Movie Recommendations

Our daughter is right, smack in the middle of her pre-teen years. She used to loathe television, presumably because life offered other, more thrilling adventures. Yet lately that has changed. Now she loves nothing more than for the three of us to watch something together. We aren't crazy about some of the teen heart-throb stuff she wants to watch, and she makes a mysterious choking noise when we offer anything black and white. (I love Cary Grant.) So finding something we all like poses somewhat of a challenge.

I'm happy to report, though, that lately we've hit on some movies (thanks to Edify Media) that offer just the right mix of compelling story, great cinemetography, and believable characterization. Oh, and good acting.

Flicka - Our girl has three favorite horse movies (Virginia's Run; Dreamer; Flicka), all of which focus on the father/daughter relationship. In this one, the main character's brother is "cute," (a big plus from the POV of the boy-crazy one in the family). And the views of Wyoming at dawn will make you forget to breathe.

After watching this, our daughter said, "In horse movies, the girl and the dad fight, and the girl always wins. Cool!" Hm-m-m. We had a little chat about that. But chatting with a pre-teen is a good thing. (Available in video February 6.)

Christy - The ninety-minute season opener for the Christy series makes a good stand-alone film. Set in the Great Smoky Mountains shortly after the turn of the last century, it harkens back to a time when teachers in one-room school houses taught kids far more than their ABCs. The movie's so good that it drove me to take the book off my shelf, and I found the writing stellar. (Catherine Marshall wrote so well, in fact, that the Christy Awards for excellence in Christian fiction are named for the book on which this movie is based.) The film evoked some family discussion about back-country living, the value of free education, generosity, perseverence, and even parental abuse. (It contains a scary scene where an abusive father kicks his son.) (Coming to video March 20.)

The Ultimate Gift - Our favorite.

Storyline: When his filthy-rich granddad (James Garner) dies, a rich-boy bratty (Drew Fuller) thinks he's going to inherit a chunk of the multi-billion dollar estate. Wrong. To get his portion, he has to complete twelve assignments within a year. Each centers around a "gift," such as learning the value of money, the value of friends, the value of family... Fighting all the way, he has to learn each of these before qualifying for the "Ultimate Gift" his grandfather left him. (We don't find out until the end what that is.) The character arc is believable--quite a feat considering how far he has to go from the beginning.

Abigail Breslin (who co-starred in Signs and beat out my daughter's fave actress Dakota Fanning for the role of Olive in Little Miss Sunshine) does a fantastic job. Brian Dennehy also adds to the acting talent.

Our daughter especially loved the scene where the spoiled rich kid gets a cattle prod in the butt to get him out of bed.

This flick is like the Book of Proverbs set to fiction. The creators packed it with wisdom and the value of what really matters. I'll watch it again, even without my pre-teen. (Releasing in theaters March 9.)

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Prayer is a Place

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I discovered Amazon.com had a place to enter one's wish list. I typed in some titles and then forgot about the list altogether. Imagine my delight, then, at Christmastime, when my friend Rhonda peeked at my list and sent me one of the books I'd selected. How fun to open a present and honestly exclaim, "I've been wanting this!" The book: Prayer is a Place by Phyllis Tickle.

It's the third "Tickle" book in my possession. (She has many others.) My introduction to her came via my position as editor-in-chief of Kindred Spirit, the magazine of Dallas Theological Seminary. Her publicist sent me a copy of The Divine Hours along with the usual PR materials that accompany such offerings. It's the only set of PR materials I've ever received that I held onto rather than tossing. Even the stuff that described the book, the summaries of stories and the idea behind the concept, moved me.

Most Christ-followers in most centuries have "kept the hours"--observed set times throughout the twenty-four-hour day when the observant draw aside for brief prayer and meditation. My late aunt, Joyce Grafe, learned and taught the craft of laying gold leaf on illuminated (decorated in color or gold) manuscripts--a craft put to good use illuminating books of hours. From her I learned that such treasures even existed.

