Hitch

"There are three things that are too amazing for me,
four that I do not understand:

the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a maiden."

First off a HUGE shout out to the love of my life, my lifesaving companion, the Allegra Cole to my Albert (so to speak) for seeing something in me and getting hitched to me! You complete me Linda!

Most of us of the male persuasion feel like Albert, the guy on the right, when it comes to the woman we are interested in or love. How is it then that we even get hooked up? I have no idea! What I do know is that this movie MovedMe because it displayed the wonderful mystery of a man with a maiden.

::MYSTERY::
I love the way this movie started because I hated it so much...ok let me explain. The whole "principles of men and women" thing really made me mad. As if women and men could be figured out by a bunch of facts and figures. Then he seems to say that he can get any guy "in bed" with any woman within three dates. This outraged me and my wife enough that we wanted to turn the movie off.

But I had the inside scoop from a friend that this was not what Hitch was about so we kept watching. And boy am I glad we did. We got to follow as he realized there is no such thing as principles. Through his experience with wooing Sara in the most unconventional, and might I add funny, ways. And when he realized Albert and Allegra did not get together through his "magic" but through Albert's cute bumbling and disarmingly charming ways.

I love the last line by Hitch, "Basic principles...there are none."

This is so true...I agree with the author that said we are not problems to solve we are people to be loved. There is a certain mystery to a woman and a man getting together, just as it was portrayed between Allegra and Albert. She thought his dorky traits Hitch tried to get rid of were...cute.

As I think of how Linda and I got together I wanted a roadmap or a plan. I looked for a book in the church library. There was no plan, no program to follow, no book just a mysterious, God ordained series of beautiful events. So all you Alberts out there and Allegras waiting to be swept off their feet...there is hope! Embrace the mystery and the God of that mystery who loves you.

::SCAR WARS::
A secondary aspect that MovedMe about this movie were the protrayals of past unhealed scars. Hitch is motivated to be and teach others how to be a smooth talking ladies man because of an old flame that hurt him, Cressida. (If you haven't seen the movie yet this is a woman not a Toyota.) Sara is a cynic, aka realist, about life because of a near death incident with her sister. At the time, everything was going so well and then in the blink of an eye...tragedy. She lives her life that way, believing that at any moment tragedy will strike, not falling in love because she knows he will disappoint.

Isn't that how we live? From our scars rather than God's promises and heart towards us? Isaiah prophesies that Jesus will come to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free (Isaiah 61:1). This isn't cute symbolism...we literally get our hearts broken and become captive to past tragedies. Praise God that He sent His Son...by His stripes (scars) we are healed.

Lord knows I have abandoned my soul, and continue to do so, to this truth and it has made all the difference in the world in my life. This freedom has allowed me to love others with more recklessness and to break me free from a cynical nature. I praise God for that!

::FINAL THOUGHTS::
Finally, I really like some of the sayings Hitch had. Yes, they were a bit cliche but I really believe they are part of living the abundant life God promised us. I'll leave you with them...

Hitch: Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away.

Hitch: Well, you know, like I always tell my clients, "Begin each day as if it were on purpose."

Hitch: What if fine isn't good enough? What if I want extraordinary?

I don't know about you but I want some of that extra ordinary!

Napoleon Dynamite

Ok this movie didn't really move me...though we could say it was about skills (bo staff, computer hacking, etc) and inspiring one another (Uncle Rico inspiring Kip to go to work). This movie is just pure comedy...

Truth is I've been watching some movies but they haven't quite moved me. I'm going to have to go back to some movies that I was watching before I started this blog (ie Count of Monte Cristo).

Until then how about your favorite scene and/or quote from the wonderful movie Napoleon Dynamite? Mine are too numerous to count...let's have lunch you'll get at least 10 out of me in that timespan. But here are the ones that come to mind:

Uncle Rico: I wish you wouldn't look at me like that Napoleon.
Napoleon: I wish you'd get out of my life and shut up!
Uncle Rico: While you and your friend Pedro were playing patty cake I made 150 bucks.
Napoleon: Oh yeah, I could make that it about 2 minutes.
Kip: Yeah right Napoleon I made $75.
Uncle Rico: So, since you don't seem to have a job Napoleon why don't you go feed Tina.
Napoleon: Why don't you eat a piece of decroded crap!
-I'm not sure why I like this scene but I'm sure years of counseling could reveal it.

"Follow your heart, that's what I do." - Napoleon to Pedro

"I don't know build her a cake or something." - Pedro on asking Summer to the dance

"I can't get this algae (sound the g not j) off my leer." - Napoleon on the extra features on the DVD...for some reason Bryan doesn't have any special features on his DVD...hmmmm

Please comment on your favorite scene/quote from the movie...you can do that by clicking on the Comment thingy at the bottom of this thingy...

Wooly Boys

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. 2 Sam 1:26

If you liked Second Hand Lions you will like this movie...I think. It's a little different but same basic premises. Two men can love each other in a purely masculine (not homosexual) way and a boy becomes a man around other men.

Like Second Hand Lions I liked this movie and it moved me for those two reasons.

JONATHAN & DAVID - The two men in the movie had a wonderfully masculine love for each other, much like I would think Jonathan and David in the Bible would have had. They were rude to each other, hit one another, but always always stuck by the other. Stoney (Peter Fonda's character) is dying in the movie and Schuck (Kris Kristofferson) is his ranch hand. They have been together through thick and thin; Stoney's wife's death, sheep shearing every year, and the rise of modern culture (Schuck still carries a six shooter).

I think this is a great picture of 1 Sam 18:1 (NLT) "After David had finished talking with Saul, he met Jonathan, the king's son. There was an immediate bond of love between them, and they became the best of friends." If you are anything like me you had that kind of bond with another male when you were were a boy, but today maybe not so much. With life's busyness, our own selfishness, and maybe a touch of homophobia we don't form bonds like that any more. It's a pity...the Lord is working on that one in me! I'm glad to share a few bonds with men that I hang out with now.

BOY2MAN - This movie along with Second Hand Lions and a great book called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge point out that boys become men around other men. It's a tragic reality of our society that boys like Charles (Joseph Mazzello) are not raised around REAL men because of divorce, death, choice, or scarcity (of REAL men). Therefore they are not taught what it means to be a REAL man. Responsible, selfless, leaders sometime crude, rude, and obnoxious but in the end they are supposed to be heroes. Charlie learns that as his dying Grandpa Stoney and his side kick Schuck kidnap him from the city and take him to the sheep ranch. You can almost see the difference between his first scene and his last...he went from boy to man.

I got to put this into practice a couple of weekends ago. I took my first son camping against all real logic. We have a baby in the house less than 2 months old and we battle for every minute of sleep we can muster. If you know me you know I don't sleep the first night anywhere away from home, especially not on the ground in a tent. But you know what? It was way worth it, my son got to be around me and some other men that weekend. It was a great weekend where I got to tell him that he has what it takes, that I'm proud of him, that I love him. These are major messages boys need to hear...from their fathers. And we shared a HUGE moment when he asked me to baptize him in a river we were trouncing through. Amazing...I'll go more into detail in the CalvarySLO Blog.

FINAL THOUGHT - Right before Stoney died he asked Schuck to take off his sunglasses. Schuck asks why and Stoney responds, "So I can remember your ugly face" or something like that. To translate that manspeak he was saying, "I love you." That's what I learned from this movie, it's ok for us of the male gender to love each other young and old!