What We've Been Watching: The Long Way Round ... and Down

We've been really enjoying a couple of travelogue style documentaries starring well known actor Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman. Both motorcycle enthusiasts, they came up with the idea of  a round-the-world trip.

Thus was born The Long Way Round. They set off from London, traveled through Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia, over to Alaska, through Canada, North America and finished in New York. They took the Road of Bones in Siberia and saw wildfires in Alaska. When they could, they camped. Often they were welcomed into local homes. They also stopped often at Unicef projects and it was fascinating to see the many ways they help people around the world

In some ways this is similar to the Michael Palin trips which we've enjoyed watching over the years. However, you see this trip behind the scenes from the beginning of soliciting support through the cameraman not having his permits through support vehicles bogging down during floods. It feels a lot more real when you see a country "fixer" fretting to get them through customs after an 8 hour wait.

Naturally after we finished this we were happy to see that McGregor and Boorman had since taken another long trip, this time The Long Way Down from John O'Groats, Scotland to the tip of South Africa.

As in any such trip you see many aspects of Africa that make you feel closer to a place that is so far away and so very different. I have to say that I've never been particularly interested in Africa as a travel destination but after this I'd love to go to Botswana and Rwanda to see the animals.

Naturally a good deal of the fun is in getting to know Ian and Charley as they face challenges and rejoice in triumphs.

This is showing on Netflix and I know they have dvd sets for sale on their site (links are above).

I've love to see The Long Way go through Latin America. Fingers crossed!

Thanks to our friends Kim and Mike for turning us onto these great series. I'd have hesitated to bring these up since the trips took place several years ago except we've found that no one we mentioned it to has heard of it either. So I'm passing the word along ...

Worth a Thousand Words: White-Tailed Eagle

White-Tailed Eagle
taken by Remo Savisaar

As always with Remo's photographs, it is best to go to his place to see them in their full sized magnificence.

An Amazing Can Opener

Yes, it is the little things that count!

A Catholic Gardener's Spiritual Almanac by Margaret Rose Realy

A Catholic Gardener's Spiritual Almanac: Cultivating Your Faith Throughout the Year by Margaret Rose Realy

I'm not a gardener.

In fact, I'm so not a gardener that I realized I don't have a single plant growing in my home. I have a few container plants on the front porch which I remember to water when we're in the middle of the blazing Texas summers.

(Do you hear that? I think we can hear Margaret Rose's heart breaking right now.)

And yet I read and enjoyed her A Garden of Visible Prayer about making prayer gardens. I readily agreed to read this book, which I'd normally never do.

It's because I like the idea of a garden. I suppose I'm what you'd call an armchair gardener just as many people read cookbooks they'll never use (which makes me cry, but that's another story).

I also enjoy reading almanacs, believe it or not. (Is that armchair farming?) I love the rhythms of the physical year moving through its cycles, which may be a reason I love the Catholic liturgical year so much.  Margaret Rose Realy combines the two by taking the best tips for gardening year-round and linking them with the Catholic liturgical year to weave a lovely devotional for everyone.

Each month has:

• gardening focus for that time of year
• traditions and feasts
• saints appropriate for gardening
• faith-filled gardening keyed to the liturgical year (a Lenten garden in March, a rosary or angel garden in October)
• practical gardening advice
• Biblical reflections
• prayer focus

I also really enjoyed the frequent charts and lists of plants associated with faith, such as plants found on the Shroud of Turin or Marian garden plants. There is even the occasional recipe. Best of all are Realy's insights and reflections in which she openly shares her own faith.

I haven't finished this book because I want to read it as the year unfolds. Even if I never get out in the garden, I go walking daily. This is the sort of book that keeps me connected to the nature that I experience even on those little jaunts.

Highly recommended for the practical, faithful, and armchair gardeners.

NOTE
It was a free review book. But they were my own opinions.

Worth a Thousand Words: Fox and Bird

Fox and Bird. Ink on Saunders Waterford hot pressed, 2.5 x 3.5″ (ACEO)
by Himmapaan

Well Said: God's Love and Senseless Folly

If even human love has its own reasoning, comprehensible only to the heart that is open to it, how much truer this must be of God's love! When it is the depth and power of God that stirs, is there anything of which love is incapable? The glory of it is so overwhelming that to all who do not accept love as an absolute point of departure, its manifestations must seem the most senseless folly.

Romano Guardini, The Lord

This book has been so thought provoking and so wonderful at speaking to me about my relationship with Jesus. What a perfect Lenten read and a great read for any time, which is a good thing since obviously I'm not going to finish it by Easter.

Well Said: How Did You Die?

How Did You Die?

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It's nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there -- that's disgrace.
The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,
It's how did you fight -- and why?

And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he's slow or spry,
It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,
But only how did you die?

Edmund Vance Cooke, 1903

This is another poem from 101 Famous Poems, edited by Roy J. Cook. That's the book I'm using for daily poetry reading each morning. I love that book and I am often surprised at the famous lines that leap out at me while I'm reading. This poem didn't lead to that sort of revelation but it was one I liked for the simple truth it tells.

Do the Monster Mash ... Hollywood Style

Last week I featured Attack the Block as a movie you might have missed. I was thrilled to see that someone gave it a try and now:

So now I have an entirely new appreciation for the genre of monster movies, where do I go from here?

I thought you'd never ask!

I'm not an expert by any means, but I know what I like. A list of what I like is below, with links to my reviews (you may have to scroll down in some of these entries to find the movie mentioned below).

• Aliens: the perfect combination of monsters and adrenaline. Plus Sigourney Weaver. “I can handle myself.” “Yeah, I noticed.” One of my top 10 favorite movies.
  
  
• King Kong (1933): Holy mackerel, what a show! The original is the best.
  
  
• The Mummy (1999): This is just plain fun, along the lines of what would happen if Indiana Jones tangled with an ancient Egyptian curse (and lots of mummies, of course).
  
  
• Shaun of the Dead: the zombie movie for people who don't like zombies. (Like me.)
  
  
• District 9: What happens when aliens land in South Africa and have no way to get home?
  
  
• Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter: Light on history, heavy on vampires, and a lot of fun.
  
  

Well Said: A Common Temptation

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.

George Muller

In other words, don't worry about your feelings. Just do it anyway.

