Campaign flyer

For whatever reason, people think it's time to waste money and start trying to garner votes for November. I mean, yes, campaign season is warming up, but I hate it so much.

Campaign flyers come to our mailbox, and I think they follow a template. I'm sure both parties have the same template; it doesn't matter who.

They read something like this (always accompanied by a shot of the family, and especially grandchildren if possible):
Proven results!
Effective leadership!

Then for the Republican flyers, they proceed to say, "Down with big government! Lower taxes!" Since it's primary season, the Democrats aren't paying attention to these flyers. If they were, they'd say, "What the f*** are they talking about!" But they would still talk about their proven leadership or something.

If these people think that platitudes gain votes, it makes me shiver. Doesn't anyone see there's nothing substantive going on here? Cake's wacky morning DJ deservers more credit than I ever gave him for saying "Democracy's a joke."

I guess what I'm reacting to is that we don't have real options. The more shrill the parties get, the more I realize what distinguishes them is how loud they shout catchphrases. When it comes down to votes, the only thing that matters to most is money. I have to give it to them though, they do seem committed about the abortion debate. You could take a vote on something abortion related every week, and you'd get actual opinions coming out. But when it comes time to vote on spending, everyone has to protect their constituency regardless of whether they hate ballooning spending.

Okay, I'm done. I need to study.

G8 summit

I was just talking with a co-worker about the Netherlands–Brazil match, clarifying whether it was in the quarterfinals or semifinals. He said, "Well, it's the group of eight, so yes, quarterfinals." To which I commented, "So the World Cup is like the G8 Summit for Third World countries."

Insensitive, maybe, but the World Cup is truly a place where a nation can invest merely millions of dollars and gain a high profile on the world stage. The other G8, your GDP has to be in the hundreds of billions or trillions.

Cash

If you're promised some money, is it called a financée?

Destiny

I've not posted in an inordinately long while. I'll write about that in another post.

It seemed appropriate to talk about destiny in my 200th post.

I'm discussing historic America with a co-worker, and I discovered that the best question to ask our fervent founding fathers would be "Can I see the shipping manifest to find out where your destiny came from?"

To be reconciled

The cross for Christians is often a symbol of atonement. It’s the means whereby people are reconciled with God through the shedding of blood. It’s a beautiful event full of implications for today and the age to come. But honestly, it can be a bit hard to grasp why it had to happen and how it worked.

Thao and Sue are young and bright. They need a bit of direction, but otherwise they are on their way to good lives. However, they live in a gang-ridden neighborhood, which almost guarantees they won’t arrive at the good life in one piece.

Don Miller—a foremost advocate of story and how we each need to be a part of one—offers this succinct definition of story: “A Character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.”

Gran Torino points toward the future and “getting it” for Thao and Sue. But the key character in the story, Walt, is seeking his own atonement: reconciliation with himself and peace in his soul from the demons of war. In the process of connecting with his new Hmong neighbors, the trenchant racist Walt finds his elusive peace and helps them overcome the conflict, almost against their wishes. It is obvious that they won’t be able to do so themselves. This variation on classic story resonates well with the Christian message: We all need help to overcome conflict to get that something.

Crosses and blood are ubiquitous symbols in Gran Torino. At times they are mocked by characters; other times they are employed quite reverently by unlikely characters. These lead to one of the most beautiful stories of reconciliation I’ve seen—one that helpfully illustrates an answer to the questions of atonement above.

When the movie began, I feared I was in for a long two hours. Walt is such a crotchety, foul character, but as the story progressed, I felt a certain fondness for him. Clint Eastwood worked a fine masterpiece producing, directing, and acting this film. His Walt is a strong character whose development we see in fine detail. The plot is not as intricate as the characterization, but there is a strong one. Sometimes the music felt a bit obvious, but it was certainly a foreshadowing cue.

Gran Torino is not a movie for the faint of heart. I know some who would not be able to sit through the language and racism that suffuses this film. But if you can stomach these, there is a rich payoff as you let yourself live in this story of reconciliation and redemption for two hours.

Jonah

So here it is, a month since my last post. I never wanted to be like this, but my life tipped into unsustainability. It's not getting better anytime soon, so I'd better post.

I wonder what tone of voice Jonah spoke in when he said, "I'm angry enough to die." This is actually quite an important question. It reveals his character, just as getting to know his character through the story reveals how he would speak this sentence. My two main thoughts for how he sounded are that he screamed this line or he deadpanned it.

If Jonah screamed, "I'm angry enough to die," I see two options. He was a petulant little girl. Or he was genuinely, utterly enraged.

If Jonah said matter-of-factly, "I'm angry enough to die," I see another three options. He was being melodramatic. He was being ironic. Or he grew up a manipulative shrew who was used to getting his own way if he spoke out of line. The latter would probably mean his mother was a hand-wringing pushover.

Whichever way we slice it, God wouldn't have it. I think God told Jonah, "You're on Candid Camera!" Or maybe he merely said, "There you are, an object lesson for all future generations. You happy now?"

In my opinion, Jonah was a whiny brat (see "melodramatic" above). I imagine the people in his hometown of Gath Hepher would have been relieved if Jonah had remained former, now digesting, fish bait. But somehow, God used this petty chump to draw repentance from an incredibly evil, powerful empire.

I truly hope that I am available for God's work, if for no other reason than to avoid being swallowed by a fish. I'm not a seafood guy.

Dragon!

My wife and I went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" today. My suspicion from my previous post was barely confirmed. This movie was not made merely to make us treat "terrorists" better. But you can sure take that away from it if you want to.

I highly recommend this movie. It's cute and fun, a little tense at moments (noted for kiddos' sake), and teaches a number of great life themes. If you're predisposed to feel preachiness, it'll feel preachy, but I got caught up in the story. Some of the themes include being who you are, humility, reconciliation, and perseverance.

I HOPE I'M NOT GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY ALERT:
While the most striking part of the movie for my wife was how relationships were reconciled, the key point for me has to do with fear. The main character, Hiccup, was a nerdy waif of a Viking. He wanted more than anything else to be the best stereotypical Viking dragon fighter. However, with a bit of sensitivity and some dumb fearlessness, he discovers a way to befriend dragons. He is able to end the dragon scourge in an unconventional, yet quite fitting to his person, way. If he had kept trying to kill dragons the conventional way, he would have been a colossal failure. But because he intuitively followed fate's path for him, he became an even bigger hero than he could have imagined. And it might have been mistitled. Much more faithful to the story would have been "How to Befriend a Dragon," but I think "train" fit better for marketing purposes.

Yeah, the movie's a little moralistic, but with the good animation and storyline, it's totally worth it.