How does a phenomena that reaches the many reach one heart?

A song that becomes popular resonates with me so strongly that I can feel the pain or joy of that song?

A movie that thousands, hundreds of thousands and in some cases, millions of people will see brings me to tears and laughter like it was about me?

A book or series of books that hang onto the bestsellers lists makes me want an 7th sequel when it stops at the 7th book.

It’s simple really.  The reason a phenomena reaches out and affected me after it’s touched the many is because it has affected  me.  And I am more alike with someone who lives in Orange County, or the boroughs of Louisiana, or downtown Tokyo than sometimes we’d care to admit.  There’s not a lot, but there are some things that speak to us universally.  Why?

Because that’s how God made us.

Another day.  Another hollywood trailer.

I have to say that every once in a while they get it right.  Movies like Crash, Goodwill Hunting, and Blood Diamond really make a point of sharing with the viewer a story of what is, and countering what is by painting a picture of what should be, all the while staying away from shoving their one sided ideology down one’s throat.

But while watching a college football game last Saturday, I was introduced to the latest in end of the world propoganda crud by Tinseltown. (Believe me, I was just as hard on Left Behind)  Humans using great amounts of the earth’s resources, Aliens coming to earth, and of course, Keanu Reeves pronouncing that “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives.”

Great!  Thanks for the heads up Keanu.

It’s not that I don’t think this is an important enough message (though the whole end of the world stuff has got to stop, and maybe it will… someday…), but personally, the movies are a part of the problem.  Please consider this:

I decide I want to go to a movie on Friday night with my wife.   First of all we go to dinner.  Let’s say…Moe’s. We have food and drink there in the form of burritos and cokes.  Then we drive to the theater across town in Millbury.  It’s a huge complex complete with restaurants, shops, and a Yankee Candle Store.  Before we go to the movies, Carie wants to stop by and smell the candles, ultimately buying my new favorite scent, “Harvest”.  Then since she bought something, I decide I want to go to Barnes and Nobles and buy a book.  So I do.

Afterward we walk to the theater and purchase tickets to see “The day the earth stood still” a remake of a 1951 movie of the same name.  Of course, I have to get a coke and a snack in order to watch the film.  We are awed by the special effects, and Keanu’s amazing acting ability (just so you know this is a fictitious story).  Then what?  Are we going to be inspired to not spend money casually, Waste money on gas, and make wise decisions in our spending because of a film that costs millions and millions of dollars to make?  And that’s after Keanu’s already been paid for his Oscar winning performance.

In the meantime, we can buy a couple dozen magazines with the picture of Keanu on the cover and watch Keanu and his date for the evening easily spend thousands of dollars on their wardrobe at some award ceremony where all the friendly folks of Hollywood will lash out at our current president for being rich.

As Americans, I hope that we’ve learned a lesson in the last several months that will speak louder than hollywood movies.  You can see this lesson in the current gas prices.  Riches and material possessions don’t produce goodwill, but a giving, loving heart whose “back is against the wall” does,

And that’s something money can’t buy.

2 things:
I like Keanu’s movies, I just don’t think he’s a great actor.
Tomorrow I’ll hit up on the “back against the wall” concept, and why that’s so important.

You can’t handle the truth!

p.s.  a bit of swearing in this scene.

Yesterday I went with a group of guys to what one might call a “guy comedy” type movie.  Please forgive me for stereotyping this way, but really it was the exact opposite of a “chick flick” so this is the best way to express what I was seeing.  I barrelled over in laughter more than a few times during the film, and though I would not recommend it (not because it wasn’t funny), I must say it did stimulate  “an audible expression or appearance of merriment” within me.

MY FAVE LINE IN THE MOVIE:  One of the characters was singing (not very good) to the other character, and afterwards, the one who was listening says with tears in his eyes,”Your voice is the combination of Fergie and Jesus.”  The way he said it made me laugh so hard I thought something was going to pop inside of me.  I now have this as a flair on my facebook account.  Thanks Neil.

So the whole point of this post is this:  Afterwards the four guys (including me) who saw the film stepped out of the theater laughing mildly and kind of calm.  Then one of us reminds us of one of the parts of the movie, then another of us, makes a quote from the movie, and we were off!  On our way back to the car, we started laughing.  I mean rolling.  Uncontrollable laughter.  We all jumped in the car, and there was more laughter.  I couldn’t even move the car because I was afraid of getting in an accident due to the tears rolling down my face.  And when we were about to stop, we would start laughing again. 

