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A vital PSA

Posted on by Wick

I’ve been meaning to share this forever, and yet it continued to be pushed to the back burner.  As if there’s anything more important going on?  A few years ago, a movie was released that changed the landscape of “Muppet Movies” forever.  Taken to a whole new production level, this modern take on the community known as “The Muppets” was instantly a hit in my book.  Even with the acknowledgement of drama between the production and Frank Oz (missed him, for sure).

But one of the significant tragedies that happened concerns a major plot element that is never actually revealed in the movie!

The “evil villain” in this movie features “Tex Richman”, an oil baron with an axe to grind against The Muppets.  He wants to exploit the land Muppet Studios is located on, and shows visible contempt for Kermit and his pals.  But what we never hear in the movie itself is WHY Tex Richman dislikes the Muppets.  We get a small hint, as he goes off with his odd way of celebrating something he thinks is funny.  He doesn’t laugh, but rather says the words, “Maniacal Laugh!!” over and over again, in an evil-sounding voice.

Thankfully, my family and I knew the back-story.  Not because we knew Tex Richman personally, but simply because we’d purchased “The Muppets” soundtrack way before the movie was released.  There’s a song within the movie where Tex Richman introduces himself.  It’s pretty entertaining, and has a catchy tune you’ll want to sing along.  But in the movie itself, an important part of the song is missing – the musical interlude where Tex gives a heartbreaking story that happened to him as a boy.  The story is sung as follows:

“I recall a heart breaking story
About my own 10th birthday party
Should’ve been glorious day for me
I’d have been happy as can be
But the Muppets were there to put on a show
They started to dance they were telling their jokes
I didn’t laugh…
I didn’t know how…
Then my friends they all turned around
And they laughed at me…
They laughed at me…
And I hate you Muppets so”

Especially in a heart-breaking operatic tone, one can’t help but be sympathetic to Mr.Richman, and want terribly to find the redemptive moment in the movie where, inspired by the heart of Kermit, he’s given a chance to laugh. Unfortunately, this peek into his childhood is covered up in the film. Buried under what remains to be a solid bit of rich entertainment, the story is only known by those who have listened to the soundtrack.

But it begs the question: Will Tex Richman ever learn to laugh? Will Kermit and his Rainbow Connection be powerful enough to conquer the walls that have been built up over the years of this hardened heart? Or will he be forced to chant “maniacal laugh!!!” for the remainder of his days?

I sincerely hope that at some point in a future movie, we will all get a chance to learn what has become of this boy who became a man who never knew the joy of laughter. Until then, every Muppet movie that continues to be made, although it will make me smile and laugh, will in a small way simply be avoiding the issue. This is a public plea for Kermit and his friends to face the issue honestly, and show Tex Richman what a life lived with laughter can be like.

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need for confession and repentence…

Posted on by Wick

Today’s an important day.  “Midterm Elections” are happening all over the US.  Here in our state, I’ve done the research.  A while back, I downloaded my county ballot, and began sifting through all of our choices.  Most cases that have two opponents seem to be “Choose the Candidate Who Makes You Gag Less Than the Other”.  It’s a very narrow margin of gag reflex, for the most part.  People who’ve been in power for many years, or people who have ridiculous amounts of money to spend.  Not that money or power equals corruption, but in our cultural context it certainly doesn’t help gain my support.  After all, the man I call Lord and Savior, as he was heading into his final “push”, seemed to be letting go of as much power/resources as possible.cost20141

So I think it’s important for us to collectively confess, we are a part of this brokenness.  That as much as we love our country, and value the freedoms that others gave their lives for us to enjoy, we have not created something inherently “Holy” out of it.  We never could.  Claiming Jesus in national documents, and even attempts to legislate morality will never make us a Christ-centered nation.

This was not even the “big” election, yet rough estimates show that over $4 BILLION was spent on campaigning this year.  Only slightly over the amount spent in 2010, we see that this is not unusual.  In 2012, the same amount was spent, PLUS another almost $3 Billion in presidential campaigning.  That means every four years, we see about $7 Billion being spent on parties fighting & arguing over who gets the votes.  To what end?  A few more years of having slightly more influence before having to spend billions of dollars once again to either stay, or get, in power.