I've belonged to churches mostly in the Revivalist tradition. Since age fourteen, I've been Charismatic, a Bible-churcher, and Baptist. But until then, I belonged to Methodist and Presbyterian churches. And today I try to make it to a worship service at the National Cathedral (Episcopal) whenever we visit family in the D.C. area, because from my childhood heritage I gained a deep appreciation for the church year (New Year's being the first Sunday in advent), with its corresponding colors and observances, sights and smells. I miss waving branches on Palm Sunday and singing, "Hosanna, Loud Hosannas." And lighting the advent wreath. And "Old 100th" (the Doxology) and the Gloria Patri.... An Episcopalian, Tickle possesses a rich familiarity with the place that will always in a part of me be home.

Revivalists claim we don't do ritual, but (sh-h-h!) really we do. Walk into most Revivalist churches today and you get a music set, offering, sermon, and prayer of response. The only "ritual" we cut out was the public reading of Scripture, the pastoral prayer, responsive reading (more Scripture), and recitation of the Lord's Prayer. In their place, we have longer sermons and less Holy Communion. Hm-m-m.

What? Youthinks I doth regress too much? Okay...focus. Back to the book I finished today...

I liked Tickle's survey of where we've been in religious book publishing for the past couple of decades. And though she and I fall fairly far apart theologically, I appreciate the wideness she sees in God's mercy. It drives me to pray for more openness to mystery.

And I like her storytelling. Though this her latest work draws on her experience at Publishers Weekly reporting on the religious book market, it's also an autobiography of a woman who can tell a story--oh, can she tell one!

And I love how her vocabulary stretches me. My agent, Chip MacGregor, says he likes an author who sends him to the dictionary once in a while. Me, too. I finally kept my dictionary open (online) nearby as I read. Today's words: lassitude and tesseract. (Ignoramus that I sometimes am, until today, I thought Madeleine L'Engle made up that last one for A Wrinkle in Time!)

And I adore Tickle's level of literary finesse. After spending my Ph.D. studies last summer with T. S. Eliot and last fall with Dante, I applaud her for a grand-slam ending--referencing Eliot's ending in "Little Gidding," with its eschatological vision of a time when "the fire and the rose are one."

"Even so..." (Rev. 22:20, KJV).

Off With Her Bed!

So the company that provides electric (read "hospital") beds came and hauled mine away this week. Part of me hated to see the full-body recliner carried out the door. (I want my next bed to have auto-propping!) But most of me rejoiced that I no longer need it.

Today I got back on the exercise bike for the first time since November 7. And I realized after I spent an hour on it this morning that I accidentally set it at a harder level than where I had it pre-op. That realization made me near-euphoric.

To cap off the transition, I received a handmade, tan shawl today from a group at an Oregon church which makes them as a ministry. When they complete a shawl, they gather to pray for the person who will wear it. A card that came attached said they asked God to give me "love, comfort, healing." So I drape it over my shoulders, knowing people I don't even know have prayed for my full recovery. Humbling. Gave me chills. I love it when people love God and each other with their five senses and artistic gifts!

(For those just joining us, I fell head-first down my stairs fifteen months ago, and I had hip/clavicle surgery for the second time this past November to repair a badly severed clavicle. We won't know for about five years whether it "took." And the only way we know is if the metal plate does not slip again. We can't follow the progress of the bone via x-ray because a plate now covers what we'd need to see.)

You have not heard from me in six days--longer than usual--because I have myself holed up and incommunicado to finish my medical thriller, Informed Consent, that Cook has me under contract to write. Finally today I had to stop and run errands, pay bills, and answer a few messages (I'm still behind). It astonishes me how fast the time goes when I get lost in Denver (where I set the story this time). I thought of Eric Little today--the runner whose story gets told in "Chariots of Fire." He said "When I run, I feel His pleasure." When I write, I feel His pleasure.

Marfa Sunrise

Last weekend I spent the weekend at a ranchhouse near Marfa, Texas, (where the movie Giant was filmed) with a group of editors working on a manuscript. At the beginning and ending of each day, the Master Artist painted the sky for us. We followed Sunday's sunrise (seen here) with an ascent up a butte where we shared communion. Talk about your aesthetic sensibilities feeling satiated.

Marfa is to Texas what Santa Fe is to New Mexico. Our hostess, Joni Powers, arranged a Chinati Foundation tour for us of the minimalist artist, Donald Judd's, works. After that, we scoped out the local museum and The Marfa Book Company, peeked in the windows of the uber-cool Marfa Thunderbird Hotel, and shopped at the Hotel Paisano.

