MUD

We saw this (just released) movie on Friday in our little, close by, art theater, The Enzian.

It was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival, but not sure how it will do in real life. It's slow moving and filled with symbolism. Matthew McConaughey is Mud.  But this is really a Coming of Age movie about two 14 year old boys living on the Mississippi River in Arkansas.  Ellis and Neckbone.

At it's core, it's about Ellis.

And it's about the Mississippi River.  We got into the theater a bit late so sat together on a couch, up close, on the main floor, looking up, with our heads pressed against the back of the couch.  The screen covered our entire field of vision. So, from the very first scene, Dave and I felt like we were on the Mississippi. 

The river is dirty, and, at the same time, life giving.  This was made clear toward the end when the guys are bringing up clams while a dead body floats in the water.

As I said, Matthew's name in the movie is Mud - and he's covered with it.  The Mississippi River is notoriously muddy.  The shanty houseboats are muddy.  The depressing town, including the motel and the Piggly Wiggly are muddy.

Some reviewers have called MUD a Huckleberry Finn movie.  I don't think so.  Way too gritty and real.  It's the real south, The poor south.  The violent south.  But it's asking questions about love and loyalty and values.

Ellis needs to know "Do you love her?"

The last third of MUD gets exciting.  Mud becomes somewhat of a Christ-like figure, only in that he is willing to risk his life to save another.

There are several big stars in MUD.  My guess is that most of them would have been willing to work for nothing.  There's a trashed up and sad Reese Witherspoon.  Sam Shepard plays Ellis' sad father as only Sam Shepard can play sad.

Joe Don Baker plays another sad father who perverts religion in a way that is, unfortunately, done all the time, all over the world.

The "shoot em up" ending wasn't real.  This is rarely how things culminate - even in the south.

The actual ending, where Ellis is dropped off by his dad in town, was real and good.  Ellis has a "New Life."  I like new life endings.


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Rat Temple

I have some friends who recently returned from a long trip to India.  And by long I mean, yes, they were gone a while but also they traveled to
many obscure Indian places.

Actually, she's the exotic, fearless traveler in the family.  And a fantastic and fearless foodie as well.. She's sort of our very own Anthony Bourdain.  She plans well and takes good care of her husband - who must have a great sense of humor about these trips.  I've known him longer than I've known her so I know she's encouraged him with his sense of humor and adventure, as well as other wonderful traits I never knew he had. He seems to be happy all the time.

She wrote a fantastic daily blog with lots of photos while on the trip so I got to go with them - from the comfort of my favorite place on my couch.

They were in such exotic places that the natives often wanted their pictures taken with my friends because seeing westerners was a rarity.

I'll share with you one of the more unusual places:  The Deshnok Rat Temple at Bkaner.  Yes, the rats are sacred.  And the white ones are extra special.  If you accidently (or on purpose) kill a rat you are required to replace it with a gold one.

The legend is that all of Karni Mata's (a female Hindu sage)
male children are reincarnated as - you guessed it - rats.  So they are treasured and there are sacred places in the temple where you can buy food for them.  And what's extra special is that, if you eat food they have nibbled on, you will be blessed.  Like maybe my friends could have shared this coconut with them.

So, thank you, Ann, for allowing me to be with you in words and photos but not in person.  I'm looking forward to our next big adventure.


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Mother's Day

May12th, Mother's Day, will be here in a couple of weeks.  I won't see my kids this year because Dave and I will be traveling.  But I take Mother's Day seriously.  As we just learned last week in Boston, life can change forever in a heartbeat.

This is a photo of me and my mom.  A year or so after this was taken she gave birth to my little brother, Paul.  Shortly after that she got sick, was sent to a tuberculosis sanitarium, and, after seven years, in 1949, she died.  She was 34 years old.

I don't know much about her.  I wonder what she would have been like if she'd lived out her life.  I know she was a writer and dreamed of make a living at it.  I have several of her poems.  They're really all I know about what she thought and felt.

