Is Jack Nicholson a Christ Figure?

Jack Nicholson, in his long career as a movie superstar, made more than his share of hit films.  I have not seen most of them but the ones I love have presented an amazing depth of character, exposing the divine nature of the human heart.  Here are three of my favorites.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

The symbolism of the film is not quite as predominant as the book by Ken Kesey but it's still there.  Nicholson character, Randle McMurphy,  is a flat out heroic Christ figure.  The shower scene represents baptism.  He has twelve followers.  Quotes like "anointest my head with conductant," "Do I get a crown of thrones?" are just a few of the many clues.  And, of course, it culminates with McMurphy sacrificing himself to save others.

About Schmidt, 2002

I"m currently reading Will Willimon's book on aging.  It's written for pastors but most of what he says is food for thought for all of us.  At one point he recommends that all pastors who are anticipating retirement see "About Schmidt."  Nicholson plays a bitter, mean guy who's been forced into retirement.  His wife has died after a long unhappy marriage, including her unfaithfulness with his friend, Ray.  Schmidt is miserable so he decides to take a road trip in his RV to his daughter's wedding where he plans to make trouble.  As with many symbolic road trips, he finds redemption.  But not before we have to endure a nude scene with Kathy Bates in a hot tub.

In the end Schmidt says to his dead wife, "I forgive you for Ray.  I forgive you.  That was a long time ago, and I know I wasn't always the king of kings.  I let you down.  I'm sorry Helen."

As Good As It Gets, 1997

This is, by far, my favorite Nicholson movie.  I watched it again yesterday.  This, too, is a flat out redemption film.  Nicholson's character, Melvin Udall,  is a horrible man.  He lives in a high rise in Manhattan and throws his neighbor's little dog down the garbage chute.  (And this is before the opening credits even role.)  He suffers from the severest form of OCD and finds it almost impossible to live with other human beings.  As the story unfolds we are introduced to other suffering, flawed people - whose lives are made even more miserable by knowing Nicholson.  But, after baby steps toward wholeness, while on (another) road trip, three of them receive redemption.  To me, the character played by the great Helen Hunt is the Christ figure.  In a penultimate scene,  Melvin takes her to dinner.  She's very poor but has on what might be her very best clothes.  He wants to impress her but, when they get to the restaurant, he's required to wear a tie and jacket, which the restaurant offers to provide.  But his OCD requires him to  leave, find a men's store,  and buy a new coat and tie, while leaving her waiting.  When he gets back to the table he says, "Why did I have to buy this when they let you in wearing a house dress."  She tells him his time's up if he can't give her one sincere compliment.  So he comes up with this.  He tells her his psychiatrist wanted to put him on medication but he HATES, HATES  pills.  She gives him a look, like so what?  And then he tells her, since knowing her,  he's been taking the pills.  She's still not impressed.

But he ends with "You make me want to be a better man." That, to me, was pure redemption.

The film is harsh and raw throughout but thoroughly entertaining, sweet and funny.  At a midway point  Melvin tries to bully his way into his psychiatrist's office and promptly gets thrown out.  In the waiting room full of suffering people he screams, "Maybe this is as good as it gets."

The good news about redemption is: "It's never as good as it gets."


***

Moving Day

Moving Day is coming up in United Methodist churches.  The structure of our denomination is set up so that all ministers who are moving do so on the same day.  Because they are moving into the same houses.  Fifty years ago being "sent" meant going where you were told to go, and mostly didn't know if you were moving or staying put until the last minute.  And, while there were outliers, being part of a "sent" ministry meant moving often.  Clergy families were pretty much expected to be seen not heard.   We once had a bishop who routinely told minister's wives that their husbands were not to "baby sit" their children.

Over the decades I was blessed, along with others, to be a part of slow change in this paradigm.

 The sent concept has become much more negotiable.  Maybe decades ago you shared that old concept of what a "minister's wife" should be and do.  That was turned on its head with the invention of minister's husbands!

