Metaphysical Reviews

“Look around you. Your wife, your family, your faith. That’s what makes you rich in life.”

I finally caught up with a movie I had been wanting to see, Unsung Hero. various circumstances prevented me from catching it during its successful theater run, but I found it on Amazon for just $5.99 for 48 hours and my sister in law had given me an amazon gift card for my birthday, so I decided to rent the movie. I’m glad I did.

Unsung Hero is a true story. It’s the story of the Smallbone family, their move from Australia to the United States, the tribulations they went through, and the faith that helped carry them through it all.

The movie begins in 1991. David Smallbone(played by his son Joel) is a music promoter in Australia with a wife Helen (Diasy Betts) and six children. A seventh one is on the way. He handles big-name acts. This keeps him very busy. At one point, one of the kids asks why his dad works so much, and Helen explains that dreams take work. She’s asked if she has a dream and indicates that her family is it.

David tries to make a deal to manage the Australian tour of a musician named Eddie DeGarmo, but DeGarmo finds a better deal. Eventually, his company goes under. He actively seeks employment, but nobody will hire him. Finally, an American act offers him a position in Nashville.

His family leaves behind all they have in Australia and moves to Nashville. (Outside Nashville, actually.) David’s dad tells them great things are in store for them.

They arrive in a rented house. There is no furniture. Helen improvises beds for everyone to sleep in, and thy pray for a job for their dad and for real furniture. (The characters are shown praying a lot.) Helen says it’s a miracle and they’re supposed to be there. David prays for God to “show us the way.”

They meet a couple at church named Jed and Kay Albright. (Kay is played by the well-known actress Candace Cameron Bure.) Jed is a songwriter. Kay and Helen hit it off. Unfortunately, David loses the job he had in Nashville.

David starts a lawn and cleaning service. The kids work with him. They survive, but David feels like a failure as he continues to look for promoter jobs. The Albrights invite them for Thanksgiving. After Jed and Kay say grace, the Smallbone children sing a grace they used in Australia. By the time it ends, the only one still singing is their oldest child, their daughter Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger.) Jed mentions that David is a promoter. He asks if there is anyone he can promote, and Jed, with a nod towards Rebecca, says “I know someone you should be promoting.”

David is not comfortable with this. He’s uncomfortable with the fact that his kids are carrying so much of the burden of supporting the family, but Helen says “In these last two months, I’ve seen miracles.”

At Christmas, Kay and Jed organize the church to furnish the Smallbones’ house. David is clearly uncomfortable with this. Helen is grateful.

A few days later, their newest child is born, baby girl they call Libby. It’s a very difficult birth.
Helen requires additional treatment. While David is negotiating a payment plan with the hospital, the bill gets paid in full. David is frustrated and confronts Jed, telling him to back off.

Rebecca begins going around to auditions, and she works with her dad in the back yard. Meanwhile, she and the others continue to work for the lawn and cleaning business. When the auditions don’t go well, Rebecca says “Maybe I’m not meant to sing,” to which Helen replies “Or maybe you’re not menat to sing other people’s songs.”

They are going around knocking on doors to gain business when they come to a mansion. They knock on the door, and the owner turns out to be Eddie DeGarmo. He hires them as his cleaning crew. Rebecca continues to audition.

While they’re cleaning one day, Rebecca discovers a magazine with Eddie on the cover and reads about his successful career and his record company. She wants to audition for him, but David doesn’t think it’s the right fit, considering she’s his maid.

Rebecca impresses a record company and they agree on the framework of a deal. David’s dad passes away and he doesn’t have the money to go to Australia, so he asks for an advance. They get in a dispute about what they’d agreed to and the deal falls apart.

Helen takes the kids out and in the park, they find a fake pirate ship. They play at holding off an attack. Helen says they’ll have to burn all the ships (imaginatively, of course) because “If you can go back, you will. Giving up, giving in, it’s not an option.” The boys start singing and when Helen asks what they’re singing, one of the boys says, ‘Bec’s song.”

