dual personalities

Month: March, 2012

March 6, 2012

A Lenten movie pic

by chuckofish

When my children were younger, I made an effort during Lent to program our movie watching accordingly. We had a list of movies which we watched every Lent. Some were blatantly “religious” films, like Ben Hur. Some just had a spiritual message or undercurrent. Today’s pic was in the former category.


The Robe (1953) is based on the bestseller by Lloyd C. Douglas. I have read the book and it is a good read. It posits the question and earnestly tries to answer what might have happened to the robe which belonged to Christ and over which lots were cast by the Roman soldiers who crucified him:

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. (Mathhew 27:35)

Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, the movie, which stars a young Richard Burton and Jean Simmons, is a very enjoyable adaption, mostly because it has such attractive stars. It won Oscars for set design and costumes and should have won for its lushly poignant score. It also features Victor Mature in his 2nd greatest role (his best performance being that of Doc Holliday in My Darling Clementine) as Demetrious, the Greek slave. There is a lot of scenery chewing in this movie, but no scene-stealing compares to Mature’s, especially when he accuses his master, the Roman tribune Marcellus (Burton), of being a “jungle animal” shortly after Jesus has been crucified. Richard Burton also has some great scenes, and it is early enough in his career and he is not yet so jaded that we believe him as he undergoes his spiritual transformation. I would be remiss if I did not also mention Jay Robinson as Caligula whose over-the-top depiction of the crazed emperor is truly wonderful.

The movie successfully conveys the idea that being a Christian under Caligula’s rule was seriously dangerous and there is enough daring-do and sword-fighting to keep the action moving. These early Christians are real action heroes–brave, faithful and, to use the current vernacular, extremely hot. No one looked better in a toga and armour than Richard Burton as Marcellus.

No one, that is, until Stephen Boyd.

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March 5, 2012

Embarrassing picture Monday

by chuckofish

Because I received some complaints that there was no Embarrassing Picture Monday post last week, I have bowed to the wishes of my readers with this embarrassing photo:

No, this is not the mug shot of a member of Motley Crue. Nor is it Alexander Godunov who played the crazy guy in Die Hard. It is the freshman year ID photo of the father of my children. I always did like those Viking types.

6 Comments
March 3, 2012

A place of quiet contemplation

by chuckofish

I like cemeteries, especially old ones full of interesting monuments and/or family members. Cemeteries are usually quiet and pretty; they encourage us to think and they remind us of our roots.

Take this one in Clarence, Ontario, which we visited when our eldest son, now 21, was an adorable 1 1/2 year old:

Newly arrived in the North Country, we made the pilgrimage to Clarence out of curiosity. There actually is no real town there, just an old church and a few houses. Serendipity and a complete stranger led us to the cemetery one town over where most of our British/Canadian family members are buried. James is peeking out from behind the tombstone of his great, great, (many greats)…grandfather, Isaac Whitney Taylor (1791-1861), whose daughter, Louisa Taylor, after marrying a wild Frenchman, Fabian Blais, had 9 children including our great grandmother on our mother’s side, Susie Louise. She in turn married the hard-working Scottish lumberman, Daniel Cameron, who moved the family from the backwoods to bustling Burlington VT. Imagine Susie’s relief.

Our father’s father’s family also lived in VT and proximity has made it possible to visit the small cemetery in Moretown (between Burlington and Montpelier), where lots of them are buried. Moretown is another non-town which now has only the cemetery and a few houses. When our great, great grandfather’s family lived there, they ran an Inn for a while so it must have been a little busier. Here’s a picture of yours truly and her three little goofballs visiting the ancestors. Whatever would they have thought of the tie-dyed shirt and backwards fanny-packs? One dare not imagine.

One can visit a cemetery without indulging in the beautiful melancholy of Baudelaire, who wrote, “To the solemn graves, near a lonely cemetery, my heart like a muffled drum is beating funeral marches.” But it is nice to pay our respects to those who came before us, whether we knew them personally or not. I highly recommend a visit to your local cemetery.

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March 2, 2012

Take it easy on yourself

by chuckofish

(because)…the world will keep turning without any help…

This is a good thing to “meditate on” during Lent. We really have control over so little. So don’t sweat the small stuff. All you really need is love! At least that’s what Don Williams says.

You remember Don Williams. He’s “The Gentle Giant” of country music, singer of popular ballads with 17 Number 1 records to his credit. But then, maybe you don’t. Even with all those hits, Don was never a super star (except, oddly enough, in England and Africa). In the U.S. he hit his peak in the 1970s and 80s. I remember seeing ads for his records on Channel 11 and laughing, confident in my own sophisticated taste. (I must add that where I went to school we laughed at everything and everyone. Forced gaiety was our way of life. This is not to say, that I did not take some things seriously–but these things were guarded dearly and only talked about at home.) Anyway, somewhere along the way I heard old Don. I was hooked. And I tell you, if you are ever stressed out and in need of a chill pill, Don Williams is for you. Listen to him on the way to work or on the way home, and you will find yourself newly calm, cool and collected–even smiling.

Here’s a link to my favorite Don Williams song “Good Ole Boys Like Me” which has wonderful literary references to the “Williams boys–Hank and Tennessee” and Thomas Wolfe, not to mention the great line about “When I was a kid Uncle Remus he put me to bed with a picture of Stonewall Jackson above my head”. You ask, how could we resist putting a picture of U.S. Grant over the boy’s bed? Well, we couldn’t, and, yes, we did. And it was really cool.

You may wonder if there is going to be a country music Lenten theme on this blog. Well, probably not, but if the shoe fits…

4 Comments
March 1, 2012

Taking the shortcut

by chuckofish

“Or you can take the shortcut and paddle to one of the passages in the Huron River, which reflects this world so clearly you can see into the next one. When wild flags blossom along the river’s edge in this world, snow whitens the banks in that one. And when trout and sunfish sleep under a skin of ice here, swamps there hum with bees and cicadas, kingbirds and vireos and warblers. Walk against the current. Follow one of the streams that spill into the river till you find the spring at the bottom. You have found a doorway into the spirit world. Be careful. It is not safe to pass through that doorway without a guide.

“But maybe you don’t travel that far. You say, Ann Arbor is far enough. Stand still in the stream. Listen. Thomas Bearheart’s cousin picks up her hammer. Can you hear it ringing as she forges copper fishhooks in Drowning Bear, Wisconsin? Put your ear to the water as if it were a train track and listen for travelers rushing toward you, invisible as the dead and noisy as a pack of dogs.”

Nancy Willard, Sister Water

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