And, then there were ministry couples.  There were dire predictions that this would not work.

And now, fifty years later, life has come full circle..

This year on moving day, we will say goodbye to Reverend Gary and Reverend Jayne Rideout.  They have been in clergy leadership with us for the past 20 years.  They came to us with wide and varied backgrounds, each having excelled in other
exciting careers prior to experiencing the call to ministry.  They met in seminary, married and  and their ministry together began at our church.

 Jayne and Gary are very different people with very different gifts.  They have each excelled in their own areas.  They soon had two baby girls.  We've been blessed as a congregation by watching these young women excel in their own lives.  One of them is in college and the other on her way.  Our church family is the only one they've ever experienced.

So, while vastly different from 50 years ago, the emotionally charged feelings of loss combined with the excitement of a new challenge, are still a part of it.   But Jayne and Gary have already mastered the relatively new art of being co-pastors as well as being co-parents.

And, while it's vastly different as well for our church family, we will still experience the pain of loss one Sunday in June, and the excitement in welcoming a new pastor on the following Sunday in June.

Oh and, of course, there's the Covid 19 factor that has our entire world in limbo.


***

King Lear

I'm reading Will Willimon's new book on aging.  Willimon is a retired bishop in the United Methodist Church and is currently a professor at Duke Divinity School.  Over the years he's been one of my favorite writers.

This book deals with aging from a Christian perspective.  I like it because it suggests we oldies need to make responsible  decisions as we navagate the aging process.  As you know, I'm a big fan of aging well.  Willimon  uses scripture in helping us see how to do it right.

But one chapter deals with Shakespeare telling us how to do it wrong.  King Lear is his best example.

If you are like me, you find Shakespeare's plays to be more like work than fun, but deep truths abound.  Remember Lear's soliloquy beginning All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players?  It gives us a clue as to how he sees life moving along and he doesn't like it.  He doesn't do retirement well.  He uses his wealth and power to manipulate his children and others and, in the end, they see him as a mean old man and they're happy to get ride of him.

Willimon reminds us that Lear's mistake is that his retirement plan consists of shedding responsibility but continuing to control.

He also reminds us that we're all, if we live long enough, going lose our place on the throne as we lose our skills and strength.  We've all seen people who go kicking and screaming as they're forced to give up whatever control they thought they had, making life miserable for everybody, including themselves.

I get it!  I used to love being "on stage."  I was good at it.  I was entertaining. I was fun to look at.  I processed information quickly.  Honestly assessing ourselves as we age can be brutal.  But there is power, relief and joy in lovingly giving it over.  We've all seen folks who were magnificent in their prime but embarrassing in their inability to let go.

Willimon wraps up the chapter with this:

What if Lear had been part of a church that felt responsibility for helping him prepare for his retirement by candidly confronting him with the challenges of aging and then helping him practice some of the spiritual disciplines needed to negotiate this tricky time of life?

I am so very happy and grateful to be part of a church that has done a top notch job of this.

Many actors have played King Lear.  It's a juicy role.  I swore off Shakespeare a few years ago but I know that Anthony Hopkins did the film role in 2018.  So I'm thinking I might revisit the king.


***

Grey's Anatomy

Callie

I have never liked soap operas.  So how come I'm watching Grey's Anatomy every single night?  It is totally a soap.  Originally I was tricked into it by asking around about a long running series that had some in depth characters and story lines.

Currently I'm on season 12, episode 23.  How many seasons are there?  I don't know but Netflix just added season 16.  I'm watching sequentially.  It's totally maddening.

It would be impossible to describe all the characters.  So I going to key in on Orthopedic Surgeon, Callie.   Is she a main character?  I'm not sure.  They come and go.  Often.

Here's a little background on Callie.  She married one of the main characters, George, but he cheated on her. and later was hit by a bus and died.  She then had a steamy relationship with Dr. McSteamy. They were just pals.

