Giant Disruptions in Our High Holy Seasons

 Dearest e-votees-

One of the things that has been on my bucket list for a while is to watch all 123 of the American Film Institute's top 100 movies of all time.  (There are 123 because they made their original list in 1998 and then revised it in 2007).  You can see the lists summarized here. Being the cinephile I am I have assembled all of these 123 movies into a collection that fits neatly into a cabinet I am working my way through.  This pandemic has opened up some time to make progress on this project.

Part of the joy of this is seeing movies I would never have picked out by myself.  It is good for us to be challenged, blessed and interrupted by the tastes and expertise of others.  This week I found myself watching Giant (Giant (1956) - IMDb).

Peace,

Karl

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Somewhere in the midst of this 200-minute western epic is a Thanksgiving scene.  It is actually two Thanksgiving scenes that contrast one another.  The main couple are having some stresses in their marriage.  They are having Thanksgiving apart.  She and the three children are with her family having dinner.  The children had befriended Pablo the turkey and were traumatized when he was served on a platter for the holiday feast.  The children are inconsolable.  He is at his sprawling cattle ranch in Texas with his own turkey and no one to share it with.

These scenes struck me deeply this year.  Many of us are having what are normally high holy days filled with family and food in a much more constrained way separated by miles and concerns over health.  Some of us are suffering strains on relationships due to distance or extreme proximity that are stressful and hard.  Some of us are deeply traumatized (over all manner of circumstance) and may well find ourselves inconsolable.

For years and years we have been offered a picture of Thanksgiving as a feast of fellowship with family and friends.  Images of pilgrims and original peoples breaking bread together challenge us to live up to higher ideals that transcend current cultural and racist divisions.  A major theme of the movie Giant deals with relationships between Texans and Mexicans; between current squatters and original peoples.  We all know at some level that Thanksgiving isn't a holy day without blemish.

Most of us fall somewhere between the Rockwellian images of family feasts and abundant tables and the gritty reality of wresting away control of a "new" land from current occupants.  Most of us long for deep family connections and warm encounters but know the disconnects and chills that come through pandemics and festering arguments and seething political divisions that divide us.  Most of us long for tears of joy and stirred hearts but can also relate to those other tears of the inconsolability of the broken ways of our own sin and the sins of others.

As we linger in the afterglow of Thanksgiving and lean into the glow of the Advent candles and the hearth of Christmas I hope and pray for joy and peace for you and your family.  May you find consolation as needed in the abiding love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.  Maybe you be surprised by grace and whimsy in unexpected places as this year continues along in new and unfamiliar forms.  May the disruptions and interruptions bless you and draw you closer to one another and to God.

God, have your way in us.   Help us love you well and reflect you to others.  Amen.