Category Archives: Potpourri
“Young Frankenstein”
I think it’s hard for anyone born after 1975 or so to understand how exciting movies used to be.
Going to the movies was an event, because we didn’t have all the television channels there are now, nor access to DVD players, Netflix, or online movies. If you saw a movie you absolutely loved at the theater, you knew you wouldn’t see it again unless you lucked out and it was eventually shown on network television. Back then, the only two ways to see a movie were in the theater and on television. Or so I thought.
When I got to college, I discovered that different campus groups had access to movies as fundraisers. They’d reserve an auditorium, obtain a movie and show it on a Friday or Saturday night for 75 cents a person. Each week there would be flyers all over campus advertising the coming weekend’s offerings.
That’s where I first saw “Young Frankenstein,” in an auditorium packed with rowdy college students. And it was so much fun! Some kids had seen the movie enough times on the weekends (the groups tended to show the same films over and over) that they yelled out the best lines as they occurred. It made for an entertaining evening. After that, I often saw my favorite movies two or three times, just because I could.
We watched “Young Frankenstein” here the other night. The audience was just three of us. But the movie is so funny that we laughed out loud pretty often.
The film is a Mel Brooks original, which means it’s a spoof. In this case, it’s poking fun at the original 1931 movie “Frankenstein” and also “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935). So if you’ve seen those films, you’ll fully understand why Brooks made “Young Frankenstein’ the way he did.
We were always pretty strict about which movies we allowed our kids to watch (I can hear my adult kids now chiming in from two different states, “You sure were!”), and so I can’t recommend this movie for the under-16 crowd. But it’s a stitch for older teens, and for 50-year-old parents who still remember their fellow classmates whinnying loudly in the Auditorium every time one of the actors mentions “Frau Blucher.”
Perspective
I receive so many email forwards. Some aren’t worth forwarding, so I delete them. But this one makes a good point:
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”
Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.
The past few decades have seen many people caught up in things, new things, like new cars, new big fancy homes, new designer clothes….why use what you have when you can get new everything? Fueled mostly by borrowed money (borrowed against the house or put on credit cards), new things have been easier to come by and people have gone for them in a big way.
But times are changing. The economy’s in bad shape. House values are dropping and home equity lines of credit (HELOC) are being frozen as a result. Many people have maxed out their credit cards. They’re running out of ways to buy things.
And that’s not all bad. When people are forced to give up their obsession with things, they’ll be able to pay more attention to what’s really important in life: other people, experiences, and especially God. I’ve always liked this saying:
The best things in life aren’t things.
Saving Flower Seeds
I know it sounds silly, but I love going out to save seeds. It makes me feel like a good steward, I guess.
Today I picked all the seeds off my balsam plants along the front walk. (I bought a packet of balsam seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (they’re homeschoolers!) last spring, and they grew very well —wish I’d taken a picture of them in bloom to share here.)
Balsam plants are fun because once they bloom, little seed pods form along the side branches of the plants, and in the fall you can pop them open over a cup and all the seeds come tumbling out. (When my kids were little, they loved doing this 🙂 ) I’ll let these dry in the unheated garage over the winter, and next spring I won’t need to buy more balsam seeds.
Other plants whose seeds I’ve collected in the past include:
Cleome (the long stringy pods under the blooms are full of tiny seeds)
Marigolds (the old blooms are seeds; save them once they’ve dried up)
Hollyhocks (the seed pods contain comma-shaped seeds)
Four o’clocks (the seeds are hard and black and found inside the blooms-they’re ready in mid-to-late summer)
Store seeds in a dry place where air can get to them and where they’ll get good and cold over the winter.
You don’t have to collect seeds; if you just leave them, they’ll come up again in the same spot next year. But by collecting seeds, you can scatter them where you want in the spring, plus you’ll have more than enough to share with friends and neighbors. Or, if you’re like me and think you might be moving, you can take the seeds along to the next house.
In recent years, most people bought blooming plants instead of planting them from seed. Most of the people who do grow flowers from seed buy new seed packets every year. Saving seeds is something people used to do when money was scarce. I think it’s going to be making a comeback.
A Reminder
Martin Luther was prone to depression. One time when his bleak mood was at its worst, his wife Katie decided to dress all in black. When her husband questioned her about her appearance, she told him she was in mourning.
“God has died!” she cried.
Shocked at the blasphemous statement, Luther rebuked his wife, declaring that God was most certainly not dead. That’s when Katie responded that she figured God must be dead, based on her husband’s recent morose behavior.
Like Luther, we sometimes feel all is lost, especially when circumstances become hard to bear, and the future looks bleak. That’s why it’s important to remember that not only is God still here, but also that He’s still in charge, and He will use everything that happens for His purposes.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, KJV)