While I was happily ensconced at the Estancia Hotel and Spa last weekend, I watched the movie Doubt with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and the superb Viola Davis in a small but pivotal role.

I loved the movie for its richness of text and subtext.  For the multiple storylines that are going on at once...and not really story lines in the sense of an A-line, a B-line and a C-line...as they teach us in screenwriting classes.  In those cases, the story lines are about characters.  In this case, the story lines are about different aspects of faith and their tensions.

Faith versus doubt.  Compassion versus justice.  Suspicion versus Certainty.  Responsibility versus Adaptation.  Black versus white (and not just metaphorically).  It's one of those movies that I will want to watch again and again to glean more about what the writer (John Patrick Shanley) was saying and trying to say.

From time to time, I have found both Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman to go over the top in their roles.  It usually happens when they are surrounded by actors who are less powerful than they are.  In this case, they clearly brought out the best in each other.

And Amy Adams.  What a revelation!  She's been cute in fluffy movies but here she is complex, with motivations of her own that are not altogether altrusitic.  She plays the ingenue nun with convictions of her own to a "t".

Viola Davis plays the mother of a young black boy that Meryl Streep's character suspects has been molested by Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character, the parish priest.  The movie is set in the 60's, just after John Kennedy's assassination.  The black boy is the only African American in the school.

There's a dynamic and wrenching scene between Streep and Davis where the need to protect the boy becomes a wrestling match.  Protect him from molestation?  Protect him from not completing school and being able to get out of the life of African Americans in that time frame?  Protect him from his violent father?  Which is the greater need?

And ultimately, what's best about the movie is it doesn't answer these questions for you.  It asks you to answer them, or at least to ponder them.  I highly recommend the movie to you!

So, I'll have to see the rest of the nominated pictures (especially Slumdog Millionaire) to see if justice was served in the final analysis.  Sounds like an excellent LE/VLE day activity to me.

There was at least one silly movie made several years back about a giant snake that lived in the "remotest jungle in the world."  Who knew that such a thing was possible, that there was such a thing as a snake big as a school bus?

Of course, this was quite a few million years back.  Between 58 and 60 million years ago according to the LA times article I read today.   I imagine we would barely have registered as a snack on the "Titanboa" scale.  But still...glad to know they're extinct.

Scientists believe the reason Titanboa failed to make the evolutionary grade is that the snake simply was too big.  So as the earth's weather changed, the giant boa could no longer survive.

A cautionary tale for us perhaps.  But certainly not a reason to rent Anaconda...I don't care how many movies you can get on Netflix.

A milestone of sorts today--Dan and I went to a movie!  It's been a while since we've seen a film outside of the house so I was really looking forward to it.

We picked Last Chance Harvey on the theory that it was a romantic comedy.  It turned out to be more of a slowly developing, midlife transition movie with funny, embarassing, sad and many tender moments.  It had a sort of meditative quality about it that didn't fit with my expectations but is resonating well after the movie.

I noticed when we first got to the theater that there were a lot of elderly folks there, some with walkers who very carefully lined their walkers up alongside the aisle to get into the seating area.  As we were getting up to leave the theater, I said to Dan that maybe we should wait until the rush was over to leave and then we both laughed as we figured out that I could probably keep pace with the crowd at hand.

Now, since I've not napped yet today (!), I'm off for a rest.  Counting my blessings for a normal day, a loving husband and a Creator with a sense of humor.

It's just the two of us home today and we're having a great time being lazy.  So far we've watched two movies from the 90's (The Fugitive and Die Hard II) and we're gearing up for The Road Warrior next.

We haven't been completely antisocial today.  Our friends, Bill and Donna Davis (missionaries in the Philippines) stopped by on their way north this morning.  And we enjoyed a heavenly breakfast of Wolfermann's muffins with Erik before he left go back home. 

Erik was a godsend this week.  Bill and Donna, in their own way, were the same as they asked questions about the diagnosis, shared their hope and faith with us and prayed with us for healing both from my surgery and from the cancer.

So...no big treatise on any topic today.  Just a tip of the hat to the comforts of friendship and a long marriage...gratitude for the day we get to share, today.

Now if only I could eat popcorn!

No, the title of this blog is not an address...it's the end of the quote that begins with "From the sublime..."  But before I get into my ridiculousness, let me give a status report for all of you holding Kevin in thought and prayer.  He is doing well.  Surgery went as planned and he is scheduled to move from ICU to the step-down cardiac care today.  This is all good news!  I hope to see him later today.

Steven is holding up extremely well and seems much relieved that the surgical portion of the ordeal is over.  Now the healing.

As to the ridiculous?  Yesterday, I was sitting with Dan in the circular hallway of Duke Hospital's 3rd Floor surgical waiting area.  It's a gorgeous space in terms of windows, lighting, seating.  And it grows subtly eerie as the hospital empties after 7:00 shift change.  I made the comment to Dan that it would be an excellent setting for a zombie movie.

I love zombie movies.  I have zombie dreams, too (although last night it was rather complex dreams about vampires and road trips--a sort of post-apocalyptic vision in which the only way to vanquish the head vampira was to become a vampire.  Then I held them to their own rules--an open fountain becomes a vampire holding zone, apparently--I left them there to starve forever).  I purchased the Zombie Survival Guide.  I've seen almost every Zombie movie known to man.  My current favorite?  It's a tie between Dawn of the Dead and I am Legend.

So imagine my joy when I found in this morning's LA Times an article about George Romero (zombie movie producer of some reknown) and his latest zombie movie--"Diary of the Dead."  I can hardly wait to see it.

