them and in doing so have acted exactly as Pullman expects. For the most part I suspect that most readers won't realize that Pullman has a (anti)theological point of view. I have a friend who has taught The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for years and only recently realized that the novel is a Christian allegory.

So I don't think Christians should boycott the movie - see it and talk about it. But pay close attention to what is said about freedom. The underlying message is that freedom is more important than anything else and freedom for Pullman means freedom from any authority, constraint or tradition. At several points in the movie the words, 'freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...' ran through my mind. It is questionable whether such freedom is possible never mind desirable.

At the same time, the suggestion that our souls walk beside us as daemons in animal form was really appealing to me...especially as Robbie struggles with another bout of congestive heart failure.

Sleep deprivation

The last few weeks have been crazy busy with work and even one or two social engagements for the Christmas season so I haven't been getting much sleep. Add to that, Robbie has a throat infection happening again and has woken me up some nights coughing.

So last night, after a very busy weekend with the pageant and two baptisms and book study I went to bed at 8:00 pm. Since I normally go to bed around 1:00 am this was a big deal. Unfortunately Robbie didn't get with the programme and he woke me up at 9:30 to go out, 11:30 for a treat and water, and 5:00 am to cough. Sigh. It was a long sleep over all but in individual pieces it was actually just a bunch of short sleeps.

Today some volunteers and I are going to spend a lot of money donated by the good folks at McKillop United to put together hampers for needy students. I love this time of year. I'm always exhausted but it is fun. Come Wednesday though I'm done except for two services and some parish visiting until the 2nd of January!!! Yeah!