Mary Poppins (Part 2) - It's a Wonderful Life?

Recap of Part 1:

Revisiting the Disney version of Mary Poppins as an adult, I see the real story is about the father, George Banks, whose struggles in 1910 are not different than for many of us in 2010.

Now, let me explain ...

Back in 1910:

For starters, George Banks enjoys a comfortable life as a banker in the London at the twilight of the Victorian age. England is a superpower at the turn of the 20th century. With Queen Victoria's passing in 1901, King Edward is on the throne - "The Age of Men."

In 1910 Mr. Banks sees himself as the benevolent dictator of his household, laced in the straight jacket of order and patterns. He seems to be at the top of this game with the life he leads, as shown in this video clip.



Mrs. Banks, involved in the women's suffrage movement, comes across as more engaged in throwing eggs at the prime minister than paying any attention to the serious business at home. She sloughs off the responsibility of raising her children to nannies, servants, and later even the local chimney sweep, Bert.

At the start of the movie, one of a long string of nannies quits in a huff after losing track of the children in the park. Clearly, Jane and Michael Banks have been acting out, though they hardly seem like hellions by today's standards.

It's a Wonderful Life?

The Banks are one dysfunctional family, disconnected from each other. For the bigger picture from history, World War One will soon arise from the horizon, bringing with its ugly devastation much disillusion, shaking and shrinking the British empire.

Fast forward to 2010:

Like England of a 100 years ago, America has risen to superpower status and has become the envy of the world in affluence and achievement.

Productivity is king. As a result, many Americans have become embroiled in work at the daily grindstone, putting in long hours during weekends and evenings, striving to climb the ladder of success or at least keep jobs in a troubling economy. Meanwhile, needs of spouses, significant others, children may be neglected as well as the workers own needs.

In 2010 with the barrage of 24/7 news coverage, there is an uneasy feeling as to what may be looming on the horizon. Another terrorist attack? A nuclear war? A Great Depression II? The situation in 2010 may not be that much different than that of George Banks' family back in 1910.

Rewind to 1910:

As the movie unfolds, Mary Poppins answers the desires of the children as their nanny of choice. Once hired on, she transports Jane and Michael from their stifling structured environs to magical adventures. As well as expanding their imagination, she administers the children a tender dose of humanity.

With her snowglobe of St. Paul's Cathedral, Mary gives the children a vision of the underclass, the working poor, living in the shadows of the affluent. Self-absorbed, consumed by the busy-ness of life, many seem to ignore the politically powerless, like the Bird Woman sitting at the cathedral steps selling her wares.



"Feed the Birds" is one of the loveliest, if not most poignant songs, in the movie. And Mary has a way of showing her employer, Mr. Banks, that he crosses paths with the Bird Woman on his way to work each day. Does he notice her?

Fast forward to 2010, again:

The poor, the underclass, the politically powerless in the shadows are still with us as Jesus had said some 2000 years ago:

"The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want...."
Mark 14:7 (New International Version)

Today, people are still hurting as houses are foreclosed, jobs are lost, wages reduced though cost of living is rising. The want of the underclass, the underemployed, the unemployed is more keenly felt especially during tough times. In the whirlwind of busy-ness, do we see them?

Part 3, the next post, George Banks journey continues as the man who seems to have had everything, suddenly faces losing everything ...

Mary Poppins (Part 1) - from 1910 to 2010

It was one of those summer days near the mountains in 2010 ....

A thunderstorm was brewing as I sat in the comfort of my house, looking out the window, anticipating nature's free light show. And I was not disappointed. Storm clouds gathered. Lightening flashed on the mountain tops. Thunder roared. Then the unexpected happened.

Lightening struck ... our house. Or should say the ham radio antenna nearby. The antenna wires evaporated as a surge of electricity selectively damaged circuits and appliances. The TV set and DVD player were toast as well as our toaster. We had a mess to deal with.

As we waited on insurance and repairs, a concerned neighbor had lent us a spare TV set and we hooked up an old VHS player as replacements were on the way. Meanwhile, I got in touch with my inner child and checked out some classic Disney tapes from our local library. And one of them was "Mary Poppins."

Mary Poppins was good with dealing with messes, wasn't she? Remember "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down?"



I had fond memories of Mary Poppins. Back in the dark ages when I was in grade school, my music teacher had commented how much I looked like Jane Banks, the little girl in the story. I remember some of the silly songs. Can you spell "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?" When I learned to spell that word, I thought I was quite smart.



