Sob & Circumstance

Emily graduated from kindergarten last week.  She was in the half-day program at Calvary Baptist Day School, taught by Mrs. Kistemaker (gracious, i don’t even know her first name).

Before the graduation ceremonies started, I heard a few of the moms in the audience assure each other that they had enough Kleenex.  That made me silently scoff, with a little hmpf sniff accompanied by a smile, since i found it funny in “isn’t that precious” sort of way.  I mean, it’s just kindergarten, for crying out loud.  It’s not like the tykes are heading off to college.

About one minute into the program, and i’m wishing i had my own Kleenex.  What did i know?

For me (and i think Julie had a similar reaction), it was watching Emily sing that first song with such confidence and gusto.  We’ve never seen that from her before in any sort of public setting (she’s always been very confident at home).  She also sang with enormous heart, giving you a glimpse into a future filled with love for God, and a quiet tenderness for people (other than her brother).

And when you think back to the beginning of the school year, when we were still a bit worried about whether she would even talk in class, much less sing-out in a public performance, you are floored by her progress.  You are pleased you selected this kindergarten for her.  You are so proud of how she has matured, how she is now showing the world what you knew was there all along.

It also hits you how quickly she is growing up.  And how you don’t feel ready for it.  Like a train leaving the station, and you’re still packing your suitcase.

Sports-O-Rama

We're having our own little Olympiad here at the Scott household, it seems, with each of the kids involved in a Spring sports league.  Almost every night, we're running around from one locale to the other, juggling who goes where and when, with which parent.  It's a regular Ops Mgt problem, that could be studied by leading MBA schools.

Caroline is playing fast-pitch softball (girls 13-15) in the Northwest Forsyth Little League organization, on a team called the Roadsters.  This is her first time ever playing softball, and she is just about the youngest one in the whole league, making it quite the learning experience.  The Roadsters are a pretty good team, and the girls are very gracious and encouraging with Caroline's learning curve.

Emily plays T-ball in the same place, on a team called the Reds.  It's for 5&6 year olds, and is not the same T-ball that i remember from my youth.  Not sure if it is because of the young ages, or creeping PC nonsense, but they have a bunch of don't-compete-just-have-fun rules.  One base at a time.  Everybody bats every inning.  Stuff like that.  I don't really have a problem with it, though, assuming it is an age-thing.  Emily is very good at the defensive "ready position", but is still working on that whole deal of catching the ball.

Jackson, meanwhile, is playing indoor soccer for 3&4 year olds, downtown at the YMCA.  (A friend of mine calls it "beehive soccer", aptly describing how it looks, as all the kids hoover around the ball.)  They don't keep score, but just go out & have fun & run around.  Main point is to get some exercise, and learn how to be part of a team.  Jackson's team is the Blue Whales.

For Mom & Dad, aka the Chauffeurs, we trade off on who goes to the ballfields, and who goes to the Y, as it seems that the games & practices are always at the same time. 

We all usually end up at the ballfields, though, a place where Dad finds great enjoyment.  I could spend every nice evening out there, not only watching my own kids play, but taking in games with the Coach-Pitch youngsters, or real Little Leaguers.  The combination of fond memories of my own childhood, and the purity of the game of baseball, makes for a place and time that just feels right.

Unlikely Father/Daughter Bonding

How's an old fogey like me going to relate to a young lady of 12 going on 16, even when that beautiful young lady is my daughter?  Well, sometimes, Grace comes in the oddest of forms.

Caroline & i have formed a bond watching the old Dick Van Dyke Show.  I picked up the DVD set of the first season, and we have been enjoying those earliest episodes (from 1961) of that great sitcom.  I think it's just about the most underrated sitcom in TV history.  One of the 10 best shows ever on TV, of any genre.

Anyhow, father & daughter find we can laugh at the same jokes.  The DVD Show has just enough edge to be cool enough for a pre-teen, enough wit to appease and please the dad, enough camp and pratfall humor for both of us, and the right measure of cleanliness so nobody gets uncomfortable and turns the channel.

A few of our favorites so far...