David tells Rebecca that she doesn’t have to keep auditioning and apologizes for being so hard on her. She says she does want to try again. David arranges an audition with Eddie. He takes away her backing tape. When she gets in front of Eddie and his business partner, Jed is at the piano and her brothers Joel and Luke are her backup singers. Eddie signs her to a deal, with her dad as her manager, on the condition that she not use Smallbone professionally. Helen tells Rebeccca that she can do anything she sets her mind to. Any dream is possible. Rebecca says, “My dream is to be like you.”

Rebecca releases her first album and as the movie closes, she’s seen at a music event coming onstage to major cheers.

So what can we take away from this story? Well, first, the importance and power of prayer. Whenever something happens to the Smallbones, they get together and pray. And miracles occur. The Smallbones are continually surrounded by little everyday miracles that keep them moving forward in pursuing and achieving their dreams.

Helen can see the miracles, and seeing them enables her to keep her family going. Faith drives them forward. They step forward in faith time and time again through the darkness, and they are continually rewarded.

This is an inspiring story of faith, family, community, the power of prayer, and everyday miracles, culminating in success the family could not have dreamed of when they left Australia. You’ll be inspired, you’ll shed some tears, you’ll laugh in a few places, and ultimately you will enjoy the family’s triumph. If you’re looking for a good, inspiring movie, drop $5.99 for Unsung Hero. It will be well worth it.

Today is Groundhog Day. I don’t know what day it is when you’re reading this, but as I write, it’s Groundhog Day. For the record, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, promising an early spring. Spring is a time of renewal, so an early spring is welcome. It’s an opening to renew your life. Phil Connors does that in the movie Groundhog Day.

TCM is running a marathon of the movie. Like the day in the movie, it’s running over and over. It’s a funny movie and one with philosophical implications. What if there were no consequences for our actions?

On February 1, Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) assures his viewers that the impending snowstorm will miss the area. He is assigned to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney. He hates the assignment and the local “hicks.”

Phil his new producer, Rita Hanson (Andie McDowell), and his cameraman Larry (Chris Elliot, son of Bob Elliot of Bob and Ray), head for Punxsutawney. Phil wakes up in his room in the inn with Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” on the radio. He goes out and does a half-hearted report on the groundhog festivities. The blizzard strikes and he and his crew are stuck in Punxsutawney.

When Phil wakes up, it’s Groundhog Day. The same song on the radio, the same banter from the DJ. Phil realizes he’s stuck in a time loop. He confides this to Rita. He winds up talking to a psychologist. Nobody can explain it. He gets drunk. The next morning, he awakes to the same song and the same banter. Phil realizes that since he’s living the same day over and over, there are no consequences for his actions.

He gets drunk, indulges in binge eating, one night stands, and other dangerous activities, and tries to seduce Rita, who rebuffs him. He tries to explain the situation again, predicting events accurately. Rita encourages him to think of the time loop as a blessing, not a curse. Phil decides to use his knowledge gained from the time loop to change himself and do good.

He learns to play the piano. He learns French. He saves people from deadly accidents. He does a report on the Groundhog Day festivities so eloquently that everyone else stops to listen. He also realizes that he is developing real feelings for Rita.

Rita bids for Phil at a charity bachelor auction. He creates an ice sculpture of her and tells her that he’s happy even if he’s stuck in the loop because he loves her. They kiss.

Phil wakes up the next morning to “I Got You Babe” but different banter from the DJ and Rita in bed next to him. He is finally out of the time loop.

What do we learn from Phil’s experience in the time loop? If you’re stuck, love is the way out. We can choose to take an opportunity to do good and spread love, or we can indulge in destructive choices that will keep us stuck in the same thing over and over. It’s a choice, always, and the way out is to choose love.

Groundhog Day is a fun, enjoyable movie, appropriate for the occasion, and teaches us useful lessons. I recommend it. Even if it’s not Groundhog Day.

If you’ve read my articles for a while, you know that one of my favorite things is the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. Suzanne loved to go and I loved to go with her. I have continued to attend whenever possible.

Today I saw Fedora, an opera from the 1890s based on an 1882 play. It starred Sonia Yoncheva in the title role, Piotr Beczala as Count Loris Ipanov, Rosa Feola as Countess Olga, and Lucas Meacham as the diplomat DeSeriex. A wonderful cast of very talented performers. It had not been performed at teh Met in a quarter of a century until this run.

