Russian Rock Star

On Friday we saw the new movie "The Last Station." It's about Leo Tolstoy's last few months of life. He died in 1910, at the age of 82.


He was a genius and a revolutionary. Some say that he was the greatest novelist of all time. Not only that, he was a great man - and everybody knew it. He was hounded by the paparazzi of his day.

Sort of like Brad Pitt. Think of Brad with a long white beard. No, wait, Brad HAS a long white beard.

Tolstoy's most famous books were War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

But he also wrote the Kingdom of God is Within You, a book that deeply influenced Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others.

Tolstoy was a Christian who believed in non violence but had big problems with the church. He also believed that the Sermon on the Mount were the greatest, most revolutionary words ever spoken. Jesus, who spoke these words, by the way, was also a revolutionary.

In my opinion, The Sermon on the Mount is STILL our most important revolutionary document.

The movie deals with Tolstoy trying to keep peace between Vladimir Chertkov, the head of his international movement and Tolstoy's wife of 48 years and mother of his 13 children, Sofya.

Sofya, played by Helen Mirren is a piece of work.

The movie is beautiful. It's smart. It's funny and sad. It's sexy.

Go see it.


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Trash Talk

I'm leading a class for women from now until Easter. We Methodists and Catholics and other High Church folks call this time Lent.

The class topic is how we sometimes beat ourselves up over mistakes or wrong choices - or - and this is the worst - fall apart when others say mean things to us. Beating ourselves up does no good and there are much healthier ways to handle these times.

We had our first session on Thursday. I loved it and feel honored with the great group of women who showed up.

On Friday morning Dave and I were scheduled to take our friend to the hospital for a procedure. Others wanted to take her but I won out, partly because she absolutely had to be there on time - and everybody knows both Dave and I are "early" people.

We arrived at her house and waited five minutes in the car because we were five minutes early. Then I went to the door and rang the bell. Then knocked. Then called her phone numbers. No response!

Oh, oh, something's wrong. I went though the privacy fence and way round the garden and finally found a way into the house.

Yes, I broke into her house!

Then went through rooms calling her name. She finally appeared but she was in her robe. I was very relieved but wondered why she was running so late.

As it turns out, she wasn't. We weren't five minutes early. We were ONE HOUR AND FIVE MINUTES EARLY!

I felt terrible. I felt dumb. I apologised to Dave and to her and then did it over again - and wanted to do it again after that. And felt so bad about causing her stress on the day of her procedure. (Even though she wasn't evidencing any stress at all. I was.) Finally, I realized that I was overreacting like we'd just discussed in the class.

And who was leading that class again?


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Foodies

As you know, Dave and I are Foodies. We eat out a lot. Not big or expensive meals but tasty small items that we sometimes share.

On Friday the annual Foodie Awards were published. And were we surprised to see that several of the our favorite restaurants won!

You'd think that wouldn't be the case in one of the most touristy areas on the planet boasting thousands of restaurants.

For instance, we frequent only four breakfast restaurants and they all made the list. The Critics Choice is in a little strip mall within walking distance of my condo - The Maitland Breakfast Club.

The winner in the African/Soul category was Johnson's Diner. We were there with friends last Saturday night. I splurged and had fried catfish, cooked cabbage, fried okra and black eyed peas. Yum. Yum.

The place that won in the most categories and finally the Best Overall was Season's 52. I used to go there often with My Oldies. They were treated like royalty - because, at the time, they were there several times a week.

After Dave came into the picture we ate there many times with My Oldies. In fact, that was where Mr. Oldie threatened Dave's life the first time we dined together.

If you don't take care of this woman I know some men in Chicago....

Last night Dave said he would surprise Mr. Oldie by telling him about Season's 52 winning so many awards. I said maybe he shouldn't because, with their serious memory issues, they might try to go back and get lost because it's a bit of a drive for them.

This morning he told them. But it was no problem.

They never heard of the place.


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Dave's Frustration

Dave loved reading "The Help," the wildly popular book about housewives and maids in Mississippi in the 60s.

But he was frustrated when, in the end, the really bad person in the book didn't get her comeuppance. We've had many discussions about "Miss Hilly" and just how bad she was and what should have happened to her in the end. But I thought we wrapped it up a couple of weeks ago.

