Réflexions

by chuckofish

I have had a quiet, contemplative week–no visits from rambunctious twins or feisty dogs. No severe weather or noisy street construction. Sigh. In other words, nothing very exciting to write about.

I did a lot of puttering around in my home and in my yard. I caught up with some “desk work”. I went to the Dollar Tree to buy candy. I watched some bad movies. Ye gods–The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), despite an all-star cast including Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Giulietta Masina, Edith Evans, Danny Kaye, etc., was unwatchable.

As Vincent Canby wrote at the time, “[Bryan] Forbes, who persists in making conventional films of unconventional properties…moves his cameras around quite a lot, but there is really little he can do to hide the fact that “The Madwoman of Chaillot” is—as it was 20 years ago—an incredibly precious theatrical conceit, just the sort of thing somebody might think would make a great Broadway musical comedy. As we all know, it didn’t.”

We also watched Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), which I had not seen since it came out, lo, so many years ago.

It is successful in getting across the horror of war, especially a war in that part of the world, but it was unrelentingly violent. Also, despite it having a great cast, I could not tell who anyone was. The characters were practically indistinguishable. The sound and the editing were impressive (they won Oscars) but only made it harder to watch, as did the frenetic cinematography. Impressive in its own way–I watched the whole thing–but I don’t need to watch it again, ever.

Here are three things to remember as we seek to build God-centered homes where sound doctrine is the foundation and our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.

And this is a great one from John Piper. I love it when he really gets going on a topic! “‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’ You cannot be neutral to Jesus Christ. There is no neutrality in dealing with Jesus. If you are not for him, you are against him. If you are not seeking to gather faith and obedience from those around you, you are scattering people away from him.”

And forgive me, here’s Jiminy Glick…

Yes, it was a slow week, but I did go over to daughter #1’s house last night for a glass of wine and to let Mr. Smith practice his balancing act…

Have a good weekend!