There will be encore showings on Wednesday, January 18, at 1:00 PM and 6:30 PM.

Princess Fedora is about to marry Count Vladimir Andrejevich, who is bankrupt from chasing women and gambling. She arrives at Count Vladimir’s place to find him out. Finally, as she sings of her love for him, he is brought in, mortally wounded. It is immediately suspected that Count Vladimir’s neighbor, Count Loris Ipanov, a suspected Nihilist sympathizer, was probably the assassin.

DeSiriex, a French diplomat, and the police inspector, Gretch, plan to investigate. Fedora swears on the (fancy) cross she is wearing that Count Vladimir’s death will be avenged.

Fedora goes to Paris, following Ipanov, to avenge Vladimir’s death. There is a reception at Fedora’s house where her friend, Countess Olga, brings a Polish pianist. Ipanov arrives and declares his love for Fedora. She tells him she is returning to Russia the next day. Ipanov protests that he is unable to go with her as he is exiled from Russia. He confesses to killing Vladimir.

Fedora tells Ipanov to meet her in an hour and she dismisses the party. She writes a letter to the Chief of the Imperial Police in Russia accusing Ipanov of murder.

Ipanov returns and tells her the story of how Vladimir betrayed her with Loris’s wife. He caught them and tried to stop them. Vladimir fired at Ipanov, and Ipanov returned fire, killing Vladimir. Fedora is devastated at Vladimir’s betrayal and convinces Ipanov to spend the night with her. She has fallen in love with him.

At Fedora’s Swiss villa, Ipanov and Fedora are lovers. Olga is also there. She has been betrayed by her Polish piano player. DeSeriex shows up and invites Olga to go riding with him.

DeSeriex tells Fedora that the Imperial Police picked up one of the killer’s accomplices, sent him to a prison by the Neva River, and he drowned slowly in a flood. The accomplice is Ipanov’s brother. On hearing the news, his mother had collapsed and died. Fedora realizes that her letter got them killed.

Ipanov receives a letter informing that his mother and brother have died and the cause was a woman living in Paris who wrote to the Imperial Police. Fedora, in a roundabout way, confesses to writing the letter. Ipanov denounces her and vows revenge, as she begs for his forgiveness.

Fedora takes the poison she has in her cross and dies. As she is dying, she confesses her love for Ipanov and he forgives her. She dies.

What can we learn from Fedora? We learn how destructive jealousy is. It is a poison that can destroy lives. So is betrayal.

Fedora’s letter is written before she has the full story. I’m sure that she would not have written it if she had had the full story. Her impulsiveness and desire for vengeance take two lives.

Finally, we learn about forgiveness and the power of love. Love and forgiveness ultimately emerge victorious in Fedora, despite the ruination of at least three human lives. Forgiveness releases the other person, but much more importantly, it releases us. This winds up being the focal point and end point of Fedora.

A wonderful opera, well sung. And the music was beautiful too. A wonderful example of verismo opera. I recommend it. Catch the encore presentation if you can.

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” — Henry David Thoreau

Suzanne and I have long been fans of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. Today I saw the new opera The Hours, based on the 1998 novel and 2002 movie of the same title. The roles played in the movie by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore, are here sung by Renee Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, and Kelli O’Hara respectively.

The Hours tells three stories at once, the stories of three women in three different locales and time periods who share a common sense of desperation. Virginia Woolf, sung by DiDonato, is struggling to write her novel Mrs. Dalloway. She is wrestling with her inner Monsters, as her husband calls them, and she cannot seem to find an opening line or decide on her ending. Like Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours takes place over a single day — actually three of them, in the three different places and times, but one single day of each woman’s life.

For those who do not know the novel, Mrs. Dalloway’s first name is Clarissa and she is planning a party. This is one of the connections in The Hours, as Renee Fleming’s character, Clarissa Vaughan, is a lesbian editor in 1990s New York planning a party for her “more than best friend” Richard, an author and poet who is dying of AIDS. Richard is getting an award. (“I’m getting an award because I’m dying,” he says.) Richard sometimes teasingly refers to Clarissa as Mrs. Dalloway.

