Authenticity Redux
I've written on Authenticity before.
I feel that the church is missing that a lot of times. This isn't a pointing of fingers either, I'm part of the problem as well. There's something about Church and being around other religious people that makes me afraid to open up. It's as if my salvation depends on the validation of the people around me rather than on God.
My Dad was talking to me recently about how he had visited one of the older people's Sunday morning classes. I guess he was expecting little drops of wisdom from them. His thinking was that they'd lived life longer, had more experience, so they must be wiser. Unfortunately, all he heard throughout the whole class was canned responses. There may have been correct doctrine, but it was separated from feeling and experience.
The Bag Chase
This is a film I did Junior year of high school. My dad's been hounding me to get him a copy of it, so here it is. I really enjoyed making it.
Bringing Up Baby Review
"Bringing Up Baby" is a screwball comedy that features Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Screwball comedies thrive on situational and physical comedy, a quality which has endeared me to the genre since I first came into contact with it. Mistaken identities, ridiculous chase scenes, and outrageous characters are all a staple.
That's no less the case here. Cary Grant plays a timid and nerdy scientist, David, who has spent the last four years working on the reconstruction of a brontosaurus skeleton and is engaged to his co-worker (who views their future marriage as an extension of David's committment to his work).
Katherine Hepburn plays an eccentric woman, Susan, who always seems to mistake other people's things for her own. She and Grant meet in a hilarious manner on a golf course and soon enough they're both entangled in a situation with a tame leapord named "baby". This all leads to a highly entertaining and ridiculous moment in the city jail that involves a hilarious exchange of misinformation.
Grant does a good job of playing the straightman. Hepburn however, steals the show. She expertly deals out fast paced dialogue and double entendre's with a crazy sense of charm that seems uncharacteristic of other more glamerous roles I've seen her in.
Despite the skill displayed by the actors the romantic ending seems far too contrived. In the superior, "It Happened One Night", sexual tension was a major underlying factor in much of the conflict. That's not the case in "Baby". Rather, David spends most of the picture irritated and annoyed with Susan, which causes his declarations of love at the end of the picture to seem tacked on rather than a natural result of the preceding events. Indeed I feel that the film would have been stronger had it ended with Susan's infatuation being unreciprocated.
Despite this major fault in the picture, it's still well worth seeing just for Hepburn's performance and the great use of situational and physical comedy. Just don't expect it to stick.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Q17fepYdU&feature=related]
Help A Friend Out
I have a friend who is trying to raise money for her mission trip to Rwanda. You can visit her site here.
Any small amount will help or at least pass this along to someone who can donate something. Also prayer helps.
Also if you're interested in film projects you should check out this site. It's a film student who did a documentary on the great Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (who is now deceased). He interviewed friends, family, actors and collaberators in an attempt to come to a better understanding of the man and his philosphies.
Please don't view any of this as a guilt trip. If you feel compelled to give to either of these projects though, it would be greatly appreciated.
Adventures in Garland (Miscellenia)
I've been having a dry spell in blogging lately, mostly due to my class I was taking at El Centro.
This past weekend has been awesome. My cousin and his family came down for my sister's graduation and stayed down here for the weekend. We've been in drain pipes, under bridges, everywhere I can think of in Dallas. I'll be posting pics up later. Here's some stuff to whet your appetite.
I just finished Lauren F. Winner's book, Muddhouse Sabbath. Winner is a Christian who converted from Orthodox Judiasm, so her books always have a unique perspective on living out the Christian life. This book on spiritual disciplines takes a look at both Jewish and Christian traditions and how lessons from them can be applied to a person's personal spiritual life.
As someone who's really bad at praying, fasting, tithing, and generally everything else, I could use a little more of this in my daily life. This book makes helpful suggestions and does a good job of motivating and encouraging the reader to take on spiritual disciplines as a way of enhancing one's life (not as a means of salvation). It's a short read and a good one. You don't have an excuse not to check it out.
Blankets
Blankets thrown on a couch
lumps stir beneath
a foot here, an elbow there
giggles and shouts
"You're tickling me!"
"Get your foot out of my mouth!"
A bright red face emerges out into the open,
To gasp for air before diving back beneath the layers.
Knees and foreheads bump together.
Love is weird
Puddle of Lemon Juice
Sometimes life just keeps chunking lemons at you but you don't have any sugar or even a pitcher. You do the best you can, but your best just leaves you standing in a puddle of lemon juice. Then at the end of the day you just shrug it off and go grab a burger and a coke. That's kind of what today was like.
Scientific Proof that Prayer and Meditation is Good for You
I was listening to NPR today and this little nugget of a story came up. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104310443 Basically they scanned very religious people's brains while they were praying. Apparently those who set aside time for prayer on a consistent basis become more compassionate and even have better immune systems. interesting quotes from the article
- "You can sculpt your brain just as you'd sculpt your muscles if you went to the gym," he says. "Our brains are continuously being sculpted, whether you like it or not, wittingly or unwittingly."
- "It's called neuroplasticity. For years Davidson, who is at the University of Wisconsin, has scanned the brains of Buddhist monks who have logged years of meditation. When it comes to things like attention and compassion, their brains are as finely tuned as a late-model Porsche."
- "Just two months' practice among rank amateurs led to a systematic change in both the brain as well as the immune system in more positive directions,"
Little Girl
I see you little girl,
Shrinking away from bright smiles and warm embraces.
The glint of suspicion in your eyes.
A pad of paper and pencil clutched to your breast.
A portal to imaginary friends,
the only kind to be trusted.
I know why you are afraid.
The sins of the father unjustly forced upon the daughter.
Will this cycle ever end?
Memories
I remember there was this one girl named Sarah in first grade who liked me. She would chase me on the playground and try and give me kisses. On the playground we had these huge tires that were half burried in the ground. You could hide inside them. One time Sarah ended up cornering me in the tire and planted a kiss on my cheek. I wasn't really interested in her though. Instead I thought another girl was really cute. I don't even remember her name. I think it started with a K. She ended up moving away.
I got into the only thing I would ever consider a fight because of Sarah. Some guys were being really mean to her and it made me mad. This was during P.E. when we were running laps. Everyone had paper cards that they got hole punched for every lap completed. I walked over to one of the boys and initiated some shoving. Then he tore my card up. I tore his card up too. We couldn't very well run laps without getting our cards punched, so we proceeded to go tell on each other to the coach. We both got punished (time out during recess I think).
I used to be a pretty loud and obnoxious kid. I wasn't afraid to speak my mind. I thought I was the smartest kid there was. I always tried to answer the questions the teachers in class asked.
Then something happened around middle school. I became more reserved. I became almost afraid to speak up in class. My grades started slipping. I began to lose confidence in myself. My dad mentions this every now and then. He talks about how much I changed in that time period. I think he's saddened by how I changed. You can tell in the tone of his voice when he mentions it. He used to say that he never knows what I'm thinking or feeling.
He says that he's noticed how much I've changed since I've been to college too. He seems to think that I've changed for the better somehow. I don't get it really. I mean sure I've grown in some ways, but I don't feel like I've taken a new direction or anything. Sometimes I wish I could have glimpses of how other people see me. I feel like there's a disconnect between how I see myself and how other people see me. Maybe that's part of why we need relationships, so we can get a clearer picture of who we are.