On Tuesday I got the okay from my doc to drive. On Thursday I turned in two book manuscripts, and on Friday morning I boarded a flight to West Texas. How's that for a transition out of the hospital bed?

Br-r-r-r!

We live in a two-story house with separate heating units for upstairs and down. About ten days ago the heat went out downstairs, but the temperature outside hovered around sixty degrees, so we figured "No sweat." We called the repair folks and set up a non-urgent appointment for the following Monday.

Yet on Sunday afternoon temps in Dallas plummeted and kept dropping overnight. An ice storm early Monday kept most folks in--including repair people. Finally, around nightfall, the service guy arrived and climbed into the attic for a look. After descending the ladder, he told us we needed a new part. We could overnight it for the cost of a space-shuttle launch or we could wait for UPS ground. We compromised and opted for two-day delivery.

Temperatures stayed below freezing. On Wednesday Mesquite and Dallas cancelled school thanks to treacherous road conditions. The meat I set out to thaw didn't. I found my husband watching TV in a parka and gloves. And for dinner three nights running we turned on the gas fireplace (all our wood was wet) and huddled in front of it to slurp our steaming soup. (Soup makes much more steam in a cold room.) The contents of our coat closet, complete with jackets, scarves, and hats, migrated to the top of the stairs where we could don them before descending into Antartica.

I wrote to a friend saying, "I know my dad lived in a tent in the Yukon for months in sub-zero temps before writing in his journal, 'It has ceased being funny and is just plain cold.' It took me only three days to reach that point. I confess. I'm a wimp." No Jack London here.

On Thursday the part arrived and the repair guy returned at dinnertime to install it. By nine p.m. our now-sixty-degree living room felt warm enough to do the Limbo. The cremated Sam McGee woulda felt right at home.

We watched "Flicka" last night with its Wyoming scenery that made us gasp. The Tetons are our favorite place on the planet. Still, at the end where they panned out with a shot of snow-covered peaks at sunrise, we sat unmoved. The scenery had the appeal of an infomercial for purgatory. We looked at each other and shook our heads. "Not a chance. Nice place to visit; wouldn't want to live there. Too dern cold."

Go for Less Garbage

This is the final installment of a three-part interview with Heather Heck of Portland, Oregon, seen here with my brother, her father, last June. Heather shares everyday steps to becoming more eco-conscious.

SG: Most of my readers don’t do the compost thing. Why should they start? And how? When is it ripe? How do you use it? What benefit comes from making compost rather than garbage?

HH: Between our composting and recycling of paper, our household of two adults, one dog and one cat generates one kitchen-sized bag of garbage per week, sometimes less. And since we don’t put food waste in our trash, we don’t have to take it out as often because it doesn’t stink. We keep a small bin with a sealing* lid next to our garbage can. We throw our food scraps into the bin and empty it once or twice a week.

I’m what you would call a lazy composter. I bought a compost bin when we moved into our house three years ago. Since that time we have filled it up with food waste such as banana peals and egg shells; yard debris such as grass clippings, fallen leaves, dead plants and plant clippings; and, of course, dryer lint. There are great articles out there that will tell you how to build a three-step compost center, and the schedule in which to turn your compost, and on and on. We don’t bother with any of that. We don’t even turn our compost. While, being more devoted composters could result in a better product, we are happy simply generating less garbage.

The compost process is pretty simple. All of the matter basically cooks itself down to soil. This process doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. The end result is good rich compost/soil which you can spread in your garden in place of fertilizer.

This is a win-win-win situation! Less garbage, free fertilizer, earth-friendly!

*We formerly had a compost bin without a sealing lid under our sink. One night the bin was knocked over in a rush to grab paper towels and Windex. This wasn’t noticed until sometime later when the wet contents had emptied themselves and spread throughout the cabinet. Yucky! Get a lid that seals!

Get Earthy

This is part two of three interviews with Heather Heck of Portland, Oregon—which I have affectionately dubbed The Ecology State. I asked Heather to share some everyday stuff we can do to be more eco-conscious.

