Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

I slept really late yesterday morning, being tired out still from Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and then woke up at 5:20 a.m. this morning.  

So – what’s the deal with that, anyway?  How can I win?  What would you do?

Me – it’s the holidays, but I guess I’ll blog!

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We got a tax bill from Pearl River County yesterday on our lot we’re building the house on.  I was afraid to open it, but did.  

For one thing, the card had a marked out address on it to the previous owner who marked it "SOLD" and sent it back to the county.  They stuck the same card in an envelope and mailed it to us at our P. O. Box with the name "Andrews, Thomas Petal."  

I was confused.  Tom’s name is Thomas Phillip Andrews, not Thomas Petal Andrews.  I was more confused the longer I looked at it.

Then it all became crystal clear.  It was one of my old time legal terms.  "Andrews, Thomas, P et. al."  

Oh well.  

Oh yeah – it was for $3.59, but not due until February 1, 2007.  

I think I’ll go ahead and pay it.  Send them a check for $3.59 so as not to lose it to a tax sale.  

Our attorney and banker said it will probably be the same for next year since the house won’t be finished until during the year.  That would be a nice reprieve, but I hate to see how much it will go up after that, you know?

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We went to see The Nativity Story.  Tom considers me to be his resident Bible scholar, which he likes a lot about me, but it also drives him nuts.  He says he hates to go to religious movies with me because I always sit there whispering a running commentary, saying "That’s not right.  That’s not how it really was."

So he made me promise to keep my mouth shut if he were going to take me to see the Nativity Story.  

I promised and I did it.  

As we walked out I said, "See how good I was?  I promised I’d keep my mouth shut during the whole movie and I did."

He said, "So?"

I said, "Well, there were just a couple of little things I saw that weren’t right, that’s all."

He exclaimed, "What?  She didn’t have a boy?"

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Finally, I just now heard one of the two major musical themes from the best foreign pictures of all times, "Cinema Paradiso," being played in connection with coverage of President Gerald Ford’s death and am filled with deep emotion.  I cannot recommend that movie highly enough.  We’ve seen it probably 10 times or so and I bought not only the complete sound track to it, but also the DVD itself.  

It won Best Foreign Film in 1988 and is terrific.  I kept having friends and acquaintances tell me, oh you need to see Cinema Paradiso, and I thought, yeah, well . . ..  But it is a moving, sentimental, marvelous movie film wise and story wise, as well as very tragically but deeply romantic.  I cannot watch it a single time without crying lovingly at the end.  Even though I know the moments that are coming each time, I cry still, and even more the more I watch it.

If you love beautiful, deeply moving music and film, you will love this movie.  The little boy, Salvatore, is perfect in the part and in his relationship with the theater projectionist, Alfredo.  It is absolutely the MUST SEE movie of all time!  Especially for anyone like Tom at all, who literally grew up in movie theaters.

So go out and rent it or buy it (I would if I were you) today!  (Warning – forget the longer Director’s Cut of 1991 – it’s not as good, surprisingly, and subtracts from the movie rather adding to it.  See the original 1988 version.)

But when you cry at the end – and you’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there – don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Even so, it will be well worth your time and interest.  It’s lovely and worth the good cry.  I’ll want to see it  even in heaven!  Let God wipe away all my tears like only He can and will.  That’s my theology of heaven for the morning.  There will be tears in heaven for us, but God will wipe them all away when we cry.

Remember you heard it here at Finding Direction:  The Wind Vane Chronicles.