In the meantime, I'll be content with vampire dreams and hospital vigils.  Maybe I'll write up a treatment of my dream...given the state of vampire movies these days, it could sell.

Why is it that we call Hillary, "Hillary" instead of Clinton?  Is it strictly because to say Clinton might confuse folks who would assume we're talking about Bill?  Or is it because she's the only woman in the race?  I'm just asking.

At any rate, it seems these are the final four candidates for the two major parties after yesterday's Super Tuesday.  The conventions might actually be exciting this year--wouldn't that be a change of pace?

I voted early, via mail-in ballot--casting my vote for John Edwards before he pulled out of the race.  I don't feel bad about voting for him.  Certainly I don't feel like I "wasted" my vote.  Rather, I'm proud that I voted for the candidate I felt was the best all around fit and that I'd done enough research to hold that conviction.

Now I'll have to do a bit more research into Hillary, Barack, John and Mitt.  It's fairly certain I will stay with the Democratic nominee...but McCain did interest me a few years back.  Still have that bad taste in my mouth over his pandering for Bush in '04 though. 

Things on the home front are calm(ish).  Had a doctor's appointment today.  Got a window fixed.  Made lunch and dinner.  Hung out this afternoon with my poor sick man, enjoying movies together.  We saw "Elizabethtown" and "Beautiful Girls."  Both great, offbeat movies with strong casts.  But the more I think about Elizabethtown the more I like it.  The message of the movie could have been very heavy handed.  Instead, it's delivered in a whimsical way that says, "Get over your bad self.  Get on with life."

Indeed.

We're headed out for a quick visit to our friend in prison.  I've got the prison clothes all laid out...we'll see if I've got it down to a science this time.  I'm hoping for cool, sunny weather and safe, easy travel.  Not too much to ask, is it?

I saw in today's news that Deborah Kerr died.  She has been a familiar face in our house as we frequently view An Affair to Remember (one of Dan's favorites).  I love the first half of the film, but remember Kerr more fondly for her role as Anna in The King and I.  Farewell to a talented lady.  I hope she's dancing and singing in the afterlife, even now.

On a completely different topic, I signed up today for National Novel Writing Month.  It's in November, along with a week's trip to Hawaii and Thanksgiving, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway.  The premise is that writers commit to producing 50,000 words during the month of November.

The idea behind the exercise is that the time limit and the large requirement force writing over editing and motivate folks to sit down before the blank screen and just write. 

50,000 words breaks down into 1,667 words per day.  My work-in-progress, Apple Pie, has 142 pages and 38,751 words.  Using that as a baseline, we're talking 6 pages per day.  Eeek!  I'm starting to get cold feet already.

The rules are that the novel has to be started from scratch.  I've got a couple of ideas percolating about that I can get started on...or I can junk their rules and use this as a timeline/word count to plow ahead on Apple Pie.  The problem with that is that A.P. is historical fiction, requiring lots of tie backs to actual events.  So that argues for working on a novel less tied to research.  I'm mulling.  I'll let you know.

One thing's for sure.  It doesn't bode well for lengthy blogs in November!  (And what I do write will likely be about writing!)  Anyone want to join me in this challenge?

I had a simply wonderful birthday weekend!  It started with a lazy Saturday morning at home followed by a trip to San Diego to see Mom.  We had a delicious pot-roast sandwich lunch and decided on a movie for the afternoon's activity...thus embarking on the theme for the birthday weekend.

Dan was a bit nervous when we entered the theater for what I'd advertised as a "romantic-comedy"--The Jane Austen Book Club (or, as our ticket stubs read: Jane A Boo).  The reason for his nervousness?  A movie theater chock-full of women.  By his last head count, there were only four men attending the movie and all with their wives.  Still, in the end, he gave it a C plus in recognition of appealing characters and good lines.

I thought the movie was entertaining, engaging and well-acted by an extraordinary ensemble cast.  The plot was a bit of a contrivance, but that befits a movie about people engaged in reading "all Jane, all the time."  The film was fun for Austen insiders but accessible to folks who, like me, have a passing acquaintance with Austen's books.

After breakfast with Mom's coffee group and 2nd breakfast at The Crest Cafe with just Mom, we headed up to play golf at Arrowood Golf Course in the Oceanside area.  It was a long round, but we had an enjoyable time and were paired with a very nice couple.

Since Dan had yesterday off, the movie fest continued after our golf hiatus, with the viewing of two very different films.  First was Eastern Promises, a serious and brutal look at inner workings of the Russian mafia in London.  The website calls it a "thriller" but for me it was more meditative than thrilling and thoroughly engaging throughout.  Viggo Mortensen was spot on in his role as was Ozzie Actress Naomi Watts--but it was Armin Mueller-Stahl's portrayal of Semyon as a charming, completely amoral "King" that made the film.

Since I have fairly eclectic tastes in movie genre, our next viewing was quite different fare, the zombie/sci-fi/game-based film Resident Evil-Extinction.  Dan was very sweet to go with me to this film as he is not a zombie movie fan like I am.  As zombie flicks go, this one was pretty good up until about the last 15 minutes of the film when the plot took a sharp left turn, completely losing any semblance of creditbility (which was thin to begin with).  Still it was worth seeing if you like zombies...even zombie-philes can wait for DVD though...and then it will be a rental.

Eastern Promises, on the other hand, will likely find a home in our DVD collection and not just because Viggo Mortensen has a naked knife fight.  As for Jane-A-Boo?  Well, Mom said she's going to buy it for her collection, so I'll watch it again in a girls' movie fest at a future date.