O’Hara sings the role of Laura Brown, a housewife in 1949 Los Angeles. She lives with her husband and son and she has a baby on the way. She escapes her desperate life by reading. At the time we meet her, she is reading Mrs. Dalloway.

The opera weaves the three women’s stories together in a way the novel and movie can’t. There are scenes where we see Laura Brown in LA reading aloud the very words we see Virginia Woolf in 1920s London struggling to write. The staging blends their voices magnificently.

At various points in the opera, Woolf sings that “someone must die by the end of the day.” (Her novel takes place over the course of one day.) Well, by the end of this opera, someone has, and it leads to a surprising connection at the end.

This is one of many places where you get a sense of foreboding and a sense from the score and the libretto that the women are troubled, almost expecting something to happen. This is a good reminder of the power of our thought. And we also get to feel the love and loss in the lives of the three women.

This is a fascinating work. The score is a bit modernist for my taste, but it contributes to the overall picture of these interesting characters. There is an encore showing this coming Wednesday evening at your local movie theater.

Recently, I was excited to see that my local movie theater was showing Paddington 2. I remembered seeing the original Paddington Bear movie with Suzanne, and I looked forward to the sequel. Imagine my surprise when I remembered that I had seen this one with Suzanne a few years ago also. Oh, well. It was still good.

Paddington looks for work so he can afford an expensive pop-up picture book of London for his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday. He happens to be passing the bookstore when the book is being stolen, and he goes in to try and stop the thief. Needless to say, the police arrest Paddington.

His human family, the Browns, try to get him freed. Meanwhile, Paddington teaches the prison chef, Knuckles, how to make marmalade, and the marmalade sandwiches go over brilliantly with the prisoners. Knuckles and two other convicts, Phibs and Spoon, later tell Paddington that although the Browns mean well, they will eventually forget about him. But the Browns faithfully come to visit every day — until one day when they are so dogged in pursuit of evidence to free him that they run past visiting hours.

Knuckles, Phibs and Spoon tell Paddington that they’ll help prove his innocence if he’ll help them escape. He does so, and they forget about him.

The book turns out to be a map to a treasure, and various characters have been showing up at the sites mentioned to get clues.

The Browns have become convinced that the real culprit is their neighbor, egotistical but struggling actor Phoenix Buchanan. To trap Buchanan, they arrange a meeting at Paddington Station (from which Paddington draws his name.) Paddington disguises himself as a trash bin to meet the Browns. He boards a train, but the Browns, missing him, board a different train at the other end of the station. The two trains leave and run parallel for quite a while.

Buchanan finds the treasure in a train car, but Paddington and the Browns (and their nanny) confront him. He overwhelms them, escapes, and severs the train connection with Paddington locked inside. He is photographed by the Browns’ son. Mr. Brown knocks him out. Unfortunately, Paddington’s rail car derails and goes deep in the water. Buchanan is eventually arrested.

Just as it’s sinking, Knuckles, Phibs and Spoon show up and rescue him. He is in a coma, but eventually recovers, on Aunt Lucy’s birthday. While he is pleased to learn that he has been exonerated, he is distraught that he was unable to get the picture book for Aunt Lucy — until the Browns bring him downstairs to discover that they have brought Aunt Lucy herself to London.

Knuckles, Phibs, and Spoon get pardoned and become small businessmen. We last see Buchanan organizing shows in the prison.

The movie is fun, sweet, funny, and an exciting adventure. It is a story of love, determination, and redemption. We can learn about all of these qualities from the story of Paddington 2. Love and determination win the day, justice prevails, and there is redemption for the convicts. Very good things to remember. This sounds like the Divine Universe at play. I recommend this movie.

Tonight I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. TCM and Fathom Events were presenting it for the movie’s fortieth anniversary. The movie was excellent, but it was bittersweet. Suzanne was a major, big-time Trekker. the kind who could tell you the season, episode number, and title of every episode of what has come to be called “The Original Series.” She would tell you that the movie continues the story arc of Season 1, Episode 12, “Space Seed.”