Then last Sunday morning, in our class on "Lying," when we were looking at some verses from Proverbs, Dave leaned over to me and said,

This is Hilly!!!

For those of you who've read the book, following is the scripture. Do you think it describes Hilly?

Proverbs 6:16-19

There are six things the Lord hates,
Seven that are detestable to him:
Haughty eyes,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked schemes,
Feet that are quick to rush into evil,
A false witness who pours out lies,
A man who stirs up dissension among brothers.


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Lying Eyes

We had a great discussion in class on Sunday morning. The subject was lying. Seems harsh but we have such an excellent style of debate that we can discuss almost anything.

Our exceptional leader for the day laid out some definitions from scripture and other places. Then asked questions such as...

Under what circumstances is it alright to lie?

No real consensus except agreeing that we all do it.

I wish we could have spent a little more time on the bad lies we all tell. The ones that build us up by hurting other people. They can range from a casual bit of gossip that we know isn't true but makes us feel important by sharing it - to Bernie Madoff ripping off his family and friends all over the world.

Want an example of a good lie?

Exodus 1:19 God blessed Hebrew midwives for lying to Pharaoh (about not killing baby boys.)


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Dueling Directors

We've seen a number of movies lately. Finally saw Avatar. Then, two days later, saw The Hurt Locker.

What do these two movies have in common? Almost nothing.


Avatar is a fable in 3-D that has become the highest grossing movie of all time. It also costs more to make than any other movie.

The Hurt Locker is a small, low budget movie (looks like a documentary) about our guys in Iran disabling bombs.


A few weeks ago I read that The Hurt Locker had made the same amount money, in total - that Avatar had made that week - in Italy.


But they have two things in common: The directors, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow were once married and both movies and directors are up for an Academy Award.

I liked both films. But I think, if I had a vote, it would be for The Hurt Locker. It's gritty real life stuff that's happening now and needs to be addressed. And, yes, I'm probably a bit prejudiced for the woman.


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Mom's Best Cookies

My first husband, the one I had for 44 years, loved and respected women. He thought we could do anything.

He encouraged women to go into ministry long before it was a popular thing.

When he was ill a beautiful young single mom in our church talked with him about selling her business and going to seminary. But encouraging her, even though he thought she could do anything, was a real struggle for him.

Because she owned a business called "Mom's Best Cookies." And they were! And, as he became more and more ill, she lavished them on him.

He loved cookies!!

He was conflicted: She belongs in ministry but how could a person who makes these cookies for a living do something better?

Years have passed. She remarried and has a beautiful blended family. She graduated from seminary last May and is looking for a position.

He was right about her. She can do anything.

But don't worry Ken (in heaven.) When she did the Children's Story in worship last week she gave each child a Valentine's cookie.

So she's still doing that kind of ministry as well.

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World's Tallest Building

Dave likes buildings - as most commercial architects do.

A few years ago the tallest building in the world was in Kuala Lumpur - where Dave was born.

Now, the tallest building, by far, is in Dubai. At 160 stories, it's taller than the Chrysler Building on top of the Empire State Building.

What's a good reason to put up the tallest building in the world? There aren't any. It's pointless. Somebody will always put up one taller.

Since this is a G-rated blog, we won't get into the reasons why men want to continually build bigger. But the picture gives us a clue. (This bulding is 1,000 feet higher than the next tallest in the world. So there!)

As you may know, Dubai, like many of the big cities around the globe is broke. While this building was going up, growth in Dubai came to a halt. Many of the others you see in this photo are empty.

And, for the most part, this one, which is called The Burj Khalifa, is empty as well. An article in last week's paper says that it was unexpectedly closed to the public a month after it's opening. We don't know why.

By the way, Dave didn't design super tall buildings. His were much more people friendly and functional.

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2012

We saw this disaster movie to beat all disaster movies yesterday at the discount theater. Remember, on Tuesdays it's 75 cents.


Besides, I love these movies.


We laughed throughout most of the almost three hours. Because it was silly. Everything in the world gets destroyed.


In one review they said that it looked like it was directed by five 12 year old boys!