That's something I've had to rediscover lately. It is so often clear what I should do but when I factor in if I want to do it, then I begin finding excuses. The silly thing is that giving in to those excuses doesn't make me any happier. So I might as well just go ahead and do my duty, so to speak.

What I've Been Reading: Dickens and a Dab

A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain: Literary Lives from Shakespeare's Old England to Frost's New England

Author Elliot Engel is an English professor and this book shows that anyone who takes his classes is lucky. This superb collection of brief biographical essays not only helps us understand famous literary personalities but explains what they wrote. It is simply amazing that Elliot Engel managed to do this so effectively and entertainingly in such brief pieces.

I was actually pleased to see that the book doesn't take up space with samples of the famous works. I can get those anywhere for the most part. This book is chock-full of Elliot Engel's brief, fascinating biographies and discussions of why these authors still appeal to us today. And that's what I really wanted.

David Copperfield

After reading Great Expectations (some time ago and after great struggles, we may recall) I had my first glimmerings of interest in reading David Copperfield. Both books tell the story of boys growing to adulthood. I knew that Great Expectations began with an inherently selfish person and David Copperfield seemed its opposite, with sweet David innocently unable to see the obvious in front of his face. Or so I'd gleaned.

I was curious to see what Charles Dickens did with such different internal motivations. I enjoyed about 2/3 of it quite well and was really fascinated by Dora's place in the scheme of things. Then Dickens suddenly seemed to turn very Victorian and become intent on wrapping up every loose end in a nice package with a bow on it. And somehow it stopped being quite so enjoyable.

I have a copy of G.K. Chesterton's Appreciations and Criticisms of the Work of Charles Dickens (free on the Kindle, read it here from Project Gutenberg). He sums up a lot of my problems with David Copperfield in ways that I won't share because they'd spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. However, he hits the nail on the head about the book overall:

David Copperfield begins as if it were going to be a new kind of Dickens novel; then it gradually turns into an old kind of Dickens novel. It is here that many readers of this splendid book have been subtly and secretly irritated.

By the way, the Librivox recording features T. Hynes' lovely Irish accent and is wonderfully read.

Dombey and Son

I now am slowly listening my way through Dombey and Son. Why does the cover have a picture of a young lady (Florence, if you'd like to know) when the title is Dombey and Son? Ah, therein lies the tale!

I'm about a third of the way through and am finding it enjoyable in many ways, chiefly through the characters. The plot, less so. However, I've still got about 500 pages to go so it may get less predictable.

For a good, free recording try LibriVox's Mil Nicholson. She does some of the best voices I've ever heard although I don't enjoy her straight reading of the rest of the text quite as much.

I plumped for David Timson's reading which has some of the best expressive reading of the plain text I've heard, without being at all over the top about it.

Worth a Thousand Words: Mirror of the Soul Within

"The eye, which is the reflector of the external world, is also the mirror of the soul within."
taken by Valerie, ucumari photography
Some rights reserved.

NPR Wants You To Tell Them About Your Favorite Podcasts

NPR is working on ways to help people discover podcasts — and we need your help. We're looking for podcasts from public radio and beyond, and we'd love for you to share some of your favorite episodes with us.

The form is here.

Podcast producers/creators aren't allowed to toot their own horn in that form but obviously if you enjoy enjoy A Good Story is Hard to Find then please let them know!

Blogging Around: Grab Bag Edition

Werewolf Cop

We've gotten used to seeing lots of urban fantasy but not by the likes of Andrew Klavan who is known for hard-edged thrillers. I read reviews regularly at Brandywine Books where Lars is a confirmed fan. So it surprised me when I saw the supernatural edge to his latest. Read Lars' review here where he gives it his highest recommendation. And here's one at Books and Culture that they pointed to later.

A Look Inside Jeb Bush's Catholic Faith

“You hear people say, ‘I don’t want to impose my faith,’ ” Mr. Bush told the newspaper The Florida Catholic days after leaving office in 2007. “Well, it’s not an imposition of faith. It’s who you are.”

Read the NY Times story. Via The Deacon's Bench.

A Holy Year of Mercy

Pope Francis announced an extraordinary jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy, to highlight the Catholic Church’s “mission to be a witness of mercy.” ... which will be celebrated from Dec. 8, 2015, until Nov. 20, 2016. [...]

Traditionally, every 25 years the popes proclaim a holy year, which features special celebrations and pilgrimages, strong calls for conversion and repentance, and the offer of special opportunities to experience God’s grace through the sacraments, especially confession. Extraordinary holy years, like the Holy Year of Mercy, are less frequent, but offer the same opportunities for spiritual growth.

I picked this up at The Deacon's Bench which is where I see lots of interesting news. He's got links and other info here.

Neil Gaiman on Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett, may he rest in peace, was evidently not the cheery fellow one would think from his hilarious and insightful books. Neil Gaiman writes that he was fueled by rage. That actually makes sense to me. It doesn't make me like his books any less or any more. It's just interesting. Read it here. Via Will Duquette who, as he has done with so many other favorite authors, read most of Pratchett's books aloud to his family.

Cinderella

All the excellent reviews of the new Cinderella movie have me chomping at the bit to see it. I love the idea of a straight, respectful telling and in Kenneth Branagh's hands it has evidently become a piece of art. I especially liked Steven D. Greydanus' review. Here's a bit.

Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is such a gallant anachronism, such a grandly unreconstructed throwback, that it offers, without ever raising its voice, a ringing cross-examination of our whole era of dark, gritty fairy-tale revisionism. These stories have been around for centuries, the film seems to say. Are you sure they will be improved by making the heroines oppressed by society or their parents, making the male love interests the moral or cultural inferiors of the heroines, adding battle scenes and so forth?

I’ll be honest: I wouldn’t mind seeing some revisionism in Cinderella’s story. I would like the heroine to be a more active agent in her own story. The film, though, brushes this aside: Never mind what you would do with it; this is the story. Isn’t this a good story, worth telling just as it is?

And you know what? It is. As told by Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz (About a Boy), the tale of a much-abused “cinder girl” and a high-minded prince who fall in love at the ball is as magical and romantic as you remember it being the first time you saw the Disney cartoon.

Book Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

"Do you think that doing the right thing will always be pretty?"

