Month: March 2012

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Snapshots

By Amy Spiegel

Brief comments on film by Amy.
Some old, some new.  Domestic films and foreign too.

Maybe it’s the spring time sunshine, but I am pleased to present an almost entirely positive set of reviews to you this month. I have more negative things to say about the previews shown beforehand than the films themselves. What’s up with showing Footloose previews before Hugo, Mr. Movie-Preview-Approval Dude?!?

Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows — I am not much one for action-adventure films but the older boys have been bugging me to see this sequel since Christmas Day, when they returned from the theater with their dad. So over Spring Break, we lucked and found a discount theater that was showing it. Of course, one of my boys (Sam) decided he didn’t need to actually accompany me to the movie and went with his friends to see So We Bought a Zoo. Bailey went with me, but I am pretty sure that was because I almost cried. But I digress. Saw the movie, found it very entertaining. Definitely worthy of a discount theater viewing. As a side note, I may have mentioned before a Sherlock Holmes mystery series by Laurie R. King. Also very entertaining. A good beach read if you are in the market for one.

Hugo — I fear my experience of this one was a bit diminished by the fact that the kids watched it…twice, before I got a chance. So I had picked up bits and pieces while straightening the living room and emptying the dishwasher. Still, it was a beautiful film. Pure and beautiful.

The Hunger Games — So we have been waiting for this film…f..o..r..e..v..e..r! We have been making do by watching the trailers over and over. Jim even read the book in a day and half in order to go with the older boys and I to the theater. (That’s the Spiegel, or more to the point Mom Spiegel, rule—you don’t get to see the movie unless you have read the book first.) When people asked me if I liked the film, I kept saying “If you liked the book, you will like the film.” This maybe isn’t the ringing endorsement it might seem. The movie is good but it is regrettable when filmmakers cower so to book fans that they compromise the movie in order to stick with the book. Learn from Harry Potter and make a good movie that stands on its own. If you do, it will endless loop back and forth as fans of the movie are then drawn to the book and then to the movie, etc.

Crazy, Stupid, Love — Hated it and don’t really have much to say beyond that. I went in loving Steve Carell and still do, but hate, hate, hate it when as my friend said “There is a complete lack of character consistency.”

Honorable and Not So Honorable Mentions — Moneyball: Enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but what is going on with Brad Pitt’s face?  Downton Abbey: Season 2: The writers scared me a bit midway through the season but they pulled it off in the end. Jim is still desperately awaiting its arrival on Netflix. I told him PBS was pulling it off their website, but did he listen?  Pillars of the Earth: Fascinating history lesson but I could have done with so much cleavage. Somehow it takes away from the horror of the raping and pillaging when all those being raped and pillaged are suspiciously attractive. Awake and Up All Night: These are my two new favorite shows. One leaves my mind teetering on the brink of confusion, the other makes me laugh so hard I pee my pants. It’s a messy but satisfying combo.

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Fourteen Facts About My Wife

By Jim Spiegel

A few days ago Amy and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.  It was March 21, 1998 when we tied the knot in a humble little church in Norris, Tennessee.  At the time, I had a pretty good idea that I had made a good choice.  Fourteen years, and four wonderful kids, later I’m amazed at how lucky I am to have such a great wife who has so many talents and is so good for me in so many ways.  Although the number 14 isn’t a standard milestone, as a football fan, I consider it a very significant milestone, as are 7, 21, 28, etc.  So to celebrate this point in our marriage, I will share fourteen facts about my wife, in no particularly significant order:

1. Home Cookin’ — Amy is professional caliber cook with a knack for turning ordinary dishes into powerful culinary aesthetic experiences.  This is probably due in part to the fact that she’s a super-taster, which can be a burden for her sometimes.  But she handles her hypersensitivity well.

2. Home Schoolin’ — When it comes to our kids’ education, we’ve been rather eclectic, but homeschooling has always been a part of the learning buffet at the Spiegel household.  Amy has excelled at it, somehow staying organized and innovative despite the chaos that a home with four kids brings.

