17 Again: A Movie Review

[Spoiler alert.]

In "17 Again", Zac Efron plays Mike O’Donnell, the once-college-bound athlete with promises of a “free ride” scholarship, who later thinks that he threw it all away to marry his pregnant girlfriend Scarlett. At the age of 17 his girlfriend tells him of her pregnancy right before the biggest game of his life. With the scouts watching and his girlfriend walking away, he walks off the court to chase after her and ask her to marry him.

Flash forward to middle-age, wherein Mike (now played by Michael Perry) has a nowhere job and does nothing but complain about his family life. His wife (Scarlett, played by Leslie Mann) throws him out and he is forced to move in with his wealthy software genius nerd and best friend Ned Freedman (Thomas Lennon). He walks to the high school to reminisce. There a mysterious janitor apparently casts a spell on him and he meets with an accident that transforms himself into his 17-year-old self. He is still, however, in his own time.

After he convinces Ned that he is himself, Ned enrolls him in the high school, thinking he is meant to live out the basketball-college-star-dream he was once on track for. However, Mike soon realizes that his true path is to help his own children, who are also presently enrolled in the same school. His daughter is dating a boy who is pressuring her to have sex, and his son is a talented basketball player who just needs a confidence boost to get himself on the team and make some friends. Mike is able to befriend his children in a way he would not have been able to in the state of their previous father-child relationship.

Meanwhile, Scarlett is starting to date, while forced to remember the good old days because of the haunting presence of this young man who looks exactly like her husband did when he was 17. Things escalate to the point of divorce proceedings before all is made right. The kids’ problems are solved, Scarlett and Mike fall back in love, and Mike is transformed back into his normal aged body – with no regrets.

This movie is a great conversation-starter for parents and kids. The messages are pro-life, pro-abstinence, and pro-marriage. I recommend this film for teens; and for pre-teens with parental guidance. It can also be used as part of an abstinence program in any youth program.

Presently playing on HBO.

Disney's "A Christmas Carol"

If you are wondering whether A Christmas Carol is too scary for your child, please read my review over at my Examiner column.
Leticia Velasquez also has an excellent review at MercatorNet.

Teaching kids historical perspective through the movies

On Friday I took the kids to see the new Disney’s Christmas Carol. It was amazing technically, and filled with real Christian messages. Musical selections included “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Joy to the World”. The message front and center was that you gain happiness by helping others.

After the movie, my ten-year-old was filled with questions. Why were the horses of death chasing him? Why was the Ghost of Christmas Present keeping two children called Want and Ignorance under his skirts? Did people really have to go to jail because they were poor? I was so glad that I had been able to take them to a quality movie that offered the opportunity to discuss such deep questions.

On Saturday my twelve-year-old surprised me by requesting that we watch Gone With the Wind. This is my favorite movie of all time. Why the sudden interest? She has been studying the Civil War in school and they have been watching Glory, which is told from the Northern perspective.

So we sat and watched the whole thing. We paused the movie many times so I could explain what was going on culturally. The difficulties of those times made me so thankful for the modern conveniences we take for granted. What was chloroform and why did they have to cut off solidiers’ legs without it? Why did they have to boil the soldiers’ clothing?

There were also some tricky moral questions. Why was Belle Watkins considered a bad woman? Why were Scarlett and Ashley kissing when they were married to other people? Why was Scarlett marrying her sisters’ beaus?

I also got to give them a little movie history. I recited for them the names of the actors, the awards the movie and the book had reaped, and why the sunset kiss between Scarlett and Rhett was controversial for its time.

Not only do true classics never go out of style; they offer great opportunities to share your knowledge and make it relevant to the world that your children are familiar with.

The Duggars Welcome Child #18

"In this Aug. 2, 2007 file photo, Michelle Duggar, left, is surrounded by her children and husband Jim Bob, second from left, after the birth of her 17th child in Rogers, Ark. Michelle Duggar gave birth to her 18th child, a girl named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008." (AP Photo/ Beth Hall, File)

Congratulations to the Duggars on their newest edition! Thank you for being a shining light for a Culture of Life. Thank you also to the Learning Channel and Discovery Channel for bringing us the beautiful stories of the Duggars and other large families.

For Goodness Sake, Enjoy Those Christmas Cookies!

One of our favorite pastimes in December is the making and eating of cookies. We have been making batches of cookies daily this week, a different type each day; and I keep meaning to make some dishes for the neighbors. After dinner the entire plate disappears like magic. “Oh well,” I say, “I guess we’ll have to make more tomorrow!”

I went food shopping this afternoon and became very angry when I saw the headlines on almost every one of the women’s magazines featured at the checkout line. “Lose 10 pounds by Christmas, Is Stress Making You Fat?, New Miracle Fat-Burning Food, Eat More and Lose Weight, What Happened to Oprah?”