I really loved Rosamund Hodge's first book Cruel Beauty (my review here). I was not sure how she could possibly match it, especially with a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood which is a fairy tale I've never cared for much.

I am happy to say that Crimson Bound is a compelling story just as fresh, just as exhilarating, just as complex, just as stay-up-til-midnight-reading-as-fast-as-possible engrossing. While being completely original and different.

Here's the official description:

An exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, from the author of Cruel Beauty.

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless—straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in a vain effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her hunt for the legendary sword that might save their world. Together, they navigate the opulent world of the courtly elite, where beauty and power reign and no one can be trusted. And as the two become unexpected allies, they discover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic . . . and a love that may be their undoing. Within a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

I saw a reviewer wondering where Little Red Riding Hood was in all this. I really had to stop and think about it. There is an innocent, naive girl. There is a big, bad wolf. There is a cottage in the woods with a beloved, elderly relative. The fact that I had to stop and think about it to locate these elements tells you that the original fairy tale is merely a springboard for Hodge's creativity.

Crimson Bound also echoes of sparkling courts in medieval France and of darker places where an unseen Devourer and its living, breathing Forest are barely held at bay from transmuting and destroying all normal life. It is a delightfully formed world which felt very natural and real.

This is the background against which Hodge weaves an absorbing tale featuring wonderfully complex heroes and villains, none of whom are ever allowed to be entirely evil or entirely pure. Their actions are driven by reasons rooted in their lives, their histories. This allows the story to raise questions which may haunt the reader afterward about loyalty, choices, friendship, love, guilt, and sacrifice. Interestingly, this world has a religion which has very strong echoes of Catholicism. The perceptions and reality of religion in such a setting become a story element that again add depth.

There is, of course, romance and since this is a YA book it is kept fairly pure though I can think of a few things that would make me give this to older teens rather than younger. Those "iffy" elements are conveyed largely through inference and distanced language. That also applied to the violence, of which there is a fair amount because there is a lot of swordplay in this book which tends to be described more thoroughly although not with unnecessary emphasis on gore.

I'm not sure how Rosamund Hodges writes books that are so layered, yet also so enchanting they swirl around in my head for days afterward, making me collar other book readers so I can tell them to read it. All I can think is how lucky I am to be around while these books are coming out and all I can say is, "More please!"

Note:
This book comes out on May 15. As soon as I finished reading the uncorrected galley proof, I went to Amazon and pre-ordered the final version. I highly recommend you pre-order one too. You need to start reading this as soon as possible!

(I read a review book. I also gave my own opinion and no one else's.)

Worth a Thousand Words: Black Grouse

Black Grouse
taken by that wildlife photography genius, Remo Savisaar

Blogging Around: Of Many Diverse Things

World's Best Pencil Sharpener

I admit I was dubious over these claims by Amazon reviewers. But a pencil sharpener that has inspired 331 reviews must have something going for it.

I myself had been searching in vain for a decent manual sharpener for some time. Hey, it's the little quests in life that give it meaning. Crossword puzzles and my calendar (paper, natch) cry out for using a pencil. (Don't get me started on what sort of pencil. Those #2s just don't cut it. But that's another quest.)

I can truly testify that the claims are correct. This sharpener is fantastic, whether on the hated #2s or colored pencils that you found in a cabinet where you used to store the kids' art supplies.

The 1001 Nights Podcast

Each episode we bring you the ancient mythologies of the Arabian Nights reinterpreted by modern authors in a variety of settings and styles. These stories have been told and retold for hundreds of years and trace their roots back to ancient medieval Arabian, Persian, Indian, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian folklore. While some westernized stories such as Aladdin and the tales of Sinbad are widely known, many other wondrous myths have yet to find life in our culture.

The stories are famously told by Scheherazade to enrapture the Sultan in a heroic effort to forestall her execution and save her people.

These winding, nesting and mysterious stories are presented to you as original adaptations, never before heard or read.

This is well produced and narrated and I am hooked. The stories are compelling thus far. Definitely recommended. Get it at iTunes or go to The 1001 Nights Podcast. The stories are available there for reading as well as listening.

Pope Francis's Miracle

John Allen says that people keep saying Pope Francis doesn't act like the guy they knew back in Buenos Aires. Well, he's always cared about the poor and so forth, but this beaming, shoot-from-the-hip, joyful fellow is someone even his sister says she doesn't recognize. As Allen reports it in his new book, there's a supernatural explanation. And it's one that makes me feel God's giving us the pope He wants us to have. As Allen tells it:

Over Christmas 2013, a veteran Latin American cardinal who has known Bergoglio for decades made an appointment to see his old friend in the Santa Marta, the hotel on Vatican grounds where the pope has chosen to reside. (He lives in Room 201, a slightly larger room than the one he stayed in during the conclave that elected him, giving the pontiff enough space to receive guests comfortably).

The cardinal, who didn’t wish to be named, said he looked at Francis and, referring to the exuberance and spontaneity that are now hallmarks of his public image, said to him point-blank: "You are not the same man I knew in Buenos Aires. What’s happened to you?"

According to the cardinal, this was Francis’ answer:

“On the night of my election, I had an experience of the closeness of God that gave me a great sense of interior freedom and peace," the cardinal quoted the pope as saying, "and that sense has never left me.”

Archdiocese for Military Services (AMS)

I never heard of this but they're a real thing. Established in 1985 by Pope St. John Paul II, AMS is unique because they aren't tied to a physical place but to their Archbishop because it was established to serve the Christian faithful in the military. The Archdiocese receives no funding from the United States government. Rather, the Archdiocese is solely funded by the generosity of its chaplains, men and women in uniform and private benefactors. To find out more and to donate, visit the Archdiocese for the Military, USA.

Leashing the Black Dog

The Art of Manliness is beginning a series about depression. My own family doesn't have that particular problem but my husband's side of the family has a history of depression so I've encountered it personally in those I love. Which is what interested me enough to read their post Leashing the Black Dog. As an introduction it is mostly a personal account, but there were some facts which surprised me, such as the way depression has been viewed through history:

Today in the West and particularly in America, depression is seen as a mental illness, something that you have to cure and get rid of right away through therapy and drugs. Everything is awesome and everyone is supposed to be “happy, happy, happy.” But throughout Western history, society took a more nuanced approach to depression, or “melancholy” as it was once called. It was seen as a temperament that came with both a curse and a blessing. The goal wasn’t to cure someone of melancholy, but rather to help them manage it so it didn’t deepen into “madness” or “hysteria.”