3. Bookeater — Amy can read a novel like most people devour a bag of chips—at one sitting and with a tasty beverage in hand.  Early in our marriage I tried to keep up with her book-a-week pace but quickly realized this was futile.

4. Great Writing Stylist — Here is another category where I know I can’t compete with my wife, as I’m sure this blog amply demonstrates.

5. Humorist — Christopher Hitchens once notoriously observed that, generally speaking, women aren’t funny.  Quite independently of Hitchens, Amy has often made the same observation.  Ironically, she is a clear exception to this rule.  On my list of funniest women ever, I rank my wife third (behind Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett).

6. Fierce Traditionalist — Amy is no feminist in the current sense of the term, but she is a strong “womanist,” you might say.  Like Sidney Callahan and some other critics of contemporary feminism, Amy affirms the old dictum that “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”  Before we married, I was as skeptical as anyone about that.  Fourteen years later I’m a true believer.

7. Fantastic Mom — Speaking of motherhood, my wife is good as they get.  Perhaps I should devote an entire post to this point, including quotes from the kids, but that could get a bit lengthy.

8. Superb Film Critic — The “Snapshots” posts that Amy does for this blog don’t do justice to the depth of insight she has when it comes to cinema.  This is one of two areas where I hate to debate her, because I usually lose.

9. Politically Astute — The other topic where I usually lose debates with Amy is politics.  But I try to resist the temptation to avoid debating her, because to lose is to win when it comes to debate (since it means discovering truth).  At least that’s what I tell myself.

10. Theologically Astute — Amy will balk at this when she reads it, but its true.  On many issues, she arrives instantly and intuitively where it has taken some of the greatest theologians years of contemplation to land.

11. Computer Tech Savvy — This was perhaps the single most surprising discovery for me in our marriage.  Amy has a gift for working with computers and fixing various bugs in our PC at home.  (Since I now use a Mac, I have no more computer problems—seriously.  But when I used to have a PC, she was always ready with a fix for any problem that I had.)

12. Lover of All Things Tennessee — My wife is an unrelenting apologist for the Volunteer State.  After all these years of spending lots of time there, now I’m just as devoted and dogmatic in calling Tennessee the greatest state in the country.

13. Loyal Friend — Amy has many great friends, because she is a great friend.  Her loyalty is one of her most outstanding virtues.

14. Loyal Wife — Being married to someone so intensely loyal is a blessing, of course, but its also humbling.  I’m quite sure I don’t deserve such stalwart commitment from her, but she always makes me feel like I do!

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Why Do Churchgoers Live Longer?

By Jim Spiegel

Did you know that going to church is linked to living longer?  Check out this Washington Times piece on a study several years ago which found that there is a significant correlation between regular church attendance and good health and, therefore, a longer life.  Director of the study, University of Iowa psychology professor Susan Lutgendorf, commented, “There’s something involved in the act of religious attendance, whether it’s the group interaction, the worldview or just the exercise to get out of the house.  There’s something that seems to be beneficial.”

Another possible explanation is the fact that faithful worshippers are more likely to live temperate lives, particularly as regards eating, drinking, drugs, smoking, and promiscuous sex.  But the researchers said they corrected for such variations in their study.

So how else might one account for this correlation between church attendance and greater longevity?  Here are some factors that come to (my) mind as potentially relevant factors.

1. Regular church-goers are less likely to suffer what I might be called moral stress, that is, the psychological pressures created by shame, grudges, and resentment.   A burdened conscience can cause a lot of psychological havoc and, in turn, one would suspect, health problems.  As for forgiveness, those who experience divine forgiveness are presumably more likely to extend grace to others.  Those who forgive others often report a sense of relief and other emotional benefits.  And it is well documented that forgiveness contributes to the reduction of anxiety and generally better mental and physical health.

2. Perhaps the greater longevity is partly attributable in the fact (if it is a fact) that those who attend church regularly are more likely to be disciplined people overall.  It does, after all, take some discipline to attend church at least once weekly.  And such discipline is a transferable life skill, or virtue, that can increase one’s chances at a longer life.