Here is one she wrote while she was in the sanitarium.  It's my favorite.

What goes into this frock that I'm sewing,
Besides a short skirt that leaves panties showing,

And a wee bit of ribbon and buttons and such,
And a small piece of lace - not much,

As I baste it and press it and turn in a seam,
With each careful stitch, I sew in a dream. 

                                   - Carmen Strange Riley

Happy Mother's Day, Carmen


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What Kind of Church Is This Anyway?

When I first joined my church I was blown away by the outstanding, world renowned theologians who would show up in the pulpit from time to time.  Later on I was astounded - on almost a weekly basis - at what my church accomplished in terms of ministry here and around the world.

In that early time a friend said to me, "What are you doing at that big, wealthy church?" Meaning, of course, that he didn't think I belonged here.  I do belong here.  But I'm not wealthy or famous or powerful. But here's the thing.  It's all good. We all have a roll.

This morning sort of blew my mind.  In the United Methodist denomination, the top guys and gals are bishops.  They're elected.  The Methodist hierarchy is set up kind of like the Catholic hierarchy except we don't have a pope.  Bishop is the highest you can go.

We have a new bishop here in Florida.  His name is Ken Carter.  He oversees about 700 churches as well as all of the Methodist institutions here in Florida.

As it happens, we had the president of Asbury, one of Methodism's leading seminaries, Timothy Tennent, preach at all three of our services this morning.

Both of these men are world renowned theologians, both young (53) and dynamic.

Today, Dr. Tennent talked about Doubting Thomas - and how he got the name.  To make a point he said to a young lady in the choir named Amy,  "How would you like to have one bad day and spend the rest of you life as Doubting Amy?"

Anyway, our new bishop Ken Carter, and his wife Pam showed up at our church to hear Dr. Tennent preach.   Somehow or other he ended up teaching Sunday School in the sanctuary while Dr. Tennent preached in the contemporary service in the gym.

My Sunday School teacher for the morning - The bishop - was great.  At one point he gently let us know that in a church like ours, full of powerful folks, some people could be made to feel like outsiders.  Good point.  We need this reminder.  Even I need this reminder.

Later, when we met, I said to him,  "Bishop, I will tell you what kind of church this is.  It's the kind of church where we can get the bishop to teach Sunday School in one room while the president of Asbury is preaching in another.  I was teasing.

But I'm serious about this:  I believe that both of these great men are at the forefront of an exciting future for the church - universal.

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Fun on the Road

This morning my friend said, "How can it possibly take you two days to make a five hour trip?"

A while back we drove to Tallahassee to attend an event at FSU on  a Thursday evening honoring my son and others.  The event was grand and the hotel in which we stayed was grand.  And it was fun.

But getting there was even more fun.

We began on a late Wednesday morning.  Our first stop was Dunkin' Donuts. Haven't had a donut in at least two years.  I savored every bite.  And Dunkin' Donuts coffee is the best.

Next stop, Gainesville.  It's probably not the best protocol to visit the University of Florida while on the way to Florida State University, seeing as how they're big adversaries, but Dave has wanted to see "The Swamp" (where they play football) for a long time.  And, since we were all hopped up on sugar and caffeine,  we did.  Very impressive.  But we Seminoles were not intimidated.

Then, on to to High Springs, an absolutely beautiful little jewel of a Florida town.   All of the shops on Main Street are charmers.  We had a late lunch at the Golden Spoon Award winning Greatoutdoor Restaurant.  And we ate outdoors.  I had the usual fish sandwich.  It was to die for.

Prior to our trip we'd borrowed an audio version of Tina Fey's book "Bossy Pants" from the library.  So, every time we got back in the car we knew we were in for a treat.  It's insightful and hysterical. (You know those are Alec Baldwin's arms.)