It seems very strange that these titles would be so heavily featured between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the time that most adults tend to gain a few pounds. Women are stressed out, trying to prepare a nice Christmas for their families. This stress is increasing their cortisol levels, which causes them to gain weight. It is making them tired, which causes them to gain weight. Then they see these titles, which increases their guilt at eating delicious food, which increases their stress while eating, which causes them to gain weight.

Dieting right now can actually be dangerous. Cut out the carbohydrates that your brain needs and you will suffer headaches; the hormones needed to keep your mood stabilized will be short-changed, making you irritable or depressed. Resetting your metabolism to using less calories now will cause you to retain the calories when you do let yourself eat at a party.

Most of the editors of these magazines are women, and I am quite surprised that they can purposely do this to other women. I don’t know how they can sleep at night.

Advent is supposed to be a time of feasting and joy. We are supposed to sit by a fire, or on the couch under blankets, enjoying the warmth and the plenty of our tables. Our bodies are made to naturally conserve a little fat over the winter, to keep us warm. I say, enjoy those Christmas cookies, and forget about your weight until New Year’s.

“Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalms 103:5

Today we light the pink candle for the third week of Advent.

Standing All Alone in the Twilight

The day before Thanksgiving, I attended an after-school party at my children’s Catholic school. Only a few mothers were present, and I soon gave up on being included in any adult conversation. So I sat with my children and made chit-chat with their friends. Later a mother whom I was on friendly terms with came in. She had known the other moms for years and was my passport into the circle.

No sooner had I sat down than I was ready to leave. First the talk was about Black Friday sales, which I had no interest in. Then came the shocker.

“Have you and your daughters seen Twilight yet?” asked my acquaintance.

I knew this was the number one movie, a romance based on a series of books about vampires in high school, and that high school girls were crazy about the series. I never expected it to be a topic among Catholic mothers of middle schoolers.

“No,” I said, simply. The other mothers replied that they had seen it, or were planning to see it, and were reading the books along with their daughters. They found nothing objectionable, and even thought the stories to be “sweet”.

I was troubled, yet my tongue was mute. For one thing, I knew nothing I said would make a difference; they would just think I was weird, causing them to pity my daughters as being “overprotected”. The other thing is that I had not actually seen the movie or read the books. But I don’t have to try drugs to know they are bad for me; where there’s smoke there is often fire; and a wise man hides from trouble. I have taught my children how to spot literature and media that are wholesome vs. not. The symbolism of subject-matter is important in the quick identifying of the sheep vs. the goats in this arena.

Unicorns, for example, are a symbol of Christ, and many beautiful stories can be found based on them. I have heard that vampires are the antithesis of Christ. He gave His blood that we might live; vampires take others blood so they can walk the night. I have also heard that the first pornography was based on vampires; both are based on the degradation of the human body.

As Leticia Velasquez says in “Catholic Media Review”, “This is a phenomenon which Catholics must examine before embracing; anything that the Culture of Death embraces with such ferocity can't be healthy.”

Perhaps this is why I am not quickly embraced into social circles at the school. Half the time I stand there dumb-stricken because I have nothing to say that would be both honest and socially acceptable!

In homeschooling circles the opposite was true. During the peak of Harry Potter’s popularity there was big controversy over whether or not to let your kids read the series. Homeschoolers could agree to disagree on this. But whatever your opinion, it was respected.

In mainstream schools, there is a peer pressure among mothers that parallels that of the children they are raising. Different is weird and discouraged. Trying to live up to the golden standard of Catholic morals can put you in a lonely place.

Driving home, I was saddened by what had transpired. But then I was lifted up, as I thought of the friends I have found. I thought of the courageous stands they have made in their own circles, whether at work, school, or church. I thought of the mother who had questioned the movies being shown in kindergarten and donated a Christian video series as an alternative. I thought of the teacher at a Catholic school who was criticized for bringing up Obama and the abortion issue as part of a current events discussion in an eight grade class. I thought of the pro-life coordinator who is viewed as a radical by the religious education office at her own church. I thought of my own mother, who refused to give the devil a foothold into her home by allowing occult literature into the house.

And as twilight approached, I knew I was not standing all alone.

Venice Twilight by Claude Monet, 1908

"Clean House" is Not So Clean!

Not that I am on a letter-writing campaign, my next letter will be to The Style Network regarding their show Clean House.

I used to watch Home and Garden Television’s “Mission: Organization” when my baby was a newborn and I was nursing approximately one-third of the day and night. Now I am no longer able to afford a half hour on the couch at 2:00 in the afternoon. One night while channel surfing, I discovered Clean House and found it extremely entertaining. Many of these homeowners have living rooms that look worse than my garage!

