As many go to bed tonight awaiting a certain jolly old gift-giver to pay them a visit when fast asleep, it pays to remember the gift given to us from above that bears no comparison to the trinkets we give each other.  Praise God for His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, for lowering Himself to live as one of us and die an unjust death as atonement for the sins of all who put their faith in Him.

The rest of these are just for fun.  Watch them, search for more on Youtube, but most important of all please watch the above video before leaving this blog.

I am not a huge movie buff.  Sure, I enjoy movies, but it is not my primary form of entertainment and a good 80% or more of movies I read about in the paper are just a big yippee in my book.  That said, every once in a while a gem comes out that almost requires me to buy the DVD, er- if I actually bought DVDs (let’s just say I’m chea-, um… frugal and leave it at that ).  The movie I’m referring to is titled August Rush.  Released in 2007, it stars Freddie Highmore (Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland) as a Evan Taylor, a musical super-prodigy who seemingly puts ordinary prodigies like Mozart to shame.  Any instrument he picked up in this movie he was able to play just a short time later.  He never saw musical notation before, yet started writing music while the girl who brought him in at one point was at school.  Wait- why wasn’t Evan at school?  Well, this is a key point of the story.  He is a runaway orphan.  Only he shouldn’t be an orphan.  Conceived in a one night affair between two musicians (Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) his father never knew about him and his mother, through the machinations of her wealthy father, though he died at birth.  Evan ran away to find his mother, who he believed he could find through the music he could hear in his mind.  Not unlike a certain Charles Dickens tale, he finds himself in the big city of New York and meets a child street musician who eventually takes him in to meet the Fagin of this movie, Robin Williams as the Wizard, who quickly latches on to Evan as a means to make money once he becomes aware of Evan’s talent at playing the guitar in a .

Continuing the Oliver Twist Theme Evan soon finds himself under another roof, and a bed that clearly makes another connection to our 19th century story with a sign above it that says “God is Love.”  Here his composing talent is now discovered by a minister who wastes no time getting him into Julliard where Evan composes a symphony.  However, remember what happens to poor Oliver after he gets himself away from Fagin’s gang?  Well, Evan is found by the Wizard, who claims to be Evan’s father and promptly removes him Julliard, though the symphony he composed is still set to be played in Central Park (I think that’s the park).

What about his parents?  Well, neither of them found happiness and in fact quit their music shortly after their fling.  Twelve years later they find themselves in separate parts of the country, neither place New York where Evan is.  Meyers’s character gets an urge to find his lost love again, and after finding her phone number but not being able to get a hold of her, and going to her home where she is nowhere to be found, he tries New York since that’s where they first met.  And where is she?  Come on now, just one guess.  That’s right, she went to New York too, but for a far more logical reason.  Her dad finally ‘fessed up to what he did and she is searching for her child who of course had already run away.  By the end of the movie it turned out Evan was right- through music, his music, he found his mother.  Or rather, she found him.  And she in turn was found by her ex at the same time.  He must have been shocked to find out that he had a son (who he coincidentally had met just a short time earlier- see picture above- as he was playing with his guitar, having no idea just who he was talking to).

I guess I enjoyed this movie so much in part because of the ties to Oliver!, which was at one time my favorite musical.  Plus, it deals with music which I understand, having been a musician of sorts since 5th grade.  The road to their eventual but clearly obvious meeting kept me glued to the screen as well.  The plotline was a little ridiculous at times- I mean, his gift is really a bit over the top, and neither the preacher nor the staff at Julliard called the police or child services after discovering him which would realistically set them up on some sort of criminal charges- but then they do call this movie an urban fairy tale so a little unrealism is expected.  If you enjoy music, Oliver Twist, or stories of separated people finding each other, see this movie.  If you don’t, then see it anyway. 

No one as far as I know asked the question posed in the title, but today I certainly felt that way, as the nerd that is, not the one asking the question. I suspect my brother felt the same way. You see, we went to the funeral of someone we have never met. As such, we never met her family either so I am certain more than one person was wondering, “Who are they?”

Let me start at the beginning.  About twenty years ago my uncle met a woman and her family.  Eleven years ago they started seeing each other.  They never did get married, so I can’t call her my aunt, but they were close just the same.  In all that time none of us were ever introduced to his girlfriend; I’m not sure why.  A couple of months ago she was diagnosed with brain cancer, apparently inoperable, and was given a prognosis of just several months.  Then, the cancer showed itelf to be extremely aggressive and about about a week ago I learned her prognosis was downgraded to just a couple of weeks.  Less than a week later she was gone.

I suppose the wake yesterday would have been a more appropriate time for near strangers like us, but we didn’t make it so we went to the funeral today instead.  I pretty much went just to support my uncle and my mother as again I never met his girlfriend or her family.  She did leave behind several grievers though including children and grandchildren, so my uncle wouldn’t have been her first husband had they gotten married.  I must have looked like robotman at this funeral.  How can one be sad and grieved when he doesn’t even know the subject of the funeral?  Truthfully, as far as sadness goes I do tend to be kind of a robot at times.  Even at my father’s funeral I never broke down, and you can’t get much closer to someone to be grieved over than a parent (or child to put the bond in the other perspective), with the exception of a spouse. Needless to say my uncle was very grieved and like my mother with her spouse, JustJ with his, and countless others who have lost the one closest to them, he will not soon get over this (nor should he, if anyone thinks I am suggesting this).

The funeral was a three part affair.  We met at the funeral home and any who wished to were able to make last respects at this time.  Though I had never met her and thus didn’t need to see her body I nonetheless joined the line as we processed past her and out the door to the vehicular procession, the part that drivers everywhere are always thrilled about .  We headed to part two- the church where the funeral would be held.  It was a Catholic service, so I found much of the ritual unfamiliar and I found I could not join in many of the prayers.  Those prayers were either to Mary, to the Saints, or just prayers for the deceased.  As a Protestant I do not believe in any of those.  I pray to God the Father directly with Jesus as my only intercessor, and I believe once dead a person is judged immediately and then goes on to one of two places so therefore prayers for them are useless.  Prayers for the family and others still living on the other hand are more than welcome and I either joined in at these points or prayed in this fashion during the other prayers.

Part three of the service was the long procession to the cemetery.  It was at this point we made our departure and headed home.  My other uncle was also there and chose to stay so at least there was someone still there for my one uncle from his own family.  I do hope everything went well with it.  I expect we will be seeing my uncle and my grandmother soon.  My mother is very close to them both even if I don’t get close to my extended family.  She tells me there is a lunch planned for the near future.  Perhaps I’ll pay for it if my uncle will let me.  He always covers these things and it would only be right if he didn’t have to this time.