After watching the movie, again, as an adult in the 21st century, I saw another dimension. This really wasn't strictly a children's story. The Disney version had a la flavor of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, only not as scary, but still quite moving.

After stripping off the icing of magical adventures and fun songs and dance, it seemed that underlying story was about the father, George Banks. Mary Poppins and her friend Bert served as catalysts to precipitate George's release from the gilded cage, which he and society had created from himself.

The movie still has its appeal because it is timeless. What George Banks faced in 1910 is not so different than the crisis many of us are experiencing in 2010. Please hang in there for the next three posts as I make my case and let me know what you think.

Dancing on Top of the World Trade Center

Nine years ago .... We were in the ninth month of a new century, a new millennium.

Then on September 11 , America was attacked, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center came tumbling down, and thousands of innocent lives were lost.

The War on Terror continues on to this day, and there still are so many questions ....

Why do bad things ... sometimes very bad things ... happen? Why is there evil in the world?

Many books have tried to get their arms around this big question of Why?
Check out:
* Rabbi Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
* Victor Frankl's Holocaust experience: Man's Search for Meaning
* William Young's The Shack .
* The world's best seller of all time - the Holy Bible ....

In 1973, Godspell - a musical based on the Gospel of St. Matthew - came to the big screen. One of its catchy numbers - All for the Best - tackles some of the why questions as the lyrics can be summed up by St. Paul's assertion:

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 (King James Version)
Below is a video clip of that number.
(It's almsot5 minutes long, but if you see anything, check out the final scene at 4:20 to 4:40.)

The final seconds of the last scene, they are literally ...

Dancing on Top of the World Trade Center

The Twin Towers were yet to be finished when Godspell was filmed, and 28 years later the World Trade Center came tumbling down.

I don't know why 9-11 - or countless other acts of evil - happen. Only God knows, and He has a plan. It seems He allows evil to run its course while moving forward with His purpose to the day when He will make all things right:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4 (King James Version)

May the God of all Comfort be with all of you who suffered have loss, whether during the 9-11 attacks or the War on Terror. And God bless and protect our troops, who fight vigilantly to protect us and keep us safe.

Photo from Wikipedia Commons: World trade center aerial view March 2001

"Heat Wave" by Richard Castle - When Art imitates Art

I thought I had stepped into a 21st century Pleasantville. As my local library was undergoing renovations, perhaps construction crews had opened up a door into the TV universe? Sounds like a plot about a library for a book found in a library.

Yes, I am being ridiculous.

As my eyes scoped out the displaced shelves of the room under reconstruction, one of the new books on the back shelf got my attention: "Heat Wave" by Richard Castle.

The mystery writer, Richard Castle, is a real guy. I had been hooked on the TV show, Castle, and looked forward to another season starting this September 2010. Seeing the book, I thought, Maybe the show is based on Life?
On the back side of the book jacket, I was surprised to see a large photo of Nathan Fillion, which the writeup claimed was the Richard Castle and boasted of his success with his Derrick Storm novels. Castle had killed off this hero and began a new series, Nikki Heat, the NYPD homicide detective shadowed by Pulitzer prize winning writer, Jameson Rook, who was researching his next set of articles on New York's finest.

Rook? Castle? Hah! Checkmate!

This book was not Art imitating Life. Or Life imitating Art. It was Art imitating Art.

I read the book and found it as enjoyable as the show. At the time in my corner of the universe, I was going through a heat wave of my own - 105 degrees F - so I could relate.

"Heat Wave" has its own book trailer on YouTube:



And now a movie in 2011?



Here are a few other reviews I found online:


* Heat Wave by Richard Castle – Book Review

* Richard Castle's 'Heat Wave' novel: Not bad!


What's next? Derrick Storm novels? Gathering Storm? Unholy Storm? .... Final Storm?

Don't that beat all?

Cover from Barnes & Noble
For an interactive peek at the book, check out amazon: Heat Wave

A kiss immortalized in August 14, 1945

Photo from Wikipedia: Kissing the War Goodbye

Above is the lesser known photo taken by Lt. Victor Jorgensen of a sailor kissing a passing nurse on VJ Day in Times Square.

The most famous and iconic picture of this same subject - VJ Day in Times Square - taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was published in LIFE in 1945 with the caption, In New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers.

August 14, 1945 in New York City was a magical moment - a confluence of history, a place, and everyday people. Soldiers were returning home from an intense four years of fighting when President Truman announced Victory in Japan (VJ Day) - the end of the American involvement in World War II.