In “Space Seed,” the Enterprise encounters a sleeper ship containing specially bred superhumans, led by a man named Khan Noonien Singh, from Earth’s past who try to take over the Enterprise. Captain James T. Kirk exiles them to the planet Ceti Alpha V.

The movie takes place fifteen years after the events in “Space Seed.” Khan has spent the last fifteen years trying to find a way to escape his exile planet and exact his revenge on Kirk.

The starship Reliant is on a mission to find a lifeless planet to test a scientific device for the Federation called the Genesis Device, which was developed for the Federation by a civilian scientific team led by Dr. Carol Marcus, one of Kirk’s former lovers, and her son David. It is designed to reorganize dead matter into habitable worlds. Two Reliant officers, Captain Clark Terrell and Commander Pavel Chekov (a former Enterprise officer), looking for a lifeless planet to test Genesis, beam down to what they believe is Ceti Alpha VI.

They are captured by Khan and his people and told they are actually on Ceti Alpha V. Ceti Alpha VI has blown up. Khan injects indigenous eel larvae into their ears, controlling their minds. He then takes control of the Reliant. Using Reliant, he attacks the space station Regula I, where Dr. Marcus and her crew have their lab. Regula I sends a distress signal, which is picked up by the Enterprise. The Enterprise is out on a training mission to train new officers, including Spock’s protege, Saavik (played by Kirstie Alley, in her first major motion picture role.)

Admiral Kirk is on board for the training, and due to the emergency, he takes command from Captain Spock. (Yes, everyone got promoted.) Reliant attacks and cripples the Enterprise and Khan demands all material related to Genesis. Kirk buys time and remotely cripples the Reliant‘s shields, making it vulnerable to counterattack. Khan retreats for repairs while the Enterprise limps to Regula I.

Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Saavik beam aboard Regula I, where they find Dr. Marcus’s crew murdered (except for Dr. Marcus and David.) They also find Terrell and Chekov. Soon they find Dr. Marcus and David hiding Genesis deep inside a planet. Khan orders Terrell and Chekov to kill Kirk. Instead, Terrell kills himself and the eel comes out of Chekov’s ear. He is taken back to the Enterprise.

Khan is transporting Genesis on the Reliant, intending to maroon Kirk on the lifeless planetoid, but Kirk and Spock trick him into a rendezvous inside the Mutara Nebula. In the nebula, shields are disabled. The two wounded ships can have a fair fight. Kirk and his crew disable Reliant, mortally wounding Khan. As he dies, Khan activates Genesis.

The Enterprise crew detects the activation and tries to escape, but is unable to do so without the disabled warp drive. Spock goes to repair the warp drive, but the engine room is flooded with radiation. McCoy tries to stop him from entering, but he uses a Vulcan mind trick on McCoy and repairs the warp drive, allowing the Enterprise to escape the explosion, which forms a new planet. In so doing, Spock dies. (Spoiler alert: He’s back in the next four movies.)

We also learn that David is Kirk’s son.

What can we learn from this tale? Khan’s fierce drive for revenge drives him to his death; Spock dies saving his friends. Genesis breeds new life. We can see in Khan’s story arc the price that revenge and anger cost. They can literally kill you. We see nobility of helping people, even when it costs you, perhaps even your life. We see the devotion of one’s life to service. And we see that there is always a new life if we but know how to create it.

This is a wonderful, dramatic, swashbuckling adventure with several underlying metaphysical messages. I highly recommend it.

When I was a boy, my parents used to enjoy a comedian named Ronnie Graham. One of his jokes was, “The other day a cat came up to me and said, ‘How do I get to Carnegie Hall?’ and I said ‘Practice, man, practice.’ This other cat came up to me and said, ‘Meow.’ He was a real cat.”

We talk a lot in our movement about spiritual practices. But why do we practice?

Ernest Holmes said that a central concept of our movement is “Perfect God, perfect man, perfect being.” Jesus tells us, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”

But unfolding the perfection that we are takes practice. Holmes tells us that “one of the great difficulties of the new order of thought is that we are likely to indulge in too much theory and too little practice.”