Also the plot line was as crazy as all disaster movies are. John Cusack is the guy who, against all odds, saves his family (except, of course, for his wife's new husband.) The guy in charge of the world is bad. A young American scientist and his friend in India are the only ones in the world who know what's happening!



The dialogue is silly. A guy in the supermarket complains to his wife that he feels like something is pulling them apart. At that precise time an earthquake splits the market, coming right down their isle.



But my favorite silly disaster movie dialogue was spoken by Dennis Quaid in "The Day After Tomorrow." By the way, in this movie Dennis is the only one in the world who knows what's happening. He tells the president that the lower half of the United States needs to be evacuated to Mexico at once. When the president asks about what's to happen to the upper half of the U.S. Dennis says (with a seriously straight face)


"They're doomed."


I love these disaster movies because they're a total break from reality. What fun!



But then this morning I awoke to news radio telling me that Washington D.C. is in for yet another giant snow storm - there was an overnight earthquake north of Chicago - and tonight it will freeze in Orlando.



What the....?????





***

Writing Styles

I have a pretty short and to the point writing style. I like a brevity of words. When I used to do some editing they called me "The Slasher."

Ed Hayes writes a column in the Orlando Sentinel every Thursday. It's called Heydays and it covers just about everything that's ever happened in his life.

And that's a lot.

Because Ed Hayes is 85 years old. He's a former sportswriter and they're, traditionally, the most colorful news people.

His writing style is what I would call "flowery." But in a good way. The man knows his way around an adjective. Sometimes the columns just kind of meander down his life's path but I find them completely enjoyable.

Today the column was serious. Following is a fine example of his writing style.

Haiti went down for the count, and the heroes stormed out of the woodwork.

Please don't retire, Ed Hayes, because there's nobody around to replace you.


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The Help

Yesterday I finished reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. As I said in an earlier posting, it brought back some painful memories.

In the 70s I was living with my husband and children in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A beautiful city then and now.

But it was segregated. I was part of a team of people helping to get the real estate issues changed so that anybody who could afford to buy a house could buy that house anywhere they wanted.

One day a lady from my very own church called me to tell me how wrong I was to be doing this. She said things like "...I asked my maid and she told me that Nigras want to live in their own neighborhoods...Why don't you and your family go live with them if that's what you want..."

It was a very painful conversation for me.

About three years later I was teaching at the United Methodist Women's School of Christian Mission at Florida Southern College. The course I was teaching was called "Racism." The women in the class, black and white, were great but after most sessions there was a little group of other very white women waiting for me outside the classroom.

They needed to tell me "in Christian love" why this class was not needed. These were very painful conversations. Ones in which I mostly listened.

But in the last few days, as I've thought about the women described above and most of the women depicted in the book "The Help" my thoughts haven't been altogether negative.

Most of them weren't bad people. They were living in a time when, for several generations, they had been told a lie. They believed it. When this lie was challenged they were frightened.

I'm so happy that "The Help" has been number one on the best seller list for several weeks. It says good things about who we are and how far we've become as a people.


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Crazy Heart

Dave and I saw this movie in a limited opening engagement last Friday night.

As you may remember, my most favorite theme movies are redeeming movies.

In "Crazy Heart" the Jeff Bridges character, Bad Blake, gets redeemed. That's right. He gets saved.

No, not in the big way Jesus saves and gives us eternal life. And not like in the Old Testament when Boaz buys back Ruth and becomes her "Redeemer."

But Bad Blake gets a second chance at life here on earth. Other people help him but he has to do the work himself. And that's a pretty cool thing.

Because his life is a real mess. Even though the actor is that dreamy Jeff Bridges, I could hardly stand to look at this washed up, boozy country singer.

Some people might see the movie and think that the Maggie Gyllenhaal character "redeems" him. I don't think so. But, in a weird way, they were good for each other. And, in the end, she is redeemed as well.

But not before she leaves her four year old son in the hands of an old drunk and discovers how messed up she, herself, is.

The movie is sweet, funny, grisly, sad, beautiful, ugly and disgusting. With a happy, realistic ending - even though it's not the one you're hoping for.

The pure, old country western music (sung by Jeff Bridges himself) is fantastic. Dave bought me the CD today.

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