C.S. Lewis: The Space Trilogy

This is another set of books that was continually recommended but which I couldn't make myself read. Even though I knew that J.R.R. Tolkien really liked them.

Until I found the library had them all in audio. And what a difference that made. I wound up really liking each book, though for completely different reasons. Each book has a really different vibe. Each shows that Lewis had much more imagination than I ever credited him with. And I continually wonder whether anyone who isn't Christian likes them because much of what I liked about each has to do with the sympathetic twang my soul makes to the point of the stories. (Though no one ever answers ...)

They are controversial, in the sense that people's reactions are all over the place. That is what led to Will Duquette's post which does a good job of discussing the books. Here's the short version, then you can go read the whole thing which has some good commentary on Lewis' writing.

In short, Out of the Silent Planet is precisely what it seems to be; there are no hidden depths. Perelandra fails as a tale of wonder, but repays the patient reader; and That Hideous Strength is Lewis at his mythopoeic best. And if they are not what one would normally call science fiction, well: the world we live is more complex than materialists think it is.

How I Pray

Tom McDonald's got a good series where he gets interesting people to answer questions about their prayer life. He's got a wide range of people answering thus far, ranging from Steven Greydanus to Elizabeth Scalia to Amy Welborn (and including people I actually know like Will Duquette, Jen Fitz, and Lisa Hendey). I find the posts interesting, because let's face it that's a personal question ... we all want to know. And sometimes the answers contain information that I find helpful or inspiring. Swing by and take a look see.

Worth a Thousand Words: Mignon

Jules-Joseph LEFEBVRE, Mignon, 1886
via French Painters

Mignon in French means sweet, cute, dainty or pretty in a delicate way.

Well Said: On the humility of trying harder

We live in an era where opinion is currency. The pressure is on us to say "I like this" or "I don't like that," to make snap decisions ... But when faced with something we cannot comprehend at once, which was never intended to be snapped up or whizzed through, perhaps "I don't like it" is an inadequate response. Don't like Middlemarch? It doesn't matter. It was here before we arrived, and it will be here long after we have gone. Instead, perhaps we should have the humility to say: I didn't get it. I need to try harder.

Andy Miller, The Year of Reading Dangerously

This has been an approach which has come to me in the last few years. Because I kept trying, I was finally able to get through Great Expectations and like it by the end. It took listening to the audiobook of The Lord of the Rings (as well as The Tolkien Professor podcast) before I was able to get to the end. And love it.

It doesn't always work, of course. Sometimes we don't get it because we can't like every single classic. I tried three times to get through The Brothers Karamazov before admitting that novel is one which I am not going to appreciate.

I have a feeling I am having the same experience with Don Quixote, having just abandoned it after my second try, which got me through 20 chapters. (Perhaps if I hadn't read The Pickwick Papers first. About 10 chapters along Charles Dickens hit that sweet spot which made me love the book ... and feel as if, by contrast, Cervantes just had a lot of gags strung together.)

However, I am very aware that the fault is not with the literature, but with me. It's why I am now willing to return to my failures in great literature and try once again to see if trying harder yields rewards.

Well Said: Defending Patience and Solitude in Reading

Over the course of a year or so, the slow process of reading these fifty great books, and the other two, gave me back my life. The actions I describe here, inspired by a particular volume or a passage of writing, were often the result of chatting with no one except myself. ... And therefore, as you read this book, please consider it a passionate defense of those two elements I consider most at risk from our neophiliac desire to read fashionably, publicly, ever more excitedly: patience and solitude.

Andy Miller, The Year of Reading Dangerously

This made me think and greatly inspired my Lenten fasting from GoodReads, Facebook, and other such places. Such a fast proved surprisingly difficult at the beginning but as it has continued I find I miss them less and less. And it makes me concentrate such comments as I do have in the place where my online presence began ... right here. Which feels right.

Jesse wants a Tom Bombadil Bed and Breakfast.

But don't we all, really?

I join Jesse, Seth, and Maissa for a discussion of the first book of The Fellowship of the Ring (which itself is the first book of The Lord of the Rings, of course) at SFFaudio.

I wouldn't have thought there was more to talk about after the discussion at A Good Story is Hard to Find last year (part 1, part 2), but I was wrong.

The Lord of the Rings - its a book that just keeps giving!

Worth a Thousand Words: Mating Season

Mating Season
taken by Remo Savisaar

There are few better places to see excellent nature photography than pildiblog where Remo Savisaar displays his work. Lately he's been outdoing himself. Be sure to stop by and browse the photographs there.

History Repeats Itself. Or At Least Echoes Loudly.

Writing about World War I, before America entered the war:

Americans were horrified by the slaughter in the trenches in France. Not only had the Germans initiated submarine warfare against passenger ships, but they were the first to introduce poison gas. Hundreds of miles of the beautiful French and Belgian countryside were reduced to a hellish moonscape, a "no mans land" where rats fattened on corpses. The Germans used their powerful artillery to batter quaint towns and villages into rubble. "Big Bertha" was a forty-three-ton monster howitzer produced by the Krupp company and incongruously named for Gustav Krupp's wife. It fired a 2,200-pound shell more than nine miles.

The Germans also rained death from the air. Their hydrogen-filled dirigibles—called zeppelins after Count Zeppelin—dropped bombs on civilians in London. In all this, the kaiser's High Command consciously pursued a policy of schrecklichkeit ("frightfulness") to terrify their enemies.

[President] Wilson addressed the war in Europe in another controversial speech in 1916 in which he called for a "peace without victory" and offered to mediate. Germany spurned the offer. Once again Republicans and other supporters of the Allies were deeply affronted.

William J. Bennett, America: the Last Best Hope, vol. II

Sound familiar at all?

I was reading about Woodrow Wilson's presidency last night and kept having the a vague feeling that it somehow sounded familiar. It took specific examples during times of conflict to bring it into focus.