We picked up a motel coupon book at a rest stop, found a coupon for a Quality Inn in Live Oak for $52 (including breakfast) so we headed for Live Oak.  Our ground floor room ended up being next to three motorcycle guys.  Their bikes (two Hondas and a Harley) were parked directly in front of our big window.  They all came out to polish their bikes so we went out to chit chat.  They were our age (old.)  No tattoos that we could see, but they were decked out in crazy (and crazy expensive) biker duds.  Couldn't have been nicer.

Later, we went across the highway to the greater Live Oak Walmart for snacks (popcorn) and drinks.  The next morning, after our big free breakfast, we leisurely drove into Tallahassee for another adventure.

And that's how it takes us two days to make a five hour trip.


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Witnessing Healing Miracles

Some of my friends and I were talking yesterday about how we might respond to the tragedies of the last few days.  We agreed that we would try to be positive and dwell on the good that has come, the heroes that have emerged.  Right now, as I'm writing this, I'm also watching the uplifting Boston worship service called "Healing Our City", attended by President and Mrs. Obama as well as other national and world leaders.

While there are countless stories coming out about Boston Marathon heroes, I want to share an all together different kind of miraculous story I was reminded of this week when I saw President Jimmy Carter on the Colbert Show.

It's about the Guinea Worm.

For hundreds of years this worm has been invading the bodies of people in Asia and Africa.  It's excruciatingly painful and leaves it's victim crippled and suffering for life.  For centuries the way to extract the worm was to roll it out on spindles.  It took weeks.

It's usually found in legs but President Carter said the first time he saw the worm it was being extracted from a woman's breast.

Below is a print from 1674 showing leg extractions.

And this is how it was until 1987 when The Carter Center, along with the Gates Foundation, and others decided to go after it.  Drug companies had no interest in helping because no drugs will work.

Filtering the water was all that was needed.  But this took a respect and sensitivity  for why people continued to drink and bathe in worm polluted water, before they could be convinced to use filters. A long and laborious process.

The result?

In 1987 there were 3.5 million cases of Guinea Worm.
In 2013, so far, there have been 7 cases of Guinea Worm.

Healing miracles abound.  All over the world.  Just like they are now in Boston.


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42 - A Movie About Methodists!

Dave and I saw this weekends' # 1 at the box office movie, "42" yesterday.  Most Americans know that the number 42 stands for the great athlete and great human being, Jackie Robinson.  Even I know that.

He broke the color barrier in baseball and paved the way for all kinds of athletes.  Not many of us have the quiet strength to pull something like this off.

I know two Floridians who's families hosted Jackie Robinson in their homes here in Florida during those times when he wasn't allowed to stay in a hotel.  Great stories about Jackie Robinson abound in Florida.

In 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play for his Montreal farm team.  What followed changed the history of baseball and helped change history for all of us.

Why did Rickey do this?  Why did Robinson accept?  Here's my answer.  Because they were both Methodists.  Rickey explains in the beginning of the movie how this works.  He said that God was a Methodist as well, but I wouldn't go that far.  However, he did stress to Jackie Robinson that he would have to have the quiet "turn the other cheek" strength of Jesus in order to survive.

Toward the end of the movie Branch Rickey tells Robinson that he was motivated to do what he did by something that happened to him when he was a student at Ohio Wesleyan.  That's a Methodist school.  Just sayin'.

There are a number of vile, racist men - who lived in vile, racist towns - in this movie.

One of the towns was Sanford, Florida, right up the road from me.  It's changed some, but still has a ways to go.  It's the town where the unarmed young black teenager Travon Martin was shot last year.

See the movie.  It will inspire you to be a better person.  You don't necessarily have to be a Methodist.


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Bragging About Our Kids

Many years ago, when I was speaking before groups and somebody would compliment me on my super achieving children I would respond "Well, none of them are in jail."

I stopped saying that one day when it was made clear to me that, somewhere in most every audience, there is a parent who's child is in jail.

My friends and I are now at the age - and our children are at the age - where all sorts of things have happened.  We know how fragile life is.  We've seen death and divorce and bankruptcy.  Bragging is usually reserved for extraordinary acts of kindness or for something like "He actually came to see me!"