In Times Square, the sailors paraded in joy for they had won! On the street, civilians came out to the streets from their shops, the hospitals, to savor this moment of victory. Then a sailor, caught up in the passion, kissed a surprised young nurse, who was stopped in mid stride as two photographers, Lt. Jorgenson, an American sailor, and Alfred Eisenstaedt, a German-American photojournalist for LIFE magazine, snapped this spontaneous moment.

Eisenstaedt, whose photo made it into LIFE, ironically had fought on the side of Germany in World War I. He later photographed a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy before emigrating to US to escape Nazi oppression in 1935 .

But who were the subjects of Jorgenson's and Eisenstaedt's iconic photo?

The nurse was Edith Shain and here is the story:



The greatest generation, like Edith Shain who passed away this June 2010, is fading into history. The new generation taking their place is greatly in debt to their sacrifce.

When our nation was born, the writers of the Declaration of Independence finished "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

So did many, who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II, carried the Spirit of 1776 to the Spirit of 1945. May our generation carry the Spirit of 1776 and 1945 in 2010 and beyond.

Other links:

From nydailynews.com: Edith Shain, nurse whose V-J kiss with sailor in Times Square immortalized in Life photo, dies at 91

From YouTube.com: Photo of iconic kiss reenacted

Beverly Hillbillies and Amos - country folk in the big city

Remember the Ballad of Jed Clampett by Flatt & Scruggs?

"Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed
Then one day he was shooting for some food,
And up through the ground come a bubbling crude...."

For the complete lyrics: click here

The first two verses opened and the last one closed the show of the 9 year long running sitcom, The Beveryly Hillbillies (1962-1971)

Beverly Hillbillies Opening Theme - More amazing video clips are a click away

This really dates me, but I watched the Beverly Hillbillies on TV before they went into perpetual reruns on TV land. The humor of the show was displacement - the fish out of water - rural, simple, naive hillbillies in the big city culture and sophistication of Beverly Hills. How absurd! Or was it?

What I found so appealing about the Clampett family in the original series was that they were genuinely decent, honest, kind, polite, godly people. As a plot for many episodes, the dishonest, the greedy, the godless, the self-aggrandizing had marked this simple hillbilly family as an easy target to use and to fleece. Yet, simple goodness prevailed over the many sophisticated flavors of evil.

"Simple" as in good is always easy to grasp. What does a straight line look like? There is one answer.


It doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it? Straight can only be one way.


"Sophistication" in the worldly sense is harder to grasp. What does a crooked line look like?


There are infinite ways for the line to be crooked. Likewise, evil can be twisted in an infinite many ways. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that evil seems more appealing and intriguing? Its mystery?

I see a timeless parable in the original "Beveryly Hillbillies." In some episodes, the simple goodness and wisdom of the Clampetts seemed as a witness to the complicated, twisted sophistication and worldly wisdom of the big city.

Likewise, there is another much overlooked story of an ancient "hillbilly," who lived in the 8th century before Christ and came to the sophisticated town of Bethel. His name was Amos, a shepherd from the desert of Tekoa, who took care of sycamore-fig trees.

Read all about this simple country preacher, who came to the "Beverly Hills" of his day: The Country Preacher Who Came to Town

For our sophisticated age of the internet in the 21st century, Amos proclaims this timeless message from the One who called him:

12 For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes
and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.13 Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times,
for the times are evil.14 Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
Amos 5:12-14
(NIV)

Whether the fictional Jed Clampett or the Old Testament prophet Amos - both these country boys took on the sophisticated big city.

Photos:

from everystockphoto.com:
Beverly Hills

from wikipedia:
Straight line
Crooked line

The Trinity Site - 65 years ago

The first Saturday in October 2008, I had visited one of the two days in the year that the Trinity Site was opened up to the public. I wrote about the experience and had it published in the article below:

The Trinity Site: Where the First Atomic Bomb was Exploded - click here

This July 16, 2010 is the 65th anniversary of the explosion of the first atomic bomb. The video clip below shows that event.




Throughout the years, the splitting of the atom has sparked a firestorm of controversy and soul searching as this powerful genie was unleashed upon humanity. One thing it did do. It ended World War Two - the most deadly war to date - whose death toll was mounting up between 62 to 78 million.

Who saw this coming? Perhaps 1900 years ago, St. Peter saw an awesome day of destruction when he penned these words:

"You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat."
2 Peter 3:11-12 (New International Version)

That day has not come yet - we are still here. But in an obscure place in the desert of New Mexico, a small piece of the elements melted away with heat 65 years ago.

Photo at entrance to Ground Zero: S. K. Smith