Laura thinks Rob takes her for granted, so she dyes her hair blond

Rob feels guilty when he misses Ritchie's school play -- this is Emily & Jack's (they're always a pair, huh?) favorite so far

Rob & Laura remember the night they first met

Reaction to The Passion

In my previous entry, i mentioned that the brutality of The Passion movie was not as bad as i expected.  I was further surprised by my reactions to all the physical pain that Jesus endured.  While it saddened me to see Jesus beaten, scourged, demeaned, and ultimately sadistically crucified, i was not moved to tears.  I didn't get mad, angry, want to fight back.  I don't admit that proudly nor with shame -- it just is. 

Perhaps my reaction is a function of being so familiar with the story, down to the gory details.  Having heard many sermons over the years that go into excruciating detail of what happened on Good Friday, expounded with excellent rhetorical and emotional manipulation (i mean that in the best way -- really).  I mean, since i was a kid, i've known about the nail holes, about the spear-piercing (although i never pictured it like Gibson shows), about being severely whipped (must admit that one particular scourge-blow made me gasp), about the crown of thorns.  And not just "knowledge", but skillful preachers have put me there on the scene.  Mel Gibson's movie just put the vivid pictures in my head up on the big screen.

Still, i found it strange, my reaction, because i fully expected to be nauseous, or sobbing, or both.

Instead, i was most moved by the scenes with Mary.  Starting when John bursts into the home where Mary was the night of Jesus' arrest, and gives her the news.  And continuing through pretty much every scene she's in, particularly as she watches the scourging.  And when she finds a way to get close to Jesus as He carries the cross, and stoops to comfort him.  As she watches her son die.  As she kisses his bloody feet.

My reaction to Mary brought to mind what i found to be a general reaction to the movie.  I found myself with an increased understanding of and appreciation for the spiritual predilections of Catholics.  Not to worship Mary by any means, but to revere her.  Also, a desire to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (the Eucharist for Catholics) way more often than the quarterly-or-so frequency of most Baptist congregations. 

And an odd fondness for relics, prompted by seeing the crown of thorns in the dirt toward the end of the movie, and wanting a piece of it.  Just to touch it, or to touch the stones along the Via Dolorosa -- anything to get closer to the Christ who died for me.  To have something to hold, something tangible, to clutch it tightly.  Likewise, I finally gained an understanding of those who make pilgrimages to the Holy Land.  My thoughts have always been "i have Jesus in my heart, why do i need to go to Jerusalem?"  But now i get it.

Those are my emotional and sociological reactions.  Theologically, no new great insights.  Just a needed reminder of what is most important in life.  And another reminder of the folly of most doctrinal disputes.  When we can't even master the basic tenets of loving God and our neighbors, why should we arrogantly argue about the relatively trivial?

P.S.  I read an excellent article and review of The Passion in First Things.  Check it out.

Finally Saw The Passion

I finally saw The Passion of the Christ movie this week.  Let me say upfront, in short, all the hype is deserved, and almost none of the criticism is valid. 

From a pure film aesthetic standpoint, this is a fantastic movie, and a marvelous achievement overall.  The Passion is an Oscar-caliber film.  Not that i think it will happen, but it deserves nominations for both Best Picture and Best Director.  It is a better film than at least half of the Oscar winners just in the last decade -- Chicago (03), Gladiator (01), Shakespeare in Love (99), Titanic (97), English Patient (96).

I would also nominate Maia Morgenstern for Best Supporting Actress (the Academy will concur, i predict).  She gives a remarkable performance as Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

As for the invalid criticism, the anti-Semitism angle is ridiculous.  In fact, i felt that Gibson went out of his way to show just the opposite.  Then you have the words of Jesus himself, in one of the flashbacks, where He explains to his disciples that He lays down His life willingly.  It is also very clear that, as believers already know, the crucifixion was God's plan all along.

Sure, the Roman soldiers were the proximate cause of Jesus' death, and sure, it was clearly the Jewish Sanhedrin leaders who gave Him up to the Romans.  But as we have been taught, Jesus died for each of us, and so it was my sins, your sins that put Him on that cross.  Blame extends no further than the face in the mirror.