SG: Let’s talk recycling. What should we recycle? And what could we recycle if we knew somebody wanted it (like, I dunno, a market for mattresses)?

HH: Many household items can be easily recycled: Cans, bottles, plastic containers, newspapers, and magazines, for starters. We recycle all paper, especially junk mail, shredding anything that we don’t want to get into the wrong hands. But then we recycle our shredded paper, too. I just went through my mail. All but two sheets of paper went in our paper recycling bin (kept under our desk).

We have oil and paint recycling in our curb-side pick up. Check with your local service providers to see what curbside recycling is available. Before Portland had curbside recycling, we had recycling centers. This requires more work, but also accepts a wider variety of items. Plus, there is usually a magazine bin that you can pull some interesting stuff out of!

Portland has a recycling line people can call. We tell them what we want to recycle and they tell us who to call or where to take it. I imagine not all cities have such a service, but the more people request such services, the more likely cities are to put them into place.

If the item you wish to get rid of has life left in it, you can post it on a website like Craigs List (http://www.craigslist.org/). Craigs List has sections for free stuff, which my husband frequently finds items on, including plants and trees, which we have added to our yard. Or you can sell items if you are looking for a little extra cash. We have successfully given away an old refrigerator, busted up concrete from our old walkway, and bricks from an old wall.

Alternately, you can donate your item. There is a non-profit for just about anything out there, (computers, bikes, clothing, household items). There are always people in need.

Another avenue: Check to see if your area has a “Rebuilding Center” of sorts. These facilities are non-profits, and take most any piece of a house (sinks, molding, carpet, windows). You get a nice tax deduction for your donation. Likewise, these facilities are great for locating that random drawer-pull that Home Depot no longer carries.

Batteries can be recycled. And so can cell phones. Phones with a 911 function on them are frequently given to battered woman, so they can call for help

SG: What about conserving energy in the home and car? What do you suggest?

HH: I’ll start with some easy tips:

• Don’t leave lights on that you aren’t using.
• Where possible, switch to energy efficient light bulbs. I don’t like these all over the house, but they work well in our outdoor light fixtures and utility room. They fit a standard socket, and last much longer than a conventional bulb. Some electric companies provide discount coupons, or even give out free bulbs.
• If your dryer has it, use the “sensor” setting. This will determine when your clothes are dry, and won’t run your dryer for longer than is needed.
• In that same vein, empty your lint trap. This not only allows clothes to dry faster, but helps prevent fire as lint is very flammable (perhaps starting campfires are another use for lint).
• If you leave your computer on all the time, as I do, turn off your monitor when you walk away. This will also prolong the life of your monitor.
• Televisions suck up a lot of energy! Turn off the TV if you aren’t watching it. Or, if you are like us and listen to digital music through your TV, you can run the sound through your stereo or home theater speakers and turn off the actual TV.
• Using a programmable thermostat is an easy way to save on heating/cooling costs, and you can set it to warm up the house right before your alarm goes off in the morning.
• A bigger ticket item would be to ensure your home is well insulated.

If you are looking to purchase new appliances, check to see if your local utility company or tax agency offers tax rebates for buying efficient models.

As for the car…I make a list of errands to run and find a way to get them done without backtracking all over town. I’ve always done this ’cause it made sense to my type-A personality. It wasn’t until a friend told me how much gas she and her husband were saving by coming up with a plan before they left the house that I realized it was also an earth-friendly practice.

I just saw a commercial for this website. It’s an interesting tool for folks looking to conserve around their home: www.energyhog.org.

Turn Green

Meet one of my favorite people: Heather Heck. She lives in Portland, Oregon and is someone I consider eco-conscious with grace. I asked her to share some everyday steps to becoming more sensitive to environmental issues without having to go buy solar panels. This interview is part one of a three-part series.

SG: Let’s start with food and water. What suggestions do you have for helping us be more eco-conscious?

HH: We have a couple of tricks for conserving water. The first thing I ever incorporated into my “earth friendly” routine was turning off the faucet while brushing my teeth. Like many others, I would stand there with the water running pointlessly. Now I turn on the water to wet my toothbrush and then turn it off until I’m ready to rinse.