By the way, every one of these doctors is an excellent surgeon and succesful in his or her field. Oh, except for occasionally killing a patient.  Oopsie!

Callie gets pregnant and soon falls madly in love with Arizona, a female pediatric surgeon, who, conveniently, lives across the hall.  They (Callie and Arizona) get married.  But before the baby is born Callie and Arizona are in a bad accident.  But the premature baby lives. And the baby has three active parents.  That is until Dr. McSteamy gets killed.  But Callie and Arizona have an amazingly wonderful relationship so all's OK.

All of the above is just every day stuff to these doctors.  While they're competent (mostly) in their work, their personal lives are totally screwed up.  Besides other risky behavior, they all have had sex with each other, so much so that I can't remember who's been with who.  I know this is wrong on my part as well as depressing because it obviously means I'm losing my memory.

So, all this sex, drugs and rock 'n roll has led to sythllis, bad accidents (because they have this sex in every conceivable position in every conceivable place in the hospital and they don't even lock the door!) But my biggest concern is that they keep getting pregnant.  These are unwanted, inconvenient pregnancies.

What is wrong with these people?  Do they not know about birth control?

All of the above is just a tippy edge of the top of the soap opera we know as Grey's Anatomy.

So, currently, as of last night, Callie and Arizona are in court in a custody battle over who gets to be the sole parent of the now five year old Sophia.  Why?  because Callie is leaving town with her new lover, Penny, who, by the way, was one of the surgeons who cared for Dr. McDreamy after his accident and (spoiler alert) DEATH.  I had to write a stern text niece for not telling me that both McSteamy and McDreamy DIED.

But please don't contact me about how the trial comes out.  I am hooked on this soap opera and will probably have to go into rehab when the virus is done.


***

Mood Swings

New Yorker cartoon by
cartoonist and illustrator Lianna
Finck

Every day, (OK sometimes hourly) I vacillate from putting my total trust in God and Dr. Fashi to full swing paranoia.  Somewhat like this guy in the cartoon.

On my morning walks I still listen to stand up comics on Pandora.   The Jerry Seinfield station is my favorite.  That's mainly because, while not exactly G-rated, they don't get off into truly uncomfortable territory.  I hear short clips of a small variety of standups.  Sometimes I hear the same ones over and over.  I don't mind this if they're performers and bits I like.  It's clear that each one has a particular persona.  Jim Gaffigan's is laziness.  He tells us the reason his wife had their five babies at home is because he didn't to put on pants to drive to the hospital.

 I've heard Brian Reagan do a bit about lazy people a few times now,  He uses the invention of peanut butter and jelly packed in the same jar as the height of  laziness.   The first time I heard it I thought it was clever and acuate but clearly didn't apply to anyone I know.  Now I find myself strategizing daily about how to get my meal made using the least possible utensils because every single thing I use has to be washed with soap and water.   I have become Brian Reagan's peanut butter and jelly example.

People ask me, sometimes daily, if I'm lonely or bored.  The answer is no.  I'm in contact with multible people every day.  But I'm not comfortable with Zoom or any platform that forces me to appear in public.  That means I have to comb my hair.

But, as usual, my CODness is paying off.  Since I am the antithesis of spontaneity,  I work from a daily list of to-dos and then feel compelled to do them. Oh, and there's the hand washing thing.

But most important on my list is to stay in daily touch with God and Dr. Fashi.


***

Never Give Up

The Legend of Sisphus - "Never give in to circumstantial disappointments."

We've all been there.  Banging our heads against the wall and then thinking we had "the answer."  But no,  Not this time.

I just finished reading a lengthy article in the New Yorker magazine by Rivka Galchen about young intern Hashem Zirkey, at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.   It's basically about his life in the ER and it is heartbreaking.   He describes every day as very different but always tramatic.  Protocol changes almost daily.