After watching several shows, however, I soon became disenchanted as I noticed off-color humor that was degrading to the people they were apparently trying to help. Frequently, a messy bedroom is shown, followed by the embarrassing question to the couple, “Is anything going on in this bedroom with all this clutter?” In one show, a filthy fraternity house was shown, attention being brought to an unsightly, unplumbed commode and stains of questionable origin. Was that really necessary? Another show highlighted the sale of a “vintage Playboy” magazine collection at a yard sale.

They apparently thought these were funny vignettes, and I dismissed them as one-time occurrences. But when a pregnant woman revealed that her Jacuzzi had been used for home birthing, the hosts feigned disgust. On another show, the final straw for me, the hosts said that the almost-two-year-old was still sleeping in the parental bed – and “more than must sleeping was going on” – she was still breastfeeding! Apparently this woman had a problem with “letting go” of more than just things, was the message they were trying to convey.

The practices of homebirthing and extended breastfeeding (which I am hoping to continue past the second year) are becoming increasing mainstream, and Style is going to lose a good portion of their audience if they keep up such antics.

Will They Print It?

An Open Letter to American Baby Magazine
Re: Going Green with Natural Birth Control

Dear American Baby Magazine,

With four children, I have been a regular reader of your magazine for eleven years now. I was a little disappointed when I read the current issue’s article on birth control. It neglected to mention Natural Family Planning. Not your mother’s “rhythm method”, NFP is a scientific method of using a combination of calendar, temperature, and mucous observations to plan the timing and number of babies a couple will have. It comes with no risks or side effects and requires no medication. There is no better way for a woman to learn about her body, and no “greener” way to plan one’s family. My husband and I have been married for fifteen years and have perfectly planned our family using NFP.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller

Little People Must Write to be “Heard”

I subscribe to the popular mainstream, liberal newspaper on Long Island, Newsday. I feel I have little choice in the matter, as they have a virtual monopoly on the local news. The writing is mediocre to excellent, depending on the columnist. From time to time over the years, I have cancelled my subscription after reading an outrageous, one-sided story. Within weeks I was back again, missing my daily morning read with my coffee.

After reading the same paper for many years, with careful analysis one may recognize the bias behind many of the headlines, as well as the details or lack of details that go to back up those stories. The educated person knows not to believe everything he or she hears or reads, even if it comes from the government or some other well-documented source. When a scientific study is noted, one should keep in mind that the parameters of the study are not detailed; the specific source should be found and read. One also should know that one study is just one study. There may be many studies that run counter to its results.

Most of the people who get their news from the internet already know to be skeptical and not to receive all their news from one source. Hopefully, conservatives would not just listen to conservative talk radio, or they would just hear what they want to, to back up what they already believe. I also read Suffolk Life, a weekly local paper with a conservative editor and excellent editorials.

Having to keep tabs on my infant, I am not able to follow what is being said in most of the blogs. (I do keep up on my sister’s blog and the numerous blogs of my well-educated and widely written friend Leticia Velasquez.) Nor do I find much time to sit in front of the news programs; when I do, I watch Fox News. I find the print media much easier to fit into my lifestyle. I can carry a newspaper into the bathroom while my toddler plays in the bathtub, or outside while she runs around, or into a doctor’s office, etc.

I have just finished reading a book claiming that the government and big business virtually own the media. According to the author, the little guy no longer has freedom of speech. On the contrary, I have evidence that the opposite is true.

Today’s newspaper carried two pro-life letters to the editor, in response to recent stories printed in that paper. Here is the proof that anyone, regardless of education, credentials, or whom you know, can write his or her opinion on virtually any subject and have it read by thousands of people.

The “little person” can bring subjects to awareness that many might not normally think about. For example, Suffolk Life regularly features opinions on rights to hunt or ride off-road recreational vehicles. I do neither; and yet, I feel my horizons are widened by the knowledge that people who would like to pursue these activities are being stifled.

People also know that what is presented as “fact” is also just well-documented popular opinion. The most obvious examples are the contrarion established views on dieting, which have us disbelieving what is the best way to lose weight. One decade it is calories, then it is dietary fat, etc. People are not stupid. They know to take the “news” with a grain of salt.

A well-written letter to the editor is a good way to remind the public of evidence to opposite points of view. Regardless of the bias of a specific paper, the owner wants to appear to give both sides to a story. And so, if a letter is written criticizing a journalistic point-of-view, there is a good chance it will be printed.

The influence of the blogs on the mainstream media and popular opinion is obvious. Please do not overlook the power of an op-ed piece or letter to the editor in your local newspaper.