Here I thought that President Obama had taken neutrality and peace-seeking to new levels. Nope. He follows directly in the footsteps of a president from 100 years ago. Also, it was a time when the populace was sharply divided in their opinions about social and economic issues and about what to do about the armed conflict that did not yet directly attack America but threatened to do so.

Well, well. And here we are again.

As with the first volume, Bennett's history is even-handed and thorough, clearly written and engaging. One of the things that drew me to embarking on these books is reviews from people with widely diverse political views called these books fair and impartial. These days that ain't easy to earn.

A Few Fun Things

SFFaudio Podcast: Fall of the House of Usher

We had an engrossing discussion of one of Edgar Allen Poe's most famous stories. I have to say that until I read it for this podcast I simply hadn't appreciated Poe's genius. Listen here.

Catholic Catechism: Stephen Colbert and Father James Martin

If you're Catholic it don't get much better than this!

Why "Star Trek" — And Mr. Spock — Matters

"I have been, and shall ever be, your friend" Mr. Spock says to Captain Kirk in that greatest of all Star Trek films, The Wrath of Khan. (For more on that movie, we talked about it in 2012 on A Good Story is Hard to Find.)

I think that's how a lot of us felt about Mr. Spock. He was the one we copied. When I was a kid I painstakingly learned to do the Vulcan hand sign with both hands and practiced until I could raise either eyebrow interrogatively. Something about Mr. Spock spoke to us. And something about the whole show did.

I was sorry to see earlier this week that Leonard Nimoy died and pray that he rests in peace in God's presence. I liked Steven D. Greydanus's piece on Spock and Star Trek as a fan and as a Catholic. You can find it here.

Worth a Thousand Words: Perfect Camouflage

Perfect Camouflage
taken by Remo Savisaar

I had to really look to find the non-tree element in this photo. Perfect camouflage indeed!

I'm Back!

I was visiting my mother in Florida. I find that the same weather seemed to follow me. It was gray and rainy in Florida (though pretty warm) and it is gray and rainy here (though considerably colder ... and evidently going to get much colder still tomorrow).

Nonetheless, this makes me wish for a transporter more than ever. I'm so happy to be home but I miss mom and her sweet Corgi Emma. Emma and I bonded when I'd help her into my sister's SUV to go back and forth every day from her house to Mom's place.

But as I say, I am very happy to be back!

The Lord by Romano Guardini — "But love does such things!"

Speaking of the Incarnation, Guardini says:

However, this journey of God from the everlasting into the transitory, this stride across the border into history, is something no human intellect can altogether grasp. The mind might even oppose the apparently fortuitous, human aspect of this interpretation with its own "purer" idea of godliness, yet precisely here lies hidden the kernel of Christianity. Before such an unheard of thought the intellect bogs down. Once at this point a friend gave me a clue that helped my understanding more than any measure of bare reason. He said: "But love does such things!" Again and again these words have come to the rescue when the mind has stopped short at some intellectual impasse. Not that they explain anything to the intelligence; they arouse the heart, enabling it to feel its way into the secrecy of God. The mystery is not understood, but it does move nearer, and the danger of "scandal: disappears.

None of the great things in human life springs from the intellect; every one of them issues from the heart and its love. If even human love has its own reasoning, comprehensible only to the heart that is open to it, how much truer must this be of God's love! When it is the depth and power of God that stirs, is there anything of which love is incapable? The glory of it is so overwhelming that to all who do not accept love as an absolute point of departure, its manifestations must seem the most senseless folly.

This book is my Lenten reading this year. However, it is rich enough, requiring slow absorption, and big enough that it will likely last past that time. I'm reading a library book but realize that it is a book for owning as I would benefit from many rereadings.

Interestingly, it is somewhat like reading G.K. Chesterton's nonfiction. Chesterton always does you the compliment of assuming you know all the basic facts about a subject. It is like entering a conversation between friends who have left mere facts behind long ago and are now delving deeper into underlying themes.

In that way The Lord is a great relief. I don't have to hear yet again, line by line, what Jesus "really meant" by each line of the beatitudes. Instead Guardini brings Jesus' words to life by diving straight into the heart of what lay behind the bigger picture. This may sound odd but consider the above passage, excerpted from his discussion of Christ's incarnation. It dives right to the heart of why believers and nonbelievers alike may struggle with the concept of God becoming man.

The italics are my emphasis of the lines that struck straight to my own heart. It is the basis for so much of Christianity, of learning to answer Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" Certainly it is a wonderful expansion upon that maddening word "mystery" which often is my only fallback when trying to answer questioning non-Christians about something which just "doesn't make sense."

Out of Town for a Week

I may check in if I get a chance but it is likely that I won't be posting until I return next week.

Heads Up on Upcoming Film: Alison's Choice

Alison's Choice is a film about a teenager, Alison, who is pregnant and seriously considering having an abortion, but while she is waiting at the abortion clinic, the janitor starts up a conversation with her. This janitor happens to be the manifestation of Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Alison's Choice doesn't quite fit in the typical "Christian" movie box, but we believe that it will be a powerful tool that can be used to save lives.

Alison's Choice was written and directed by Bruce Marchiano and it is currently in post production.

We have a great team of filmmakers working on this movie. Bruce has been an actor for a long time, and our DP is Phil Hurn, who has worked in many films, and our editor is Scott Conrad, who won an Oscar for his work on the original Rocky film. I say all that to let you know that we have a team with the experience and the tools to make this not another low budget "Christian" film, but a high quality and powerful film.

For one thing, I like it when something isn't "typically Christian" and this set up makes me think of Joan of Arcadia which I really liked a lot. Also, the editor from Rocky! C'mon. Now we're talking.

There won't be a trailer for a while but I thought I'd let everyone know about it. There is more info at the link above. And they have a Facebook page you can check out.

Well Said: Buying Time

It would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of books with the acquisition of their contents.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Oh, that's why I have big stacks of books and still keep buying more. I forget to pick up a little time while I'm at it.

Movie Review: The Drop Box

They’re not the unnecessary ones in the world. God sent them to the earth to use them.

Pastor Lee Jong-rak

Many years ago Pastor Lee's son, Eun-man, was born with crippling cerebral palsy. He and his wife cared for their baby at home, which is so unusual in Seoul, South Korea, that it led a frightened mother to abandon her disabled infant on his doorstep one cold night. Luckily he found the baby before it froze but this prompted him to build The Drop Box. On any given night the "doorbell" may sound in the Lee home signaling that another desperate, anonymous mother has chosen to surrender her baby.

