I have to preface this anecdote by reminding you that my 94-year-old mother has been a Seventh-day Adventist since she was about six years old. What that means, if you don't know, is a lifetime without—among other things—meat, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, dancing, anything "untrue" (i.e. novels), anything secular on the Sabbath and—the point of this story—movies.
When I was in elementary school, every Saturday night we would go to Orlando Church School for various activities. There would be skating or kickball on the "slab", softball on the ballfield and a nature movie in the choir/band room. Nature movies and true-life movies would be okay, but never in a movie theatre. "Be in the world but not of the world."
My mother has seen, I'm sure, fewer than 100 movies in her life.
When I spoke with her yesterday, she told me the residents of her retirement community had watched "To Kill a Mockingbird" yesterday afternoon. "But," she said, "there was no mockingbird in the movie."
I guess she thought this movie was going to be about the life and death of mockingbirds.
My sons sometimes wonder why symbolism is lost on me. I rest my case.
No comments:
Post a Comment