No, I don’t mean that talk, that one’s easy, I mean GOD. So let me set this up for you, my parents were raised Catholic and somewhere in the 70s went spiritualists, Dan family was raised Baptists and Episcopalian and somewhere in the 70s went bowling resulting in nobody under our entire roof currently being baptized or indoctrinated. I believe in guardian angels that keep you from making it to the intersection at the wrong time and Dan believes in Angels with titles, jobs and command posts like Gabriel and Michael and if you happen to meet an Angel it’s because he’s about to warn you that your city will experience some light brimstone showers followed by heavy fire and pestilence and perhaps you should have more than an umbrella with you.
So we’ve discussed what we would tell Ella but not in much detail and we’re pretty sure we agree, but not quite sure what it is exactly we agree on. Aunt Nola this Christmas, just like last, gave Ella a Veggie Tales movie. For the most part they are cute, void of any nailings or famine and pretty funny. I mean who can argue with Lord of the Beans’ basic message that everyone has an important job to do. So yesterday when Ella was telling me about the new Veggie Tales movie she informed me that God is pretend, he’s that character in the movies, I knew I had to say something profound, it started poorly:
Me: Oh honey God is for real
Ella: No he’s not he’s pretend like Bob and Larry*.
*Veggie Tales Characters
Me: Sweetie, God is very famous and so sometimes people pretend to be God in the movies, but God is really real.
Ella: MooooOOoom! God is pretend.
Me: No he’s not
Ella: Yes, he is
Me: No he’s not
Ella: Yes, he IS!
Somehow I managed to elevate the conversation back up to a very detailed story telling about heaven and souls and God and then I answered some heaven questions involving cotton candy, multi-colored kittens and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa and jumpy castles. This meandered around to some biology, concluding my very squirmy conversation with Ella.
Ella: Your soul is in your bones next to your marrow right?
Me: Your soul is everywhere in your body
Ella: Yes, it’s in your belly, and your eyes and it’s in your bones and your blood.
Me: Yes, and when you die you leave all of your body here and just take your soul with you.
Ella: Ok, can we play Hungry Hippo?
Me: Yes.
***
12 films in which supreme actors take on the Supreme Being.
Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts
Jan 13, 2008
Jan 11, 2008
Two Reviews
Wednesday night after all the holidays and hub-bub in my life calmed to a dull roar in my left ear, Dan and I resumed date night aka our weekly relaxation ritual aka quick dinner and movie. Ella went to Grandma’s and Dan and I sipped mocha and munched bread and soup while we searched the entertainment section for a good movie. Our choices were; the typical chick flick – nah, the action adventure explod’em up movie – nah, and the Tom Hanks war movie – too heavy, and the kitchy funny movie that only played at 10:30 – long after Grandma goes to bed, and lastly the weird end of the world thriller. So despite my zombie-phobia I threw caution to the wind and figured how scary can a Will Smith movie really be? Besides I had heard it was more intellectual than a simple chase'm down gore-fest.
HA! Any of you who have already seen I Am Legend are laughing really hard at me right now. A simple chase'm down gore-fest would've been a relief compared to the droning dull fear you ride throughthe entire movie, spiked with sheer terrorizing moments and enough psudo-science to make you think about if for days afterwards. Ten minutes into the movie my brain was screaming to me “Get out of this theatre and sit in the lobby while Dan watches this movie” I didn’t listen. I sat crunched up tense on the edge of my seat, one giant ball of panic the entire 100 minutes. Every tense scene I felt the need to smack Dan in the arm and whisper “This is sooo NOT relaxing!” Verdict? – The slight germaphobe with an oversensative reaction towards Zombie movies should NEVER EVER see a movie where an air born virus causes everyone on the planet to become night feeding flesh eaters. ACK! I spent the rest of Wednesday night (until 2:30 in the morning) trying to soak in as much Three’s Company and Friends, trying to find my happy place as I could and I still dreamt the extension of the movie. You know all the parts we didn’t see, all the things that happened after the credits rolled, I got to watch them on the insides of my eyelids. ACK!
***
I started Ira Glass’ new book The New Kings of Nonfiction, and I love this. I know, I know, I’m a This American Life fanatic and this book is kind of along those same lines but hey, yay for finding more of what you like right? Like me, Ira has a giant file of saved stories throughout the years, pieces he’s found particularly intriguing and well written, stories that grab you in right away and contain all the elements of great narration but are also completely nonfiction, items that were so good it seemed a shame to toss them, items you have pulled out and shown people to illustrate a thought. Publishers Weekly describes the collection as written by journalists who are “unafraid to insert their personal perspective into the stories they're telling.” The first reviewer on Amazon says this book is for anyone that wants to “understand the power and allure of nonfiction narrative.” I think the collection is more for anyone that wants to understand the power and allure of ANY narrative. The added bonus is that one can start each story with the qualifier “I swear to God this is a True story….” I sat up and read three essay last night and am forcing myself to hold off today for fear I will devour the book too fast and have nothing to read this evening.
***
So three stars to I Am Legend for scaring the crap out of me long after the movie was over and three stars to The New Kings of Nonfiction for being so good I am reading slowly on purpose.
HA! Any of you who have already seen I Am Legend are laughing really hard at me right now. A simple chase'm down gore-fest would've been a relief compared to the droning dull fear you ride throughthe entire movie, spiked with sheer terrorizing moments and enough psudo-science to make you think about if for days afterwards. Ten minutes into the movie my brain was screaming to me “Get out of this theatre and sit in the lobby while Dan watches this movie” I didn’t listen. I sat crunched up tense on the edge of my seat, one giant ball of panic the entire 100 minutes. Every tense scene I felt the need to smack Dan in the arm and whisper “This is sooo NOT relaxing!” Verdict? – The slight germaphobe with an oversensative reaction towards Zombie movies should NEVER EVER see a movie where an air born virus causes everyone on the planet to become night feeding flesh eaters. ACK! I spent the rest of Wednesday night (until 2:30 in the morning) trying to soak in as much Three’s Company and Friends, trying to find my happy place as I could and I still dreamt the extension of the movie. You know all the parts we didn’t see, all the things that happened after the credits rolled, I got to watch them on the insides of my eyelids. ACK!
***
I started Ira Glass’ new book The New Kings of Nonfiction, and I love this. I know, I know, I’m a This American Life fanatic and this book is kind of along those same lines but hey, yay for finding more of what you like right? Like me, Ira has a giant file of saved stories throughout the years, pieces he’s found particularly intriguing and well written, stories that grab you in right away and contain all the elements of great narration but are also completely nonfiction, items that were so good it seemed a shame to toss them, items you have pulled out and shown people to illustrate a thought. Publishers Weekly describes the collection as written by journalists who are “unafraid to insert their personal perspective into the stories they're telling.” The first reviewer on Amazon says this book is for anyone that wants to “understand the power and allure of nonfiction narrative.” I think the collection is more for anyone that wants to understand the power and allure of ANY narrative. The added bonus is that one can start each story with the qualifier “I swear to God this is a True story….” I sat up and read three essay last night and am forcing myself to hold off today for fear I will devour the book too fast and have nothing to read this evening.
***
So three stars to I Am Legend for scaring the crap out of me long after the movie was over and three stars to The New Kings of Nonfiction for being so good I am reading slowly on purpose.
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