Advent Attempts

For all the good spiritual reasons to love this season, my love for it stems entirely from that Advent Wreath and the slowly-lighted candles. My mother had one at home and with much pomp and ceremony, we'd light it on the appropriate Sundays. Now I am too lazy to have my own, so I look to our High Church Brethren to sate my adventish thirsts.

The First Week of Advent.

Went by without any note. I completely forgot it could start in November. Doh!

The Second Week of Advent

At some point I realized my error. I quickly went on-line and looked up the Advent schedules of all the local High Churches. I found a service at a local Catholic church. I was delighted that they had an 11 Am service. That Sunday we washed and dressed and still managed to wander in a little late. There was a handful of elderly parishioners, and verily, a gigantic Advent Wreath graced the front. Both candles were lit, and I was bit chagrined we hadn't made it on time. We decided to stay anyways. We listened to the calm tones of the priest for a while and then realized he wasn't speaking English. We could almost tell when everyone recited the Creed (it sounds amazingly similar in Cantonese) but we were totally lost during the homily. We decided to come back to the later English service. We made it back to the English service and it was so nice to hear the familiar sounds of the mother tongue. Sadly, the wreath was already lit, but we got to hang out with it anyways.

The Third Week of Advent

We made it to our regular church last Sunday-- a very nice congregation mere blocks from out home that has almost all the parts that we need in a church (proximity, Jesus-lovin' people, and a healthy respect for the Bible), but they didn't have a wreath. I am big enough to know you can celebrate Advent without a wreath and the pastor's sermon and Christmas hymns did much to remind us what being Christian is all about.

Cinematic Advents

Dutch's obsession with movies that touch spiritual themes paid off last night when we watched Le Fils (The Son), a Belgian film about a carpentry teacher with a difficult student and a dark secret. I don't want to spoil it, in case you want to check it out. Of course, any good movie about teachers is going to get my attention, but this movie hit all the great Advent themes way better than any wreath. What it lacked in sleighs and reindeer it more than compensated with beautiful images of forgiveness, parenthood and love.

miscellania

I keep harassing Dutch about blog posts that keep coming to my mind and then, further adding to his frustration, never writing them. The following are abstracts of potential blog posts I'll never actually write (unless, you my adoring, patient readers demand more).

A New Level of Consumer Victimhood

Cord Blood Banking with CBR® helps you protect your baby - and enjoy peace of mind

I am used to walking into an Urban Outfitters store and being bombarded by the marketing of tchochkes and housewares that are aimed right at my forehead. Usually I can look at the stuff, laugh at myself and my generation and move on. But now that I am a proto-parent, the clever marketers are now aiming at my solar plexus. We have been inundated with baby marketing (diapers, maternity clothes, furniture) for useful stuff that I'll probably be getting second hand, or picking up off the sidewalk (the joys of living in a city). Those adverts I can usually ignore or shrug off. But the cord blood banking people have climbed to the pinnacle of alarmist obnoxiousness. Looking at their ads, it appears that if we don't bank our cord blood we are evil, terrible parents, bad people and flirting with disaster. I actually spoke to my very down-to-earth non-alarmist Ob-Gyn the other day about it and he said it was a scam. I like my Ob-man. He has a soft voice, a gentle touch and he doesn't like wasting time.

Gattaca Ruined Genetic Testing For Me

At my first prenatal appointment with a nurse practitioner, I was asked to strongly consider the level of genetic testing that I wanted. I had a week or two to make a decision. She gave me a xeroxed flow chart and some other papers to look over with my partner. Additionally, I had to answer a 10 page survey that we also went over (touching light and cheery topics like my rampant alcoholism and disturbingly high blood pressure and less-than-ideal weight). At the end of the appointment, she asked if I had any questions. I stood there looking at her dumbly. It was the closest I had ever come to a complete trancelike state. Of course I had questions, probably a million of them. So many that my brain shut down with the gridlock. I eventually decided against it-- a combination of inertia (more visits to the hospital meant more subs to be arranged), my politics (wombs are for growing in) and the movie Gattaca.

Dutch on BBC!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004t2ct

Its true, he's an international superstar now. His letter is read at the very end of the program (right at 52:20)

Celluloid Christians

In addition to the Samurai Movie Kick, the Silent Movie Kick and the German Movie Kick, Dutch has been seeking out Christian Movies. I tend to equate Christian Movies with terrible propaganda, low-budget production, obscure mid-century pieties, or even worse, Mel Gibson. But Dutch, in his patient research has uncovered a number of excellent movies, all foreign, all entertaining and appropriate for infidel and believer alike.

Usually seeing Christians portrayed in movies is a painful experience. Between terrible stereotypes, gross misuderstandings, Bible-misquotes, there is usually much to cringe at. Granted, there is plenty to cringe at in Christian history and contemporary culture. That said...

Ordet is a great movie. Not only are denominational feuds lovingly and realistically portrayed, there are curmudgeony old grandpas, a crazy-ex-seminarian with a Messiah complex, non-obnoxious children, a screen play written by a man who was martyred by Nazis, and lots and lots of coffee drinking and pipe smoking. Oh yes, and you will cry. It was the first time I saw Dutch cry. I cried, of course, but I cry at the end of nearly all movies now.