Ratatouille – What Parent’s Think of at Kids’ Movies

Monday night Kate and I watched Ratatouille with Jude and Ellie and in spite Jude’s initial protestation in favor of a tried and true Sesame Street video, they both loved it. While Ellie loved the film for its uncanny ability to include numerous recognizable props (“Shoes!” “He jump!” “He sad” “De rainin’.”, etc.), I think was actually able to get in to the movie a bit more.

If you haven’t seen the movie Ratatouille is about how a rat named Remi, who loves to cook, learns to live out his identity, finding acceptance and earning acclaim from both his father and the colossal food critic Anton Ego.  Here, after Remi has come to terms with his identity and  poured himself in to an evening of living out that identity, is Ego’s review of the meal:

Monday as I watched this scene I was reminded of two quotes:

He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. (St. Francis of Assisi)

and,

Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher. (from Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach)

In Ratatouille the powerful force keeping Anton Ego employed as the unswerving critic is overcome by a creator whose hands, head and heart have all set about making a masterpiece.

As far as I can tell, the only options on the table are:

1. Withdraw from creation and be a critic only
2. Create and immediately retreat in to self-protecting cynicism, disinterest or dispassion.
3. Unapologetically pouring one’s whole self in to creation and living “the new” that others might be drawn in to the places where life is to be found.

Three Years Ago…

Three years ago Kate, Jude and I stepped off a plane into a 15 month adventure in Holland.  I’m fairly certain I cannot do anywhere near justice to the impact the intervening years have had.  We’ve forged friendships, welcomed new members into our family, ditched the outstandingly moralistic gospel of our upbringing, gained a more bi-cultural perspective, reshaped our understanding of the role and function of church  leadership, grown to recognize our strengths and how to function in them, come to see our weaknesses and how to supplement them in community and are learning to recognize the myriad ways we display our need for the Gospel daily.

Thank you to all who have been a part of this journey, participating and supporting along the way.  We look forward to continuing to journey alongside those both near and far as the Lord continues to lead us onward.

 

The Scariest Thing on Halloween: Reflections from a trick or treating noob

(I’ll warn you: today’s post is somewhat rant-y, with a sprinkling of soapbox.  If you’re allergic to either I suggest you steer clear.)

What is it about us that draws us to disembodied things?

Monday I “trunk-or-treated” for the first time in my life and I have to say it was an odd experience.  About halfway through our walk down an impressive row of trunks it dawned on me: I will never see these people again.  They’d come from all around, other towns even, to come give my kids candy, and they were more than happy to oblige.

Now, is it bad for these people to give us free candy?  No, of course not. They were trying to bless us right? God shows us how to bless (ultimately so in the Gospel), so what could be bad about blessing?  Here’s the thing: God’s blessing always contains a relational element.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I can tell, his giving always either communicates something of himself or is embodied in himself.  At least for us Monday night there was no relational element.  I’m sure there was for other people, but for us there was none.  It was a context-free event with little to no chance of on-going encounter or relationship.

While it may be somewhat easy to point out in a trunk-or-treat, we like disembodied things.  We like context-free things because they’re mess-free.  We go to Bible study once a week for an hour with people we don’t engage life with.  We receive counseling from a professional who will never help us navigate our fears, anxieties, guilt real-time.  We travel hundreds of miles to talk to people about Jesus when we don’t know our neighbors.  De-incarnated things attract us all the time.

Returning home Kate, the kids and I decided to walk our neighborhood for some old-fashioned trick-or-treating.  We met neighbors we’d hardly ever seen before.  People had put together toy bags for the kids.  Others had candied apples for the parents.  People actually came out of their warm houses and talked to us.  Some houses more than others embodied the “scary” of the holiday, but all of them embodied the blessing of the day.

I’m not saying anything about the trunk-or-treaters, but for me at least it is time to ditch the body-less Gospel.  God’s gift and God’s message are contained, are embodied in the person of Jesus.  Its time for the Gospel to be embodied in everyday life. Join me in learning to do this?

Steve Job’s Eulogy From His Sister.

This is a moving, incredible and inspiring read.  Check it out if you have the chance.

Mona Simpsons Eulogy for Steve Jobs