This teaching is a spiritual practice, and it requires practice, to learn and unlearn and relearn, but the greatest thing about this teaching is that it is an internal classroom, augmented by what’s happening on the outside. The mirror of the external is always pointing at something within. As above, so below; as within, so without. As Yogi Berra might have put it if he were a metaphysician, “Out there is all in here.”

We are continually unfolding the perfection of who we are in God. We continually expand our awareness of all the good that God has for us. Our spiritual practices of scientific prayer, positive affirmations, and meditation, among others, help us to do this.

Suppose you want to play the piano or be a ballplayer or whatever you are called to do. How do you go about it? First, you know that in God, it is done. As Richard Bach tells us in Jonathan Livingston Seagull, “Begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” But then you have to learn it by doing it.

Often in New Thought, we say that it’s about being, not doing. That’s true. But it’s by doing that we unfold the Truth of our Being. To quote the late, great baseball executive Branch Rickey (who brought Jackie Robinson to the major leagues and integrated baseball), “There is no substitute for experience.”

Ernest Holmes says, “There is only a certain amount that can be taught; the rest must be learned through the doing. Every man must discover God in his own way, but always within himself.” That is the practice of our perfection. We do it because we are it, and we do it so we may more fully be it. We keep doing it until we embody it.

How do we do this? What kind of practice will help us to express the purpose for which we are here?

In A Course in Miracles, it says, “In your practice, try to give over every plan you have for finding magnitude in littleness. It is not there.” We must practice our greatness, practice with the vision of what we must do, what we must be, in mind, and release any obstacles that may block that expression. That is the way to richer living.

This principle is talked about in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Jonathan’s prime pupil, Fletcher, has just flown into a rock, making his transition to the next world. Jonathan brings him back to continue working with the flock and they attack him. Bach narrates:

“Would you feel better if we left, Fletcher,” asked Jonathan.

“I certainly wouldn’t object too much if we did…”

Instantly, they stood together a half-mile away, and the flashing beaks of the mob closed on empty air.

“Why is it,” Jonathan puzzled, “that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”

In Illusions, Bach talks about choosing a different future and even a different past. This is a great example of the power of thought. His character, Richard, says to his friend Donald Shimoda, “I don’t know how I can learn this stuff.”

Shimoda answers, “Practice. A little theory and a lot of practice.” He seems to be saying the same thing that Holmes said. Shimoda goes on to tell us, “Believe you’re a master and you are.” Mastering life is all in the practice.

Several years ago, I was in a class where someone asked, “If treatment works, why do we have to move our feet?” Many people tried to explain it to him, but it was my wife’s observation that finally turned the light on. “You can treat all you want to win the lottery, but you still have to buy a ticket.”

So where does this leave us?

A former minister at [Celebration Center], Reverend Noel McInnis, used to say that “practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” Rev. Bernette Jones says, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes automatic.”

Both of these statements resonate truth. Where they come together is a place of great wisdom: We practice our perfection until our perfection is automatic. And by doing so, we live the fulfilling life that God intended us to live.

Today Suzanne and I did one of our favorite things. We went to see the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. It’s an experience we enjoy sharing with a viewing audience in 70 countries around the world. (Having Renee Fleming as the host was a little extra treat.)

Today’s opera was Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, starring the wonderful Isabel Leonard. It is set during the French Revolution. The main character, Blanche de la Force (Leonard), is the daughter of a Marquis. She feels unsafe and fearful, so she decides to join a Carmelite convent, where she becomes Sister Blanche of the Agony of Christ. She is warned by the prioress, Madame de Croissy (Karita Mattila), that the convent is not a refuge, but a house of prayer (reminiscent of The Sound of Music), and the prioress tells Blanche that even the prayer of the little shepherd is important because it is the prayer of humanity. It comes from the heart.

Blanche meets another novitiate, Sister Constance (brilliantly sung by Erin Morley), who predicts that the two of them will die young, and on the same day. The prioress dies, and Constance wonders why she had such a painful death. She says that perhaps it will enable someone else to be surprised at having an easy death. Madame Lidoine is appointed the new prioress.