 The most important truth I came to appreciate early on was that many people have influenced my kids over the years.  I'm extraordinarily grateful to most of them.  Twenty to thirty years after leaving home my kids are still the most interesting people I know.  And that's saying something.

On Thursday night my younger son John was inducted into the Florida State University Business School Hall of Fame.  He's the youngest person to receive this honor.  It came about due to the efforts of scores of people.

Including his three siblings.

• One of whom couldn't be there but sent him cuff links which he wore and held up for the crowd to see.
• One of whom flew in on a private jet, stayed about an hour, flew out again - and is now in Bolivia. 
• One of whom wore her Marilyn Monroe dress for the occasion. 

John thanked a number of people.  The first person was his high school speech teacher and debate coach, Dr. Koslow, who flew in for this event.  Here's a photo of me with Dr. Koslow.

I'd like to thank him, and every person who's ever helped shape my kids into who they've become.  There are hundreds of you out there. I hope you know who you are.


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College Week

Yesterday Dave and I, and several friends, toured Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida.  The Princeton Review voted the Florida Southern campus the most beautiful in the nation.

This, in my opinion, is due largely to its president, Ann Kerr.  She's a visionary.  Much of the campus was designed many years ago by Frank Lloyd Wright.  She's worked hard to restore the campus to its original beauty.

I always thought Mr. Wright's  low ceilings were due to the fact that he was short.  An ego thing.  Turns out it wasn't and he wasn't.  It was all about aesthetics.  He was at one with nature.

Three of my kids attended Florida Southern.  And the school has always been like Mecca for Florida Methodists.   I hung around the campus from time to time for about 40 years.

Dave took these photos yesterday.

Tomorrow we're going to look over the University of Florida campus in Gainesville.  U of F and Florida State University are huge rivals.  The last time I was on the U of F campus I saw three bumper stickers that said:  Your Momma Is Ugly and She Sent You To Florida State.  That had to be describing me and messaging my kids.  Two of them (I actually claim three) went to Florida State.

On Thursday we'll be on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, where, that evening, my son will be inducted into the Florida State Business School Hall of Fame.

Dave and I will try to behave ourselves.


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My Obituary

This morning's syndicated column by Connie Schultz deals with the death of rocket scientist, and winner of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, Yvonne Brill.  Or, more precisely, her obituary.

Yvonne's obit begins like this:

She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. "The world's best mom", her son Matthew said.

Here's the thing.  Every good mom, no matter what else she's done, feels that raising those kids is the number one priority.  I certainly did. And do.  Nothing else comes even close.  And I'm sure Yvonne Brill would want her son to say nothing better than she was the world's best mom.  But I hope Matthew is aware of what else she did.

For instance, Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88, was a brilliant rocket scientist, who in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits.

Connie Schultz says it so well,  A newspaper obituary is meant to tell the story of why a person mattered in the world at large.  It's a fierce competition.  Thousands of people die every day, but few of their stories make the cut. 

I can just see my obit now:  She made a mean "Six Week Bran Muffin Mix" that not only tasted yummy but kept her family regular; she followed her husband from church to church for 30 years and took 25 years off to raise four children. 

Of course, it's quite likely that my kids don't know what I did - and do.  When I was home doing family stuff I tried to keep my career on the down low.

When my husband, Ken, died, he got that coveted sweet obituary spot in a few papers.  While it was a bit padded, it did do him justice in the big things he accomplished in his life.  I was reminded of it this very week because (nine years after his death) one of my kids posted it again on Facebook.

So, while you may not be fully aware of my accomplishments, here's a start.  In thinking about the extraordinary things listed in Ken's obit - as Ginger used to say about Fred -I did all those things as well.

Only backwards.  And in high heels.

***

Life of Pi

The book, Life of Pi, came out in 2001 and was an immediate best seller.  I read it.  Or I tried to.  The kid on the boat with the tiger made no sense to me.  I just didn't get it.

