Good-bye to The Unit

David Mamet's series "The Unit" has finally left TV after about a five year run. I have been catching up on the whole past year on library checked out DVDs, as my spouse loves The Unit. I like it, but keep expecting Dennis Haysbert to stop and sell Allstate Insurance in the middle of a fire-fight with enemy terrorists.
One thing that cropped up frequently in the final season were religious references. It is interesting that a career soaked in violence would also be familiar with the Bible and religious traditions? Is Mamet just offering interesting characters or is he saying something about the close tie in America between a heritage of violence as well as a national reputation of being decidedly a country of faith?

Harry Potter -- I Have to Say Something

I was there opening day (but not at the midnight show!) to see the Harry Potter series conclude. Impressively dark, brooding, almost despairing, but resolved to fight. One wonders if this had to be a British-born series -- not the attempt at pluckiness or a twinge of sunlight that an American author may have included.
Some religious folks object to the wizards and witchcraft aspects; those are not my concerns here.

It does strike me as overwhelmingly appropriate that a snake / serpent was the animal representation of evil -- sounds like from the beginning (Genesis) biblical imagery!
Appropriately resolved. I wish the epilogue would have been clearer, as the book seemed to provide.
Now, what are all those stars going to do next???

Larry Crowne and a Side Observation

Larry Crowne seemed even to be promoted good-naturedly as a light weight Summer movie -- no ground broken, little ripple in life experience. It achieved that I think. I would agree with many reviewers that it rated between 5 and 6 on a 10 point scale.
But there were two things I thought were interesting to dig into:
One, I liked the on-going garage sale of his neighbor. It appealed to my eBay forays!
Two, the character Steve Dibiasi, played by Rami Malek, is an interesting contrast to the character, "Snafu," also played by Malek in The Pacific HBO series. Did Hanks purposely cast him in the two roles to highlight the different paths of young people in 2011 and 1941? One wonders: would Malek's offbeat Snafu have been just a "character" like Dibiasi, if Snafu had stayed home in New Orleans and rode his bicycle and goofed off with his friends and been a bit out of touch with reality instead of enlisting when America went to war in 1941?
Even with a war in Afghanistan and operations globally by the military, young people today do not go off to enlist in the huge masses experienced in World War II. Will the peace experienced by most shape the country more positively in the long-run? Will crises that increased religious fervor during World War II and after be by-passed, and will other life experiences draw folks today to the Church?

Bad Teacher -- Jesus Christ!

The movie Bad Teacher seemed to have so much potential. Education is something everyone goes through (though fewer go to school with the home school movement strengthening and now folks are promoting online education for the pre-Adult grades).
Still the movie offered a humorous peek at the classroom experience -- offered, but I am not sure delivered. Yes, there were laugh-out-loud moments, but the teacher was so bad that one's concern for the children's experience began to outweigh the desire to laugh.
One particularly problematic moment for me came when the teacher was grading papers, and comments increased in their caustic nature. Finally, Cameron Diaz writes "Jesus Christ" on one paper.
OK, so this may violate the "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God" commandment. That is a big problem, but movies have been stepping over that line for some time. I am more concerned with this scene as if it would be tolerated in school. In recent films wrestling coaches easily flaunt language for their students and now this middle-school teacher. Teachers do have some modeling role for appropriateness for the students. Really? "Jesus Christ." I do not think that would be tolerated in school, even by a principal as out of touch as the one depicted in "Bad Teacher." Teachers do not have to be saints, but there are boundaries, right?

Interpersonal Wellness - Vocational

In July (and August too!), the Wellness wheel turns to Vocational Wellness. And we have much time to consider it – 31 days in July AND 31 more in August! Plus, this year July has five Fridays, five Saturdays, and five Sundays, which according to an email I received has not occurred for 823 years! (Can that be true?)

Either way, that is plenty of time to work on the concept of vocation.

Often we think about the Summer months as times of vacation and rest, not vocation and work. Yet, vocation is not just about our jobs or what we do. “Vocation” may include that but even more deals with our “call” from God – a call that may include work that supports others, but also our relationships and service. Thus, vocation, God’s call for each of us, acts year round – maybe just a little slower in the Summer. Yet as you perhaps slow down, I hope you will take time to explore the various aspects of Vocation or Call. We cannot ignore the jobs or past jobs of our personal histories, but vocation enriches our lives and infuses our lives – in those areas of work, but also in family life, friendships, personal finances, as a citizen and community member, in service, ministry, and mission. Sometimes our vocation is NOT even our work, but comes into focus in one of those other arenas.