Boxing Day, that’s the day after Christmas, was very quiet for us. We sat around. I emptied out my sewing area and set up my new sewing table. Whoo hoo. I’ve never had a “for real” sewing table. You know, the kind that’s made to fit an actual sewing machine. I’ve been sewing since I was 8 years old and I’ve always had a sewing machine on a regular table. So now I feel as if I’ve “arrived.” Now I’m for real myself. I’ve been sewing for 33 years and quilting for 9 and now I’m real. Hmmm …
In the evening we discovered that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was on Pay Per View. Since the LightHusband had not seen it with us in the theatre, we decided to “rent” it and watch it together as a family. So we did. We ate popcorn for dinner. And juice (to make it healthy). I ate some of the chocolate that was in my stocking from Christmas morning. It’s hard to watch this movie and not lust after chocolate.
I realized some things that I hadn’t particularly noticed the first time around. First, it seems to be trendy to slap moviegoers upside the head with psychodrama these days. This was the case with Narnia, and I noticed it here too. In Narnia we were given all sorts of psychological reasons why Edmund was angry, resentful and bitter and thus betrayed his siblings. In, Charlie, we’re given all sorts of psychological reasons why Willy Wonka is a disturbed chocolatier. Roald Dahl never wrote those into the story. C.S. Lewis never wrote any reasons into his story. Both preferred to let the reader use their imaginations to come to their own conclusions. However, moviemakers do not. They obligingly fill in ALL the blanks for us. I find this trend disturbing. I do not want all the blanks filled in for me. I like to be able to think, to imagine, to be encouraged to use my brain. I recognize that this movie is primarily aimed at children, but I want my children to be encouraged to think, to imagine and to use their brains as well. I do not want all of their blanks filled in either. I want them to struggle with the story a little bit, to have some questions unanswered that they must think about and wonder about. It’s what helps them to grow.
The second thing I noticed about the movie was how redemptive the storyline is. And it started me thinking about stories in general. All of the really great stories are about redemption on some level. About taking evil and making something good out of it. Or about good defeating evil. We always want the white hats to win. So the classics, the stories that have stood the test of time, have something of redemption in them (I think). I think it has to do with that bit by Blaise Pascal about the God-shaped hole in us. Or maybe it’s just the part of us that longs for our Creator whether or not we know Him or Her. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but I think it’s that piece of the author or the artist that is calling out to the song of creation, that song we no longer hear, but can only imagine.
