Good, Good Father, We are All Rickey-Bobby ~January 2022

 I watch a lot of movies. I'd like to say, 'up until the last few years,' but that's not true at all. I've curbed somewhat, due to the ever-increasing slouch towards Gomorrah in the ever more-so reality reflecting nature of our Hollywood film industry. But truth be told, I still watch a lot of movies. 

 I privately recommend movies all the time. They are usually older (read 1990-2010) that a friend somehow missed. I tell them, 'It's good. All the usual disclaimers. There's a message worth wading through -insert inappropriate content-. '  

Recently someone mentioned the predicative style of television that has become popular.  Have you seen it? Like it's eerily so close to reality, you can't believe it? Yes, that's a thing. It's a type of conditioning I believe the writer, Ray Bradberry, author of Farenheit 451 could have explored so well. And yes, I've seen that movie too.

A dear friend to me, known most pleasantly through social media and our kindred love for The Close Reads Podcasters and all things Circe Institute, agreed with me on my ardor for the new 'All Creatures Great And Small,' shown through PBS channels, through local state support and also a Prime offering.  She mentioned, 'It's literally the best thing on television right now. Such a timely piece of beauty.' She's not wrong. In fact, it is a quiet glimpse of heaven. You know, those glimpses we see, of reconciliation, even in loss and reality. The newer version has found perfection in the actress who plays, 'Helen Alderson.' I literally wept at times watching her interactions within moments of the story's  various well known arcs and moments of denoument. I don't even mind some of the liberties taken that may differ from the book, or from the original made-for -television series. The cinematic details of contrasting color are perfection. The impact of the landscape of the English countryside-incomparable. Even if you can't understand a single thing they say due to the character's heavy accents- watch it. I whole-heartedly recommend it. 

I'm reminded about all of the natural aspects of life and could easily meander far off my original intended thoughts thinking about Tristan's chickens, how much I want sheep, and how much I want Irish leather boots. But my real life in my rural-suburban home shocks me back into the version of modern reality in which I live. 

I turn to another movie recommended to me by a trusted source. I know I'll be watching on my own, as Eric is not enjoying watching movies like he once did, for a myriad of reasons. So I catch it in parts, but it does not disappoint. 'Collateral Beauty,' in fact, breaks me out of a rut of thinking, providing layered main characters, all with a variety of increasingly familiar life events and challenges. I relate. I connect. Internally I ask myself the same questions these actors ask others and themselves and find myself not blindsided with unrelatable far-fetched and highly unlikely plot or resolution. The beauty of story has captured me, exercised my imagination and I have connected with humanity, God's most precious creation, once again. 

It is not a perfectly 'kosher' movie.  There are 'angel type' representations, yet there is limited implied or explicit mention of God, or even a higher power.  Honestly, I can't remember. I'll watch this one again, so I'll be able to see more detail the writers offered. My eye was on the people: their circumstances, their uniqueness, their similarities, their differences. The actors themselves have news-noted opinions and influence, and this is an added layer of bringing humanity closer together. To date, in the most recent 'Close Read's' Podcast about the current collective read, David Kern, also a film guru, indicates the layer of interest brought by having a well-known actor play a particular part such as Gal Gadot, playing the movie-star role in the upcoming remake of  'Death on the Nile,' by Agatha Christie. Times have changed, and within roles's like this, Kern indicates the nuances of modernity and current culture find their footing through her former roles, such as 'Wonder Woman.' Not to mention she has a well-known military career. 

The Christian will often embrace the ideology of 'in the world- not of the world.'  Across the Christian spectrum of conservativism and liberal thought and denomination of faith, you will find many caveats, places where people, like me, give allowances, disclaimers, reasons, for taking note or participating in elements of culture that may not look like what you or I believe a Christian would, or should, appreciate, or to which one might give note. One might say, no not me, but then we find ourselves allowing entertainment or elements of culture to influence or embed right into our lives, as if it was sent in an email straight from the Creator. 

We get to choose where we turn our gaze. And occasionally, there is nowhere else to look but within a broken culture, and find others living in a broken culture, with their unique and layered disclaimers. While I may hold onto my tokens and icons of my faith, another does also. But their tokens and phoenix-like stories do not resemble mine. Alignment leads to realignment, because ultimately we wish to be connected to people, to humanity, to others who participate in the goings on of God's most unique creation. We find our self quoting Rickey Bobby, about 'little baby Jesus.' 

Maybe, maybe the noise of the realignment will become so deafening, so numbing, so awkwardly painful, we will seek higher, more holy, Divine,  Truly Divine Intervention. 

Maybe. 

Let it be so,, Good, Good Father.