But back to the film...  i was very impressed with how Gibson combined fidelity to scripture with artistic imaginings.  I thought the scenes with Peter were great.  The scenes with Judas were great.  The scenes with Satan are wonderfully imagined and depicted. 

The flashback scenes were more plentiful than reviewers had led me to believe -- there's plenty in there about the ministry and message of Jesus.  I especially liked the flashbacks that included Mary, with the best one being her interplay with an adult Jesus, as He crafts a "tall table".

The gore and brutality were not as dominating as i expected, however.  The scourging scene is long because the scouring itself was long.  Besides, Gibson doesn't show every blow (he shows enough) head-on; for some, he shows us Mary's face.  That doesn't lessen the impact, though, as i found it more difficult to watch her watch it.

I'll say more later about my reactions to the movie, but let me close this entry by saying:  Go see this film!  See it at the theater to get the full effect.  Don't let any of the misguided criticism dissuade you from seeing it, or from persuading friends and family to go see it, even if they are not believers.

Final Four

My Final Four picks for 2004 are Duke (surprise), Oklahoma State (hey to the F-I-L), Kentucky, and Connecticut.  Duke beats OSU (sorry, Jerry) for the championship.

Top 10 Reasons Not to See The Passion

/sarcasm on/

 

Top 10 Reasons You Should Not See The Passion

1. Anti-Semitic
2. Too violent
3. Doesn't focus on Jesus' message
4. Too little of the resurrection
5. Too out-there version of Catholicism
6. Not good stewardship of your $ to see a movie
7. Too close to the Gospel account
8. Strays too far from the Gospel account
9. Mel’s just trying to make gobs of $
10. The actor who plays Jesus is too white and American

/sarcasm off/

All the Reasons Not to See The Passion

It's been hilarious tracking all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's film about the crucifixion of Jesus.  For several months leading up to the film's release, all we heard about was the criticism that it was anti-Semitic, and would foster hatred toward modern-day Jews.

 

After preview showings, most media and Christian leaders found the original criticism way overblown.  So, the media & Christ-critics had to find other ways to lambaste the movie.  Herein, I present the:

 

Top 10 Reasons You Should Not See The Passion

[See next journal entry for top 10 list]

 

But, of course, as NewSong sang, you can't keep a good man down.  Heartland Americans are not seeing this movie to the tune of $240 million and counting.

 

And we are reminded of the scripture in 1st Corinthians 2:14, "the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."  Or same book, chapter 1, verse 23:  "but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness."

What a Difference a Month Makes

They say that March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.  But February 2004 came in like a black-breasted buzzard, and went out like the Jacana. 

 

Or, abandoning the animal-theme, February came in with the elites firmly in charge of the culture, not giving one whit about things most important to you and me.  A culture where major American institutions like the NFL and CBS thought nothing of putting on a sex-laden show at the Super Bowl halftime -- and that was before the so-called wardrobe malfunction.

 

But February went out with the bloodied face of a cinematic Christ, somehow forgiving his executioners.  And the solemn faces of true believer movie-goers, in one sold-out theater after another, propelling The Passion of the Christ to blockbuster status.

 

America is hungry for change.  Change in our culture.  Change in our hearts.  And in the shortest month (the extra leap-year day wasn't even needed), America served notice that change is in the air.

Sneak Attack in the Culture Wars, Part II

Well, all they’ve done is awaken the forces, strengthened our resolve.  Enough was finally enough.  Finally.  When the other guy throws a grenade in your living room, staying on the sidelines is no longer an option.

 

The counter-punches were swift and strong, as the Heartland rose up in indignation.  Perhaps you wrote a protest letter for the first time in years, if not ever.  The NFL & CBS couldn’t apologize profusely enough (whether sincere or not).  The FCC kicked into gear.  The silent majority made an impact, because they finally spoke up.

 

The tide was already starting to turn in the Culture Wars (more on this later), but the debacle of Janet & Justin will prove to be the tipping point that leads to committed mobilization of the great mass of troops on the other side.  Hang on to your proverbial muskets, be minuteman-ready, keep your powder dry, and don’t shy away from the battle.