Christmas/Birthday
December 28, 2008 – 9:20 pmSee, the bad thing about having a birthday so close to Christmas is that you usually get one present from your parents (”Do we really have to give you a separate present?”). But of course, it isn’t all about presents.
It’s about family and love and giving, so the world says.
They reinforce that belief and at the same time, encourage people to buy more (”Giving is better than receiving”). They show ‘holiday’ movies all over the tv. About somebody finding the ‘true meaning of Christmas’, yadda yadda. Which in their case is being generous and being with family. But of course, we know it’s about Christ, and the omnipotent God coming in the form of a human baby.
It’s crazy. Absolutely insane. But it’s the greatest love ever.
Still, there’s the family and home part of Christmas. To Westerners, Christmas is the family reunion time. I watched Judy Garland’s 1939 Wizard of Oz on tv. Silly, perhaps, looking at the funny costumes that definitely belong to that ancient, long-gone age. But it remains a classic till now. I think the reason lies in the lines. I would say nearly every line is quotable. The silly-ish songs are fantastic - lyrics-wise.
Dorothy (in the Wizard of Oz) closed her eyes, clicked her heels thrice, and meditated on the fact that “there’s no place like home”. And she appears in Kansas. If only it were that simple. You didn’t have to spend days in planes and airports just to get home. And not to mention the cost of it all.
In the end, though, having a place to stay with family (even if not immediate) and friends, is a gift from God. And not to forget that greatest gift - Jesus himself.
= On a lighter (less confusing, I suppose) note, I’ve been watching too many movies recently. That comes with having a lot of free time and cable tv. I’ve never been a movie person, and even now I don’t watch more than one movie a day, if I can help it. And I’m really picky about the things I watched. I tried watching “Sleepless in Seattle”. Okay, so that was just to see a certain actor (not Tom Hanks). But when that actor didn’t appear for a long time again, and the movie was getting boring, I googled the movie’s script, discovered that there was still one scene with that actor, and waited till that scene was over, and switched off the tv without second thought. Phew. I did not see what was so brilliant about the movie. It was tiring. Definitely not my type of movie.
Although I suppose my watching the entire movie of “Fallen Angel” was crazier. It was a boring movie, but then there was Gary Sinise (from CSI:NY). So I suffered through it. It wasn’t that bad, since I was surprised by a few revelations in the plot. Although the ending was totally predictable. But like I said, it had a few good turns in the plot.