This post is dedicated to Fun Dip. I love Fun Dip. It was the premier candy for every 12 year old...and I would eat one of the candy sticks before I shotgunned the candy powder...and then I would eat the second candy stick.
It was 1992. I was wearing Reebok Pumps. I may have drank a Crystal Clear Pepsi that afternoon. I remember that Saturday vividly (well, ok not vividly).
My friend, Barry, and I wanted to go to the movies. I still love the movie theaters. There's something about getting lost for a couple of hours in a story. I love it. This particular afternoon, Barry's mom offered to take us to the movies. We both jumped at the notio
n. We didn't know what we were going to see, but it was the movies, right? Let's go!So we load in their awesome Ford van (I think it was when the Windstar first came out?), drove down 24/27 in Albemarle to the Eastgate Cinemas (they actually have a website now LOL). Now, the Eastgate Cinema was the only option in Albemarle at the time. I don't know if they have another option today, but the one we had was run by a lady who reminded me of Kathy Bates in Misery (see right, and you can obviously see I have seen move rated R movies since 1992 LOL), but add about 30 years. She was mean. She was the lord over the 6 screen theater. She always wore a dark mid calf cotton skirt that made a "hissing sound" when she walked...that added to her meanness.
So we get there, and Barry's mom looks at us and says: "I am going to see The Last of the Mohicans. You two can come and see that or go see something else." The opportunity to see a rated R movie was both exciting, scary, and exhilarating to me, a 12 year old "churched kid." In fact, it was so scary, that I remember walking in the theater with my FunDip and Cherry Coke wondering if anyone would see me and tell my mom. I would have probably acted like I walked into the wrong theater or something stupid, but no one knew. I always wondered if mom knew, though. I figure now that she probably did, but I felt a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.
So we're there...watching Daniel Day Lewis and his brother and father continue the Mohican legacy. I remember the emotion and fear I felt when he shot the translator in the head so he wouldn't have to be burned alive (spoiler). I was in amazement. That movie was so good. Since then, I have watched it several times, and it still makes me reminisce of the "newness" of real movie magic for the first time.
I remember, at 12, thinking: "Man, that guy (the translator) saved everyone's lives. He actually sacrificed himself for everyone! He did something like what Jesus did!" No lie...I made that connection (like I said, I was a "churched kid"). I also thought about how awesome it was that the one chick threw herself off a cliff at the end (no redemptive thoughts there, but a spoiler if you haven't seen it).
Since then, I have seen, maybe over 100 different phenomenal movies. Tonight, we watched District 9 on DVD. It is always an experience and I am always a bit taken back when I see redemptive themes in art. I like to think that, even at age 12, I noticed some important things in the movies. It certainly makes me grateful for good art. Excellence in art can, most of the time, weave redemptive messages and themes in its message. Many times, these themes show glimpses of God's Kingdom.
I am grateful for folks like Tim Stevens who write books like Pop Goes the Church. They make me confident that I do catch glimpses of redemption (and the content of this book makes me feel that I'm not crazy). I can see God in all of creation. I always have a choice to make, a picture to interpret, and a journey to experience. So, I wonder...what have you seen lately, either in a theater or in the comfort of your own home, that has spoken to you? What music have you been listening to that stirs your soul to something big? Maybe your experience points to something deeper...Maybe you can find traces of redemption in your own movie history...
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