Two German Movies

In the last couple days I watched two German movies set during the beginning of the Third Reich's rise.  They were both good and subtitled (...the movies, not the Third Reich): "Gloomy Sunday" (in which practically everyone dies...though many not for the reason you'd expect) and "The Harmonists" (which is a true story and everyone lives).

Both, darn them, made me cry.  It's hard not to cry when we are talking about the displacement, rounding up and murdering of people just because of their race and/or faith.  Part of the difficult part was watching the actors' portrayals of these people as the realization sunk in of exactly what was happening - the dawning of the understanding that "I'm going to be persecuted and/or killed because" they (or the people they loved) were Jewish by heritage or by choice.  I suspect if the actors hadn't done their jobs, the movies wouldn't have made me cry.

Both also starred or co-starred the same guy in the role of the "Christian," Aryan *bleep* about whom you're never quite sure of his motivations or intentions...until the end. Spoiler Alert!  In "Gloomy Sunday," karma came back and bit him.  In "The Harmonists," it turns out he was one of the good guys...until his friends were safely out of Nazi Germany and then he went to work for them (but you don't know it until the "after stories" are told at the end).

Both movies also were centered around music.  I must have been in a dark, music-centric place at the time I put them on my Netflix list...or maybe I was hot on the trail of that particular actor...though nothing else on my list would lead me to believe that.  Must have been a coincidence.

I do recommend them both if you can handle the following: foreign films, foreign music, and the touch of romantic in the drama.  (Warning you, though, that "Gloomy Sunday" is a bit risqué at times for the sensitive types.)  Of the two, however, I think I liked "The Harmonists" much more partly because it was a biography (told as a movie, not like the History Channel or something), there were more dynamics in the storyline, and fewer uncovered bodyparts.

I probably need to watch something lighter for a while...like "Star Trek: The Animated Series."

Day...3 Months and a Couple Days

Today we spoiled ourselves...or, more specifically I spoiled us.

We slept in late and then went to lunch at Noodles & Co.  I love that place.  She'd never been there before.  They screwed up and gave our food to someone else, so they gave us free garlic bread and a free cookie - all for her, of course since I couldn't eat any of it.  The food tasted great when we finally did get it.  She's totally a fan now.

Then we went to Barnes & Noble.  The Manga books were on sale so instead of only being able to get one or two, we were able to get three.  I got a couple new little kid books that I look forward to reading to the younger family and friends who visit.  We also used some coupons to get cheese cake...which I think she ate as soon as we got home.

After B&N we came back to our side of town and had our nails done.  She got a manicure while I got a pedicure.  It was so relaxing!  I hadn't stopped to do something girly like that since about September, so it was nice to be pampered a little.

I think we've not been able to do something like this since she got here until now.  Maybe I've been too busy or tired, or she's been too hurt by her situation.  It was nice to see her smile and laugh and enjoy herself (excitedly suggesting we should buy a Barnes & Noble and kick everyone else out so all the books could be ours).  It was a good day.

About a week and a half ago she gave me a beautiful thank you note written on the back of a picture she had drawn for me.  I was tired and sore and cranky (inside) when she gave it to me, but for a while at the very least, it kind of made things worth the additional stress, time, and energy.  Today had a similar effect.

Movie Review: The Physician

Last night I watched "The Physician" via Netflix.  I liked it more than I expected.  Ben Kingsley of course was his usual masterful self, but I think it was the history, politics, and religion depicted that fascinated me the most.  It was set in the 11th century, but it just as easily could have been about today's tension between the world's major religions.  I recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOj-Pn5WJkw

A Heart of Wisdom

Psalm 90:12 (NASB)
So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

I get a "verse of the day" emailed to me every day from Biblegateway.com.  That verse from The Psalms was the one for today.  It made me stop and think a moment.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the idea of numbered days.  Generally when you hear someone say something about numbering your days, it's a cheesy line in an action movie and something's about to explode - it's a threat of death.  Numbered days are finite days.  They run out.  And this verse would encourage us to take note of that number - count our days and know they are finite.  We count so many other things.  We count our cars, our money, our friends, slights against us by another.  We have calendars for keeping track of our days - all 365 or so of them per year.  And then the new year comes around and we wonder where they all went!  Maybe we weren't doing such a good job of counting them after all...or, more importantly, making them count.

I have been trying to make it a habit in the last couple months to include in my prayers the request for wisdom.  (It worked for Solomon, right?)  Specifically, I have been requesting the wisdom to discern the correct path.  I wonder if I've not had quite the right idea in mind.  We tend to equate wisdom with the mind, not the heart.  I've been asking to be able to think and reason wisely.  I hadn't even thought about my heart.  The Old Testament says that Solomon's wisdom was "put in his heart" by God.  So, stands to reason, it wasn't so much Solomon's mind that people were coming to see in action, but his heart.  When's the last time you said that about someone or someone said that about you?

So, in looking at this part of a prayer in Psalm 90, my take away (at least in part) is this.  The wise recognize the finite nature of the time we have and make each day count by being wise in heart.  It's a cycle worth getting into I think...if I'm wise.