What could be done with this much money in other areas of need?  CNN says $4 Billion alone could pay for 12,000 students to be educated from K-12th grades, with millions leftover for a graduation party.  Obviously there are a lot more children than that, and even needs like poverty, hunger, and disease are far too large for a few billion dollars to wipe out.  But it can still be said, as a country we are spending FAR too much money on political campaigning.  Even where there are laws to safeguard against special interest groups, donors and powers are finding ways to connect the dots.  We must confess that we are a country with selfishness and ego, and are collectively making a statement that politics and attempts to control/influence power are more important to us than serving the poor and powerless.  Even those who might take a stand, saying that millions of dollars are going to advocate for a candidate who might eventually be able to take a stand for the oppressed – must admit, this is not the best path to such transformation.

So what do most of us do?  We see a broken system, but most of us aren’t connected to the actual brokenness of it all.  Hearing the ads, maybe putting a sign in our lawn, and casting a vote is the most many of us might do.  (Predictions say around 40% will even vote.)  Less than 0.2% of the 310 Million Americans give more than $200 to any campaign.  That’s 620,000 people.  But over 66% of what has been given comes from sources that give more than this.  The maximum one person can give is (officially) $2,600.  How many people gave at least that?  93,000 people.  The percentages certainly make it seem smaller than it is, as 700,000 people giving large amounts is still a pretty good group of contributors.  The largest numbers come from the top, of course, where donations come in the form of Millions of dollars.  The top 20 contributors alone gave about $169 Million.  Sigh.  this is actually a long road to travel, and I think I’ve lost myself even if I have any readers left…

Kinda makes you frustrated, eh?  Gets your blood boiling?  That a country with so much need could throw away so much money on something so fleeting as the next election?  Good thing we’re not a part of anything that puts giant financial contributions above the needs of the poor and powerless…..right?

Oh wait…(NFL makes over $10 Billion annually)

So yeah….we have a need for a National outpouring of confession.  We need to repent (turn away from) these things, and turn toward God.  Not only in heart, but in what we give our time and resources to…

What does that look like?

 

 

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smiles.

Posted on by Wick

Back when we were dating, a song emerged as “ours” in the way songs do as couples travel through life together.  It was by a small band that only existed for a short period of time, but whose CD I borrowed from her all the time.   The title was “You Make Me Smile”, and yes…we often got sappy to it.  But it communicated so much of our early relationship and still today.  I often traveled in a band throughout college, and during the time we spent apart there were many moments where the thought of her, or surprise visit would brighten my face in great ways.  I would’ve never imagined it has now become a bit of a “Family Song”, offering a new perspective when sung/heard by or for our children.  But as any parent knows…..our children have the ability to make us smile.

Often in simple ways…

Our 5 year old, as we’re walking up to the playground, singing “Time is tickin’ away!  Tick Tick Tickin’ away!!”  Granted, we’d just ridden in my car where my incredible cassette-player was pumping out incredibly solid standards of Christian rock.  So she doesn’t know all the words to “Jesus is Still Alright” yet….she’s got time.

Our 8 year old, breaking in on a grown-ups version of charades, grabs a slip of paper to write down a name.  She’s giggling like she’s just written down something hilarious.  I’m thinking a vague cartoon character of some sort.  Maybe a common princess.  But she’s so excited to have that name in the mix, she actually stays and joins the game with us.  So who did she write down?  Pavel Datsuk.  One of the greatest Detroit Redwings to ever perform magically with the puck.  Well, actually she wrote “DASUK”, but we’ll give her time.  Those European names can be tricky.

One of the coolest moments from this past week, however, came from our 6 year old.  It was in the midst of dinner, before we began to carve our pumpkins.  The only night all week where we had no commitments, we had looked forward to a nice relaxing family time together.  Sarah had made a pot roast so tender, you could spread it on bread if you needed.  The whole house smelled of comfort and tranquillity.   We were all sitting down, and just barely keeping the girls reigned in to eat together, as they were so excited to be done and move on to dessert and pumpkin carving.  Sophie gets up and runs into the kitchen, I almost yell but realize she’s refilling her water cup and I calm down.  That’s when it happens.

“OH MAN!!  You guys have GOT to come see this sunset!!  It is soo beautiful!!”   And so, just like that, we all collectively sat our forks down, and followed her call to the kitchen.  Sure enough, it was quite pretty.  Pretty enough that we all went upstairs to get a better view above the neighborhood.  image1(2)

It wasn’t long before we all had breathed in enough of the wonder and beauty of a perfectly pink sunset that could never be captured fully by an iPhone.  We slowly made our way back to the table, and back into the rhythms of a busy fall night.  (did I mention this was also bath night?)   But several times this week, I’ve remembered that moment our 6 year old called our whole family to come and appreciate the beauty of what God was painting on the horizon.  These girls make me smile….