Blanche’s brother arrives, tells her that their father is dying and he’s leaving the country, and urges her to return home, but Blanche remains with her sisters.

Soon the forces of the Revolution arrive with an order to expel the nuns from the convent. (I am struck by how tyrannical regimes, from the French Revolution to Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union to Communist China are consistently and violently hostile to religious orders and people of faith. I think that this is because they are in as much or more fear of their people as the people are of them.) Before they leave, the sisters take a vow of martyrdom. Blanche runs away and is forced to work as a servant in her father’s mansion. One of the elders, Mother Marie, arrives to take Blanche back to the sisters.

The sisters are in prison. They are read their death sentences. Constance says that Blanche will return. The Carmelite sisters are brought to the guillotine, and they march to their deaths one by one, still singing. Finally, no one is left but Constance, who falls down in apparent terror. Suddenly, Blanche steps out of the crowd and follows her sisters to the guillotine.

Dialogues des Carmelites can show us many things. We feel the power of surrender, the power of devotion in the face of the worst adversity. Blanche, the prioress, and others face fear and move through it. And we see the courage of the sisters as they are condemned for their faith. There is much in this opera that can inspire and uplift, and it all takes place to some lovely music.

If you get a chance to see Dialogues des Carmelites, it is a very powerful experience. There will be an encore showing this Wednesday night at 6:30. You will enjoy it, learn from it, and be inspired by it. I would recommend going.

“I get where I’m going by walking away from where I was.” – Winnie the Pooh

When I was a boy, one of my favorite books to have read to me was Winnie the Pooh. The House at Pooh Corner was also a favorite (Suzanne’s too.) So of course, when we saw advertisements for the new movie Christopher Robin, we had to go. Today (my favorite day, too, Pooh), Suzanne and I went to see the movie, just a few days after the birthday of the real Christopher Robin. It is a delightful, sweet movie that you will enjoy.

As the movie begins, Christopher Robin is being sent off to boarding school, meaning he will no longer be there to play with his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and Roo throw him a bittersweet going-away party.

We then see some exposition, beginning with printed pages as you would see in the Pooh books. Christopher Robin grows up, meets and marries an architect named Evelyn, and they have a daughter named Madeline. Although he loves his wife and daughter, they see little of him, as he has a very demanding job at Winslow Luggage.

The luggage company is having problems and they need to cut expenses by 20 percent. Christopher Robin is assigned the task, causing him to miss a country weekend with Evelyn and Madeline. He stays home in London while they go to Sussex.

In the Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh is looking for his friends. Unable to find them, he goes into Christopher Robin’s house, because Christopher Robin always knew how to find them. When he comes out the other door, he is in London. While Pooh is sleeping on a bench, Christopher Robin sits down on the other one. Pooh immediately recognizes him.

Christopher Robin takes Pooh home, but then escorts him back to the Hundred Acre Wood, working on the project the entire time. Pooh is concerned about his old friend. At the station, Pooh insists on a red balloon. Christopher Robin is happy to be there, but knows he has to get back to London for work. He is not the young Christopher Robin that Pooh knew.

Eeyore, Piglet, and the rest are hanging onto a log in fear of a Heffalump. Meanwhile, work is getting away from Christopher Robin. He falls asleep, and when he wakes up, he realizes he has to get back to London immediately for the meeting on how to cut expenses. In his rush, he forgets some important papers. Pooh’s red balloon gets away from him.

Madeline is out playing tennis with a red balloon she found when she hears noises. Pooh and his friends emerge. They join Madeline on an “expetition” to London to get Christopher Robin’s papers back to him. Eventually, Christopher Robin finds a creative solution to the company’s situation that solves their financial problems without having to lay off anyone. He and Evelyn and Madeline take some time in the country, spent with some very good old friends.

This sweet movie has a lot of useful lessons. Never neglect what you love, whether it’s the people in your life or an old stuffed bear. That is the most important thing in your life. Never neglect the child within. As Jesus told us, be like a child. As the old Frank Sinatra song says, “Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you, if you’re young at heart.”