Too often, in a society like South Korea there is only one answer to the social stigma attached to unwed motherhood and aversion to any child born with disabilities. Babies are abandoned and often die before they are discovered. Pastor Lee and his wife and their Christian community care for about 18 disabled children. He has rescued hundreds of babies thanks to the drop box.

The Drop Box is told in a straight forward way but it is not a simple film.

Not only do we see Pastor Lee's ministry but the value of life becomes the central theme of the film. This is only to be expected but what I didn't expect was that the drop box ministry has opponents. Here is where the director's patient story telling pays off. The presentation of both sides of the arguments is handled delicately but compellingly.

Perhaps the most powerful statement about the film is that it changed the film director's own life.

Ivie said, "These kids are not mistakes. They are important." He went on to say, "I became a Christian while making this movie. When I started to make it and I saw all these kids come through the drop box – it was like a flash from heaven, just like these kids with disabilities had crooked bodies, I have a crooked soul. And God loves me still. When it comes to this sanctity of life issue, we must realize that that faith in God is the only refuge for people who are deemed unnecessary. This world is so much about self-reliance, self-worth, and self-esteem. It's a total illusion that we can be self-sufficient. Christ is the only thing that enables us."

This documentary is a wonderful look at a Christian who is changing the world the only way he knows how: through actively loving those around him. Pastor Lee lives in the best tradition of the first-century Christians who bore witness to the pagans around them by taking in abandoned infants, caring for widows, and staying with the sick when everyone else was fleeing.

It's a movie that stuck with me long afterward and had me reexamining parts of my own life.

This film will be in theaters March 3-5.

Don't miss it.

Worth a Thousand Words: Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern
taken by Remo Savisaar

Blogging Around: The What-Caught-My-Eye Edition

Tips for Mid-Lent Penance Adjustment

Jennifer Fitz reminds us that our chosen penance isn't set in stone. If we need adjustments, she's got three good tips.

The Importance of Rough Housing With Your Kids

The Art of Manliness has reasons, good guidelines, and a book to check out.

Decent Films Website Redesign

Normally I don't care about such things enough to point them out, but this one really does make it easier to see what Catholic film critic Steven D. Greydanus has been writing.

Bread, on the table ... s'il vous plait

David Lebovitz talks about where the French put their bread in restaurants and many other aspects of bread and French meals. Fascinating.

Well Said: Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hater
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

Elegantly said.

And insightful. Yet another quote perfect for Lenten reflection.

Audible's Daily Deal - Cabin Pressure, season 4

One of my favorite BBC radio series is Cabin Pressure.

It tells the hilarious exploits of an oddball crew of a struggling charter service with a single airplane that is in none too good repair. As they take all sorts of items, people or animals across the world, we learn about the crew and their lives.

It is clever and humorous in the way that the best sitcoms can be. There is wordplay, build up to final jokes, and, of course, we learn to care about even the most unlikable characters. One of my favorite touches is that the crew is often playing games to while away the time. And they are simultaneously funny and engrossing, while often moving the plot along.

The daily deal is for season 4, but season 1 is pretty cheap and you really should begin at the beginning. None of the seasons are more than $10. I promise they pay off with high levels of entertainment.

What I didn't realize until I saw the photo accompanying the daily deal is that Benedict Cumberbatch played Martin. Or perhaps I should say that by the time Benedict Cumberbatch became famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, Cabin Pressure just wasn't on my radar any more. At any rate it is fun to hear him as Martin.

I also never picked up on the fact that the places they visit in each episode are in alphabetical order. They begin with Abu Dhabi, proceeding then to Boston, Cremona, and onward until the last episode, "Zurich." It is those little touches that make it a complete listening pleasure.

I'll relisten with extra relish.

Well Said: God and St. Catherine

In a vision, God summarized all of divine revelation to St. Catherine in two two-word sentences: "I'm God. You're not." Why is it so easy for us to forget that second thing?

Peter Kreeft, Practical Theology

I don't know. But it really is, isn't it.

Just one more reason we need Lent every year.

Well Said: On the Palm Branches

Let's spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering us with the whold of hhis being, he [Jesus] can draw the whole of our being into himself, and place the whole of his being within us. ...

Receive him, then, with open, outstretched hands, for it was on his own hands that he sketched you. Receive the one who laid your foundations on the palms of his hands. Receive him, for he took upon himself all that is ours except in sin, so he could destroy the sin that is ours in the sinless nature that is his.

St. Andrew of Crete,
Oration 9 on the Palm Branches

I read this in A Year with the Saints by Paul Thigpen. I got to the end of that book and just turned back to the beginning and began rereading it a page per day. It beats me how those saints can say things that hit me right between the eyes, especially when I don't recall reading them the first time through the book.

In this case, St. Andrew of Crete provided me with some really lovely images for reflection, leading to thoughts about Jesus himself. I thought you might like them also.

What We've Been Watching: The Hundred-Foot Journey, Chef

The Hundred-Foot Journey 2014 ★★

Ho hum. This is a beautiful piece with a talented cast. Unfortunately it had a highly predictable plotline.

Watching it I was struck by the fact that this is the director who gave us What's Eating Gilbert Grape at the beginning of his career. I also greatly enjoyed his later film Chocolat. This piece of eye candy does not live up to either.

Chef 2014 ★★★½

This is a happy little movie that I enjoyed a great deal more than I thought I would. That's probably because I had recently suffered through the predictability of The Hundred-Foot Journey and thought this would be more of the same.

Chef ain't rocket science but I greatly enjoyed the father-son bonding and how each teaches the other something important to them. I also really liked the way they illustrated social media, going viral, and other such modernities. I watched it with Mom and we agreed that it was like a tutorial in how such things work. As well as food trucks.

It is an honest little, indie-style movie that gave me a great deal of pleasure. And sometimes that's all a movie needs to do.

Well Said: Private Life

You have the right to a private life, but you do not have the right to a secret life.

Cardinal Thomas Collins,
Lectio Divina on Mark

In which we go to Legoland, visit Hans Christen Anderson at home ...

and I bid a temporary farewell to Forgotten Classics.