For five full minutes, four adult men in a car parked at the local movie theater laughed loud without being able to stop. It was one of the most hilarious things that have happened to me in a long time, and I’d like to thank Brandon, Brandon, and Neil for making it all possible.

I’ve never laughed so hard in all of my life.

Also last weekend I watched a movie with the same crew that brought you this post, and the movie was “Lars and the Real Girl,” starring Ryan Gosling (the Notebook) and a few other people I don’t know very much about. 

***spoiler***

Gosling portrays a hyper-introvert small town single guy who lives in a garage apartment of the house he grew up in, while his older bother and sister-in-law live in the actual house.  ”Lars” (Gosling) rejects all attempts by his worried sister-in-law to invite him into their life.  IN fact, he rejects everyones attempts.  There’s this particularly hilarious scene where Lars is at church, and he heps this older lady carry a bouquet of flowers to her car.  During their conversation, the lady insinuates that Lars needs to find himself a girlfriend, then she gives him a flower, and tells him to give the flower to someone pretty.
Immediately as she goes to her car, this nice girl, who obviously has her eye on Lars, walks to him and says “hello Lars”.  It made me laugh when Lars throws the flower as far as he can nervously (as if the girl can’t see him), and says “Hello” back, only to turn around and run away.

This does not compare to the scene a few minutes later though when Lars receives a “visitor” as he announces to his brother and sister-in-law that he met on the internet.  Keep in mind this is not a comedy, but I laughed pretty hard during these two scenes.  The next shot shows Lars on the couch sitting next to a Manican, explaining to his family that she’s a missionary, who’s taking a break for a while.  They are particularly freaked out when he starts talking to her too, and apparently getting responses.

Soon they find themselves at the doctors office ( a setup by the family) after Lars tells them that his friend claims to be a bit ill.  The doctor, who’s actually a licensed counselor, tells his family that they have to “go with it” or else it will damage him more.

One of the amazing things about this movie (that 2 of us liked and 2 of us didn’t) was that eventually the whole small town “went with it”, and as a result, it helped Lars break away from the real problem – the lack of any intimacy he was shown as a child after his mom left him as a baby made him feel like he was “burning” anytime someone touched him as an adult.

Unless you enjoy a good thought provoking pysochological drama (not thriller), I wouldn’t recommend seeing the movie, but…

I would recommend hugging someone today.

This post was written for Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday.

I’m interested in seeing this movie.  Oh, don’t get all ticked off, I saw Fahrenheit 911 too.  It opens up today in theaters even here in Massachusetts.  I can’t believe they’re showing it here!

So check this out, and let’s allow the discussion to begin.

New fundamentalism or just good science?

   I’m off to my phone booth

 Two things I like:  Movies and TV shows filmed from different angles and viewpoints (Vantage Point & Crash) and movies and shows about men and women who have travelled this world immortally through generation and generations (Highlander & New Amsterdam).  Included in this list are movies and TV shows where someone’s super powers are the central theme of the show (Smallville & Spiderman & every other Marvel comic movie)

I’ve been thinking about why I & so many others like these projects so much, and I think I’ve come to a conclusion.  We enjoy playing God.  And these types of media are like the apple hanging from the tree, and it’s just out of our reach.  But at least we can watch.

Currently, the only person I know for sure that has the power to travel through time or to be everywhere at once or to climb tall buildings (should he choose to) is God, and it’s no secret that most of us envy, not only his position, but his abilities to “do whatever he wants.”

And we cannot.  But we wish we could.

So there’s this incredible tension that exists inside of us that cannot be quenched by the climax of a two hour flick at the theater down the street with overpriced food or the cliffhanger of 41 minutes of an episide of Lost.  The tension leaves the theater or the couch with us and stays in our minds, wishing that we too could “jump” from Main street to a Wall Street bank or that a plane crash survival was possible because being “lost” on a deserted island with Jack, Kate, or Sawyer couldn’t be all bad, right?

The only thing I know for sure is this:  That humankind, if given the opportunity for any of these types of God-like gifts, would more than likely ruin itself altogether if we had them.  Look what we’ve done with what we have.

This has been a thought I’ve had for “Watercooler Wednesday”  with Randy Elrod.

Until next time…