So when the movie came out I wasn't interested.  Then it started racking up Academy Award nominations.  Then a couple of my friends, whom I really respect in this area, said "go see the movie."  But we never got around to it.  And, frankly, I still wasn't thrilled with the idea.  Especially since it's long (two hours plus.)  And I had read that the book was "unfilmable."  Why would I see an "unfilmable" movie of a book I didn't like?

Yesterday we went to the neighborhood discount theater.  Life of Pi was the only thing even remotely worth seeing.  We had to pay big bucks ($3.25 each) because it's in 3-D.

I don't like 3-D.

So there I was - sitting in the theater in my big dark glasses.  I'd like to describe this film to you but I can't.  I was mesmerized from the time it started until the end.  Each frame of this film is beautiful in a magnificent way.  It's just plain visually spectacular.

But it's not "all hat and no cowboy."  It's full of cerebral symbolism.  It's about a boy (Pi) who is shipped wreaked on a small boat with a tiger (Richard Parker.)  But it's also very much about the nature of God.  (One of my favorite topics.)  Pi is curious about God in all God's forms.

If you can still find Life of Pi at a theater, please see it.  If you must watch it at home it just won't have the same impact.  And see it in 3-D.  I take back everything I've ever said about 3-D.

The ending has two versions.  You'll want to discuss these endings with your friends.  Which do you think is the "real" one?  Why is it important?

Life of Pi ended up receiving four Academy Awards.  Best direction (by Ang Lee,) best musical score, and (of course) best cinematography and visual effects.


***

I Admire Herman Cain

All who know me well - or not so well - are scratching their heads at the above statement.  But I've been, occasionally, listening to Herman Cain's new radio program when I'm in the car  He has replaced the mean spirited Neal Boortz.

I'll have to say he's funny and entertaining.  What's more, he's kind to his callers. And much of his rhetoric is positive. He's always been good at inspiring folks, or, as he says, helping folks be self-motivated.  Herman and I agree on that.

Yes, we are still poles apart politically - and in other areas as well.  But, as John Wesley, said, it's good to walk together where we can.

But don't worry Diane Rehm, I will never abandon NPR.


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Spring Awakening

Spring is here.  We're all having spring awakenings.  But I'm talking about the awakenings young people have when they reach puberty.  All healthy young folks experience big changes and begin thinking about things that scare the bejebbers out of their parents.

I strongly believe that the way parents - and religious leaders - should deal with this awakening is - straight on.  These changes are God-given and need to be affirmed.  How we're gonna deal with them is serious business.

I wish that 15 year olds didn't have to deal with having the power of life and death.  But they do.  It's hard to believe that some 14 year olds don't know where babies come from.

On Saturday night Dave and I went, with several friends, to the University of Central Florida Theater to see the play "Spring Awakenings."  A German play, written in 1890, it deals with the issue of adolescence in a severely oppressive society.  When it first opened on Broadway it was banned and closed down the next night.

Decades later it was redone as a rock musical.  In 2006 it was a huge hit on Broadway.

The UCF version of Spring Awakenings is excellent.  The music and the young actors are amazing. It's also hard to watch, uncomfortable. To me, the central theme is that, in the late 1800s, in Germany,  young people were to do as they were told, not ask questions, not express feelings and not embarrass their parents, the school or the church.

Joshua Chase Gold, the director of the play we saw on Saturday says this:

Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening, ....carries with it the rarely used subtitle "A Children's Tragedy."  Taking my inspiration from this title, I searched for the tragedy of the piece.  Dealing with once taboo....issues of sexuality, puberty, rape, abuse, abortion, homosexuality, and suicide the notion of "tragedy" seemed clear: the tragedy is in the circumstances.  As I began to explore more and search for the story I wanted to tell, I realized that the tragedy, in fact, centers around the destructive things that can happen when we speak at  each other instead of to each other. 

The sad thing is that "children" are still suffering and dying - because we aren't respecting what they're going through and helping them navigate this exciting, dangerous, wonderful, agonizing time.


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