It's evident  Zirkey cares deeply about his patients.  On March 21st one of the patients who seemed not as sick as others signed out to recover at home.  He walked by later and asked Zirky where the bathroom was.  He was walking - that's a great sign. Talking - that's a great sign.  A short time later the man had collapsed in the bathroom.  When Zirkey reached him the man had no pulse.   The patient died about 15 minutes later.  "Nothing like this had ever happed to me," Zirky said.

One of the things Zirkey treasures is being able to communicate bad news to patients in a compassionate and humane way.  Families are calling constantly.  One night he had a patient who was critically ill and on a ventilator.  His family called wanting to say goodbye.  Zirkey had to put the phone on speaker in order to hold it to the patient's ear. "I felt like I was intruding....I thought, My God, this is real.  This is what everyone is doing now."

One of the surgeons at Elmhurst described much of his work as a "hundred-per-cent Sisyphean task".

Another fan of the legend of Sisphus was French philosopher and prolific, Noble prizing winning, writer Albert Camus,  In his 1947 novel "The Plague," he described something that has struck with me all these decades since I read it. I may not get the details straight but the profound message, for me, was this:   In a world much like what we're experiencing now, he tells about a time when two  exhausted, and discouraged doctors who were ready to throw in the towel, were able to get away for a short respite.  They went for a night time swim and, at some point, they found themselves swimming in perfect sinc, which somehow empowered them to carry on their work.  They were able to continue pushing the bolder.

I have been uplifted by both stories.  Zirkey's, which I read today and "The Plague" which I read decades ago.

The point of the Sisphus legend is that we don't have control of the universe.  Stuff happens.  We get one issue solved and another pops up.  But we can choose to find meaning and purpose in continuing to roll the boulder.

Unfortunately for Camus, he was killed in a car crash at age 46.  That too, for me, is a profound example of the Legend of Sisphus.


***

Girl Power

In the 60's I was a total feminist.  Over the decades I've  calmed down considerably.   I no longer have a "them or us" attitude.  We're all in this together.  We all need to be who we're called to be.

"Mrs. America" is a new series on FX.  In it  Cate Blanchett plays female-empowerment woman Phyllis Schlafly. Only Schlafly was on the opposite side of the feminist movement.  Her biggest achievement was squashing the Equal Rights Amendment.  The ERA was a short statement guarantee equal legal rights to all Americans, including women.

During this time in the 70s best selling conservative author Marabel Morgan wrote a wildly popular book called "The Total Woman," in which she encouraged the traditional-stay-at-home spouse.  During this time I was asked to be the speaker for a large group of conservative women in South Florida.  I was especially flattered because they were aware of my views.  They also invited me to bring copies of my most recent poetry book.

It was only when I arrived at the event, ready to go, did I discover that there would be two keynote speakers.  Me and another woman who was, not only traditional to the extreme, but a close relative of Marabel Morgan. And she bought along piles of  The Total Woman bestseller.

I was actually fine with all of this and thought the event planners did these women a service by presenting two views of what comprises a total woman.  Only I brought the book that contained a snarky poem with a point by point response to Morgan's book.  I just kept my head down and my sense of humor in tack and all went well.  Here is my poem, which, you'll be relieved to know, I did not read.

The Total Robot 

For two weeks
I agreed with everything you said.
And we both developed ulcers.

I told you the awful speech you made 
Was good.
And you said
"Why did you betray me?"

I stopped wearing pants
and started wearing frilly dresses
And ribbons in my hair.
And you took me to Carvel's for lunch.

I forced Cathy to give away her $25
Overalls, 
And you said, 
"Why does my daughter hate me?"

I met you at the door
Wearing nothing but my sexy apron,
And your brought home
Three Hatian refugees and a 
Catholic Priest. 

I baked you a big apple pie,
Every night for a week. 
And you said, 
"Why aren't you working on your article?"
(Just before you had the gall bladder attack.)

I said, "Yes,  let's;"
To everything you suggested
And our friends had to bail us out of jail.

I dressed all of the children in pink,
And lined them up to await your return,
But you never did.

     - by Cecily Crossman