Authors' Love for the Narrators of Their Audiobooks

We all know I'm a sucker for a good audiobook but it hadn't occurred to me to wonder how authors may feel about the way their books are literally brought alive by narrators.

You can read some of their fan mail at Audible. I admit I loved seeing Jonathan Maberry and John Scalzi praise the voices I've come to love as those of their characters.

Green Beans Dijon

I finally tried a recipe I'd been hanging onto for years. The results are at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Worth a Thousand Words: In the Orchard

Edmund Tarbell, In the Orchard, 1891
Souther siblings, Mrs. Tarbell at far right

Worth a Thousand Words: Kingfisher

Kingfisher
taken by Remo Savisaar

Simply splendid.

Be sure to click through the link to see this photo in full size.

Well Said: Faith in the Word

Christianity, of course, is not a "religion of the book" but rather faith in the Word — that is in that Word of God who in Mary's womb "was made flesh" and "lived among us," and "we saw his glory." (John 1:14a)

Timothy Verndon, Art and Prayer

I never really thought about what is wrong with that lumping together of Christianity with other faiths as a "religion of the book." Until I read this, of course. Yes, I am a believer in the Word, not in the book.

Well Said: A Worm in the Apple of the Heart

Most people desperately desire to believe that they are part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely the result of random forces colliding. Yet each time that they are given but one reason to doubt, a worm in the apple of the heart makes them turn away from a thousand proofs of the miraculous, whereupon they have a drunkard’s thirst for cynicism, and they feed upon despair as a starving man upon a loaf of bread.

Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

Why is that? I can be just as bad, having to talk myself into believing the miraculous instead of instantly finding a thousand reasons to doubt ... even when I know better.

The Faithful Traveler: Exploring the California Missions

"San Carlos Borromeo Mission" by Jsweida - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Diana and David von Glahn, the husband-and-wife team behind the travel series, The Faithful Traveler, which broadcasts on EWTN, are turning to Kickstarter to raise funds for their latest series, Exploring the California Missions.

The 10-13 episode travel series will look at the history and Catholic tradition behind all 21 California Missions, and will be produced in time for the canonization of Bl. Junipero Serra.

With just 45 days to fund the project and six months to get it ready for broadcast, the producers are hopeful that potential funders will support their efforts to tell the story behind the Missions.

There is hardly a more romantic and Catholic part of U.S. history than the California missions. Diana and David would be the perfect guides.

They've got wonderful photos and information up at Kickstarter, where you may contribute to their series.

Worth a Thousand Words: Gorilla, Gorilla

Gorilla, Gorilla - Western lowland
taken by Valerie, ucumari photography
Some rights reserved

Well Said: More to Read Than We Can Read

We all have a lot more to read than we can read and a lot more to do than we can do. Still, one of the things I learned from Mom is this: Reading isn't the opposite of doing; it's the opposite of dying.

Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club

Well Said: Not Before God

There's a thing in The Dark is Rising, the Christmas one, which is definitely the best of them, where Will does magic in a church, and the vicar asks about the magic crosses and they say they're before Christ, and he says, "But not before God. ... In children's books with magic everything is always very black and white though not of course in Tolkien. But "not before God" made me think.

Jo Walton, Among Others

I came across The Dark is Rising before realizing it was part of a series, in fact the second in a series. I liked it so much that I then tried the first book which I didn't like as well. This quote and Jo Walton's use of it makes me want to reread it.

Floridian Adventures in Health - UPDATED

Mom's happy home time lasted three days before the exact chain of events happened that sent her to the hospital last time.

This time I was with her all day and had the dubious pleasure of calling 911 (my poor sis did it the first time). There are few things as surreal as standing in a darkened bedroom, groping for health details of your mother, while six large men are running heart monitors, barking code to each other, and (in turn) all asking very similar questions.

I did ride in the front seat of the ambulance to the hospital with a very calendar-worthy young EMT who was also very polite and conversational.

We've had various other experiences in the hospital, including discovering the world's worst doctor, and delving into the depths of the health care system to find out how to fire one's doctor when the system says you have to keep him until you go home.

God bless patient care advocates is all I can say!

Needless to say I have extended my stay for another week.

UPDATE
Mom's definitely on the upswing. All it took was a doctor who'd actually come by to see her, listen, and then order tests to begin figuring things out. Crazy, right?

Gone to Florida - UPDATED

I'm off to visit Mom in the hospital and give some relief to my sister who's been bearing the brunt of keeping an eye on things.

I'll check in when I can ... and I ask for your prayers.

Thank you!

UPDATE
Huzzah! Mom is home! She has health problems that will need vigilance but nothing that can't be managed with a regular lifestyle, so we are very blessed.

Thank you so much for all your prayers!

The Ancient Path by John Michael Talbot and Mike Aquilina

The Ancient Path: Old Lessons from the Church Fathers for a New Life Today by John Michael Talbot and Mike Aquilina

John Michael Talbot tells the story of how the Church Fathers deeply influenced his spiritual, professional and personal life. Coming to the Christian faith as a young man during the turbulent 1960s, he soon grew a fond of the Church Fathers, including St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and Gregory the Great and found guidance, reassurance and wisdom on his path to Jesus.

“The First Epistle of Saint Peter,” writes Talbot, “tells us that we are ‘a spiritual temple built of living stones.’ The early Church Fathers represent the first rows built upon the foundation of the Apostles. And that sacred building project continues throughout history to our time today. But it rests on the Fathers. It depends on them.”

C.S. Lewis famously wrote that “A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.” John Michael Talbot could testify to the truth of that statement. He wasn't atheist but reading the Church Fathers pushed him from a Protestant path into one that he never could have predicted. The Ancient Path tells how Talbot's life and work were shaped by his encounters with those ancient writings.

It is a story with an unusual trajectory that you'll either find fascinating or odd. In this it echoes that of the Church Fathers themselves who have often earned those same adjectives because they were following an internal logic, God's logic, that was difficult to see from the outside. You get a good dose of Talbot's life as he founds a monastic community, marries, becomes a musician, etc. You get an even bigger dose of the Church Fathers and their influence on his internal growth. This means it also spills over into topics like prayer, liturgy, community life, environmentalism and more. As we read about Talbot's life we also are led to consider those topics in our own lives.