At one point, Pooh (as usual) describes himself as “a bear of very little brain.” Christopher Robin tells him that he is “a bear of very big heart.” Always pay attention to the heart. Relying only on the brain will lead to a less fruitful life than we could be living. Don’t get so absorbed in responsibility that there is no time for play. Play is spiritual. It’s in the moment. And it’s refreshing, so we can meet our responsibilities more effectively.

Always, always, always remember the joy. And always be prepared for an “expetition.”

You will enjoy this wonderful movie. You’ll smile, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most of all, you’ll have a wonderful time. Even when you’re dealing with Eeyore.

Tonight, Suzanne and I saw the encore presentation of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD production of Cendrillon. Cendrillon is Jules Massenet’s take on the Cinderella story. A few years ago, the Met presented Rossini’s version, entitled La Cenerentola, which I have reviewed at https://celebrationcenter.org/la-cenerentola-forgiveness-and-the-power-of-our-word/

We all know the Cinderella story, the story of the girl who is treated as a maid by her mean stepmother, made to do all the dirty work, dreams of going to the ball, is granted her wish by her Fairy Godmother, meets the prince, falls in love, leaves her glass slipper behind, is found by the prince by means of the slipper, and becomes his princess. It’s one of the world’s favorite fairy tales.

Add to it Massenet’s gorgeous music, and you have a masterpiece – one that is making its debut at the Met, with a wonderful cast including Joyce DiDonato as Cendrillon, Alice Coote in the trouser role of Prince Charming, Stephanie Blythe as the stepmother, Laurent Naouri as the father Pandolphe, and Kathleen Kim having a wonderful romp as the Fairy Godmother.

There were a few points in this presentation of the familiar tale that struck me. Early on, as Cendrillon (Cinderella) is wishing she could go to the ball instead of having to stay home and do these chores, she observes that “there is joy in doing what must be done.” A profound observation. It is important to have a dream, but it is always worthwhile to see the joy in the mundane. See the joy in what is right in front of you.

All the women at the ball are wearing red, but her Fairy Godmother sends Cendrillon in a gorgeous white gown that suggests a wedding gown. She and the prince immediately fall in love. When the prince asks her name, she says she is the unknown. Is this perhaps a reminder to embrace the unknown lovingly?

Here is a dream Cendrillon was passionate about – the dream of going to the ball. And it happens, as do other dreams later in the story. I was struck by the idea of being passionate about your dream. It is the dream we follow with passion that manifests. She dreamed it and invested “fire” into it (to use Ernest Holmes’s term), and she got it. It takes that energy to make it happen.

We all know that when she leaves the ball, she loses the famous glass slipper (which was invested with the magical power to make her unrecognizable to her stepmother and stepsisters.) Whether it’s the Brothers Grimm, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Disney, Rossini, or Massenet, this is presented as an almost accidental effect of having to rush out of the ball because midnight is striking.

Is it? Or did she subconsciously leave it for the prince to find her? How else will he find a servant girl like Cendrillon? The job of the subconscious, after all, is to produce what you ask for. What Cendrillon really wants is the love of the prince. And while we are always choosing, not all the choices we make are conscious. Many are not. Instead of losing her glass slipper in a rush, could Cinderella have made a subconscious choice to leave it there as a means to produce what she dreamed of? I’ve often wondered about that.

But that dream seems so far off as to be unachievable. Cendrillon has to remind herself to let it go. By letting it go, letting go of the attachment to the outcome, she opens the way for her dream to come true.

There is a wonderful scene in the forest, where the Fairy Godmother has arranged for Cendrillon and Prince Charming to meet, but not to see each other. They profess their love, she tells him her name, and the Fairy Godmother tells them to love each other because time is brief and to believe in their dream.

When she returns to the house, Cendrillon’s father persuades her that it was just a dream, but she overhears her sisters talking about the prince having called princesses from far and wide to try on the glass slipper, and she knows that her dream was real. She calls her Fairy Godmother, who sends her again to the palace, again resplendent in her gorgeous white gown. Of course, the slipper fits her and she becomes a princess. Dream realized.

I loved Cendrillon. The music is gorgeous and the story conveys several important messages. If you ever get to see a production of this opera, put it on your list.