At times, I’ve had a less-than-stellar water heater, which required the water to run for a bit before I got any warmth from it. If you can swing it, get a good hot water heater and help limit that issue, and you can get an energy efficient model which will frequently qualify you for tax breaks too.

Yards are a common place for folks to waste water. Simple tricks help here:

• Water your lawn in the morning or the evening, not during the hottest part of the day when more water will evaporate.
• Check your sprinklers to make sure they aren’t watering your paved areas. Concrete doesn’t get thirsty.
• If you are okay with letting your lawn yellow during the hottest months, you can limit your watering to about two inches every couple of weeks. Measure this by placing an empty tuna can on your lawn when you water. Once the can is full, turn off the hose.

I live in a part of the country that has great tap water, and I still won’t drink it. We consume lots of water from little plastic (Costco) bottles. We simply recycle the bottles. I even have a recycle bin at work, and I bring my water bottles home from there.

Prior to Costco water, we used a Brita water pitcher, and filled up reusable water bottles with filtered water. We each had our own, and we would even use them around the house, which also limited how many glasses we had to wash, thus saving more water and electricity.

I’ve not put this into place, but I suppose you could have your dog rinse your dishes before loading the dishwasher.

SG: Uh, thanks for that idea.... What about food? And the whole paper and plastic thing. What do you do?

HH: Food is an entirely different topic, and is frankly scary. In general, and as your budget allows, buy organic, especially dairy products. More and more, growth hormone—injected into cows—is being tied to early development of young women. Think about it: a cow is injected with hormone to produce milk, your daughter drinks that milk, which contains that hormone. Eew! You saw “The Corporation”…

Buying organic really can be cost prohibitive for many families. The good news is that as more people buy organic, the demand is increasing, and the price is coming down. Also, organic dairy products have a much longer shelf life. A gallon of organic milk with have a six-week shelf life vs. a one- to two-week shelf life of standard milk.

Paper vs. Plastic comes down to preference. Most grocery stores offer plastic bag recycling. We save our plastic bags and take them back every now and then. The store takes care of the rest.

Paper bags can be used to collect newspaper for recycling or could be recycled with your household paper. We tend to mix it up; either way we are able to recycle the bag we get. Don’t leave out the Old Navy and Target bags! Throw those in with the plastic bags. The store should take them all.

In the end, there are many more things we could do. We do what we can, and look for easy ways to incorporate earth-friendly practices into our life style.

How Do You Do What You Do?

I had this fun post all drafted, but when I clicked "publish," Blogger ate it. Ah, technology.

If you want to read an interview I did on balancing home and work and education, check out this site.

Doc says I can drive and lift and raise my hands over my head again. No swimming yet. But yesterday I got giddy about driving to the cleaners all by myself.

Met the book deadline. Heading out of town to celebrate.

Coming soon: A three-part interview with an eco-maven about everyday stuff you can do to recycle and go easy on the environment.

This and That

Happy Epiphany/Merry Christmas to my Orthodox friends!

One of my friends is walking through breast cancer treatment with her sister. I love what she wrote me recently: "I have learned more than one thing, but primarily that Courage is Beautiful, not hair."

I'm holed up working to hit a two-book deadline Thursday. I've got one finished and am a few days ahead on the second. But I'm about fifty e-mail messages behind. Friday early I'm supposed to fly to West Texas with a couple of seminary prof writers and friends for some ranch and editing time. A good incentive to get finished, as if a contract date weren't enough!

I have an appointment to see my ortho trauma doc again on Tuesday. I really, really hope he will let me drive again and get back in the pool and lift up to five pounds.

Gary and I watched "Twin Towers" the other night. The only appropriate response after that film is to hold everybody you love.

My artsy friends over at www.SoulPerSuit.com are getting ready to launch a new SoulPerSuit (SPS) Bible study using my Mocha on the Mount as their guide in early February. They'll do one chapter/week and then interact creatively with what we're thinking about as a result. SPS is a creative way of taking application one step further so we really change rather than just getting smarter about how we should live. We use creativity to express our understanding and feelings about God and the Word when words may not suffice, as a creative expression can make the application more memorable and intrinsic. You can see samples by going to the SPS site and clicking on some of the art in the galleries. I plan to join in this time around. You can be anywhere in the world to join in. And you you can be a non-artist (visually speaking) like me. You also don't have to be a Christian to participate. The study will give you a good overview of Jesus' key teachings. More info at the SPS blog site. Join us!