3. We can’t forget the supernatural dimension here, recalling that God often rewards the obedient with a long life (e.g. 1 Kings 3:14; Eph. 6:2-4).  Obviously, sometimes righteous people die young, and sometimes the wicked live long lives.  However, as this divine blessing works out across a population, perhaps it accounts for the statistical differences found in this study.

I don’t mean to suggest that these explanations are mutually exclusive.  Perhaps, as I suspect, the latter factor pertaining to divine blessing actually supervenes over the various other “natural” factors.  After all, divine providence works through secondary causes.  In any case, these findings provide much food for thought  . . . and yet another reason to make it to church this Sunday.

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A Weekend of Contrasts

By Amy Spiegel

Last weekend, I left Indiana in all its blustery glory, along with my four kids and a husband willing to fly solo for a few days. Three friends and I headed south for a girls’ weekend. Other than a few women’s retreats and a weekend with my mom and sister, I can’t remember many other girls’ weekends in my past. It’s so much work to organize everything for the kids and I am not really fond of a lot of traditional girls’ weekend activities. No offense to shopping trips and manicures, they just aren’t my cup of tea. Fortunately, I found three other women who aren’t so traditional in their hobbies either and the three days we spent eating, talking, hiking, and eating some more were ones that I will treasure for a lifetime.

The lack of Macy’s bags and fingernail polish weren’t the only non-traditional elements of our weekend. Our relationships are a bit unique due to the differences in our ages. Two of the “girls” are college students and two of us are, well, not. I will even admit to being older than my fellow non-college student friend Michelle, whose kids are still in that no-one-ties-their-own-shoes-or-independently-buckles-into-the-carseat phase. But our relationships aren’t those of mentor and mentee. Sure, we have given them some insights into marriage and motherhood, probably more insights than they ever wished to have. But these insights are part of a bigger conversation. The conversation of friendship, of equality. Certainly we are aware of the age differential and I must confess to having held my breath once or twice, fearing that someone was going to make a comment about my “daughters.” More than once, I commented to the “girls” how much I appreciated them taking time away from friends and classes in order to hang out with us older folk. They laughed me off and said they felt the same way about us.

While it feels as though the differences in age and stage of life should be a gap to bridge, I have found the diversity refreshing and sweet. By seeing things from different perspectives, our view is broadened and stretched. I think it is a crime that modern evangelical churches seem determined to categorize and separate their congregations by age group. Something is lost in the homogenous nature of “Sunday School for the Older People” and “Small Group for the Not Fully Developed.” Intergenerational relationships seem to be relegated to more artificial settings rather occurring naturally.

Rocky Road is my all-time favorite ice cream. I love the mixture of crunchy almonds, squishy marshmallows, and creamy chocolate. All the different flavors and textures taste so much better together. Just like my weekend away, its sweeter for the contrast.

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Hodgepodge

By Jim Spiegel

1. An Atheist Goes to Church

Since the passing of Christopher Hitchens, my favorite living atheist is probably Michael Ruse, philosopher of biology at Florida State University.  For a taste of Ruse’s interesting perspective, check out his recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece on attending church this past Christmas.

2. Lawsuit Abuse Website

Ridiculously frivolous lawsuits have now become so commonplace that there is a website devoted to them.  Its called Faces of Lawsuit Abuse.  Here you can learn about various bizarre cases (including a confessed killer suing his victim and a 400 lb. prison inmate suing because his clothes don’t fit) as well as the devastating effects of our society’s hyper-litigiousness.

3. Jonathan Cahn on 9/11

Jonathan Cahn is a messianic rabbi at the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey and president of Hope of the World ministries.  His teachings are broadcast daily around the world, but until recently I had never heard this remarkable sermon on 9/11.  Judge for yourself whether the connections he traces between Isaiah 9 and the events on that day and its aftermath are mere coincidence or fulfillment of prophecy.