It's a good mixture and a good way to remind us how applicable the Church Fathers' lessons are to modern life, to our lives, wherever we are and whatever we do.

The Drop Box - mark your calendars, reserve your tickets now

The Drop Box

South Korean Pastor Lee Jong-rak's uses a drop box – built like a depository – to accept unwanted babies who would otherwise be abandoned to die.

I just saw a screening of this documentary last night. It is powerful and moving.

It is also showing only during March 3-5 at selected theaters.

I'm bursting to tell you more but I can't publish a review until the last week of February

I can, however, give you a heads up so you can buy your tickets now. Don't miss this one.

See the trailer and buy tickets here.

Read an interview with the director here, where perhaps the most powerful statement about the film is that it changed his own life.

I actually became a Christian while making the film so my hope and prayer would be that first and foremost, moviegoers would be able to experience God’s adopting love as a Father because that’s what changed my life. Additionally, I think people will be impacted by the film’s emphasis on the value and importance of all human life.

UPDATED: Prayers Please for My Mother

She had to go to the hospital yesterday and they're waiting for her system to settle down from dehydration, etc. so they can analyze her health and what caused this current crisis.

Any prayers would be much appreciated.

UPDATE
Thank you so much for the prayers. It turns out that Mom had a heart attack.

I'm heading to Florida, hopefully to keep her company during a quick recovery.

Your prayers are very much appreciated!

Side note: I noticed that once I got the news and knew I'd be leaving town I had three priorities: 1) What books to take; 2) What movies to take; 3) What audiobooks to take?

Clothes, luggage, flight reservations ... I eventually get around to them. After the serious packing.

Worth a Thousand Words: Waxwing

Waxwing
taken by Remo Savisaar

I just love Waxwings. Their clear gray contrasts so perfectly with the bright red accents, and all of it goes well with the bright red berries they love to eat. There is nothing so fascinating as seeing a large flock descend on a bush and denude it of fruit within 10 minutes.

We always called these Cedar Waxwings. I looked them up and saw that they are much more colorful than this bird which was labeled as a Bohemian Waxwing.

Well Said: Satan and Scars

Satan may appear in many disguises, and at the end of the world will appear as a benefactor and philanthropist — but Satan never has and never will appear with scars.

Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ

The Resurrected Christ keeps his scars. He shows his hands and side to Thomas to feel. I've thought about that before but never in relation to what Sheen says above. It resonates in my life because of how often I try to avoid giving of myself that might inconvenience me, or in other words ... leave a scar.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Quack

Gerrit Dou, The Quack, 1652

I love these crowd scenes because their reactions usually tell us a lot about both the main subject, in this case The Quack, and about the people themselves. I came across a good commentary on this painting which takes that further.

In this witty visual narrative about deception, the individuals in the crowd provide a visual commentary about the quack’s work. Like the hunter, he preys upon the vulnerable, just as the pickpocket preys upon the gaping woman, and the child baits the small bird. Like the pancake seller, the quack trades in truths that are "half-baked" (in Dutch, " raw or uncooked"); her act of cleaning the child seems a scatological comment on the quality of the quack’s productions. ...

There's a lot more to find out so do check the link.

Well Said: Pretend

I find it works best to suppose just one thing. Pretend you are a ghost, or Pretend your chemistry set works magic, or Pretend this dog is the Dog Star. Then I go on to explore the implications of this supposition. Quite often, I am totally surprised by the result.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Children in the Wood

This is a wonderful bit of advice for any fiction writers out there. It is also something I've begun keeping in mind when I'm reading. Quite often the books I don't like are Pretending about too many things or they have forgotten to explore the implications (and just sit around pretending without doing anything). One is chaotic and the other is dull.

Movie Review: Spare Parts

Spare Parts 2015 ★★★½

Starring George Lopez, Marisa Tomei, Jaime Lee Curtis

How four underdogs from the mean streets of Phoenix took on the best from M.I.T. in the national underwater bot championship.

That's the tagline from the Wired article, La Vida Robot, that brought these four kids to national attention. Don't go read that article until you've seen the movie though because when this movie says "based on a true story" they aren't kidding. This movie hews surprisingly close to the real story.

Oscar, Luis, Christian, and Lorenzo are brought together for very different reasons to form their high school's robot club. They'd never seen an ocean, had no funds, and would be going up against top schools from all over the country. Teacher and club sponsor Frank Cameron (George Lopez) has his own problems, beginning with the reason he left a lucrative engineering career to teach in an underfunded school. He cares nothing for the club and is not very encouraging about their chances but as they all gradually connect he becomes a true mentor.

Along the way we meet the plucky, slightly wacky principal (Jaime Lee Curtis) and the savvy computer teacher (Marisa Tomei) who makes Frank invest his whole self in teaching. These stars are what initially attracted me to the film and Tomei in particular reminded us of what good acting can be done with seemingly little effort. The acting was good all round, in fact, with George Lopez being the only weak link and showing a fairly limited range. Luckily the story really centers on the young men and those actors were engaging and invested us in the story. Until the story is set up the it feels a bit like a TV movie but once the tale is in full swing the movie blossoms into life and loses any stiffness.

Spare Parts also provided insights into Hispanic life. The kids are all undocumented Mexican-Americans. The many ways being "without papers" injects itself into each person's life were eye opening to me. Illegal immigration is a flash point and I almost didn't mention this detail because of that. But it was a fact of life for the real kids in this story and to leave it out of the movie would have been to serve up something bland to the audience. The fact is that the kids aren't debating politics or economics here. They are simply trying to live their lives as best as possible under difficult conditions that occasionally arise. That is how the movie treats it. It is not a soap box by any means.

We know the overall outline of the story as we enter the theater. Determination and ingenuity can surmount incredible odds. The kids become their best selves by rising above what is not provided by an overtaxed school system and what is denied by a system where it is easy to get lost in the cracks. But just because a story is recognizable doesn't mean it is not worth seeing, especially since this one hews so close to the truth. We are given these stories so they remind us that we ourselves can overcome adversity, even when we can't see the path ahead of us.

Spare Parts is a heart-warming family film that not only families will find well worth watching.

Worth a Thousand Words: A Country Scene

Taken by Scott D. Danielson