Things I Wonder

Was Eve a Slytherin? (Don't you have to be a Slytherin to speak Parseltongue?)

Why didn't I extend my hand to President Ford? (When I was in high school, my drill team participated in the national Christmas Tree lighting. Mr. Ford walked right by me, and I just stared. But the student a few people down had the presence of mind to extend his hand, and the president walked right over and shook it.)

Does the flavor of chocolate improve with age (mine, not the chocolate's) for other people, too?

Do I collect more junk than I used to, or is it just bothering me more now that I can't lift anything more than a coffee cup?

Did Rahab live long enough to see her son, Boaz, marry Ruth? Did Ruth live long enough to see her great grandson, David, marry Bathsheba?

Has anyone come up with a use for dryer lint?

What have you wondered lately?

Books and Stuff

So I checked out Nelson's list of the top 100 books that sold in 2006. I've read a pitiful thirteen of them, six of which (in bold) I read earlier than in 2006 (or in the case of Wicked, I saw it on Broadway in 2005 and decided that counted--just to make myself feel better). Two books have two numbers because they were best sellers both in hardback and in paper, in case you wonder about how number 4 can also be 13. Don't worry--I didn't "double dip."

4, 13 The DaVinci Code, Brown
8 The Kite Runner, Hosseini
18 Wicked, Maguire
26,47 The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis
27 The Five Love Languages, Chapman
42 The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion
46 The Secret Life of Bees
48 What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Group
55 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling
71 The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Albom
88 Gilead, Robinson
91 Mere Christianity, Lewis
98 Blue Like Jazz, Miller

I console myself by telling me, "Self, you were too busy reading classic writers like Dante and T. S. Eliot to read more best sellers." (Self to self: Yarright.)

When it comes to movies, I am not exactly the arts queen, either. But I've seen a few lately about which I will comment. Over Christmas break in D. C. we saw "Charlotte." Superbly done. Julie Roberts does a fine job as the voice of Charlotte. I'd see it again.

A couple of nights ago we watched "Pirates of the Caribbean II" on video. I had the same response as the first time: Dude. What's up with all the slime?

Last night some of us got together and watched "One Night with the King"--the story of Queen Esther of Persia. My seamstress sister loved all the rich fabrics. The costumes were superb. The sets were also fantastic. And my niece loved seeing the main character in gorgeous gowns with bare feet. "What's not to like about that sort of wardrobe?" she wanted to know.

Other than that...It was too slow moving to hold the attention of my 12-year-old daughter. And when it comes to history, I give it a thumbs down. Xerxes' real-life failed Greek campaign probably happened between Vasti's exit and the king's selection of Esther. In the movie, though, events happen on the eve of battle. By departing from history they give up what could have been great motivations to drive the plot. In real life, Haman's bribing of the king to commit genocide against the Jews was probably easy to pull off because the war had (past tense) severely depleted the royal treasuries.

In the movie, Esther wields her influence as the politically correct anti-war advocate. In real life what do you think are the chances of a woman who had barely more than harem status daring to be outspoken with the king about her political opinions? And we know from history that Xerxes was quite the womanizer. Yet the story makes him a monogamous man in loyal love. They wait until their wedding night to "get together," meaning we have an R-rated Bible and Hollywood makes it "G." Do you see the irony in that?

Have You Read Any of These?

Happy New Year!

Here is a list of the top 100 books that sold in 2006. It's an unusual list because it includes books sold in Christian bookstores, which sometimes get left off the NY Times and other lists for a variety of reasons. If you read the Bible last year, you read the #2 bestselling book. Number one surprised me.

What do you plan to read in 2007? Right now I'm enjoying Phyllis Tickle's Prayer is a Place: America's Religious Landscape Observed. If you ever read the religion section of Publishers Weekly, you have her to thank. I received the book for Christmas from my friend Rhonda, who found it on my Amazon wish list. (I forgot all about making that list, so the book came as a superb surprise.)