The Important Stuff

Important Stuff

Sometimes it is difficult in life to discern the things that are important.  When you go overseas for a season those important things seem to crop up in the most interesting ways.  And when they do it confirms what you knew all along, but never really appreciated.

Today was a long, hot day.  I spent some time on the new backhoe trying to figure out how to dig a ditch.  Fortunately, it didn’t require an exact grade and I had a helper who did rake out the ditch to make things level.  As the day wore on rusty gears in my memory broke loose and caused my hands to remember how to work the controls without thinking.  I was remembering.  The hard part was not thinking about it, just doing it.  Another couple of days and I will operate this machine a lot better than I started to today.

A couple of other people had long days, too.  So it was decided that three or four of us would watch a movie to kind of unwind going into the weekend.  Lisa knew that I had wanted to watch Despicable Me a few weeks ago so she suggested that.  She arranged the projection equipment and I brought the computer that had it in memory.

Shortly after starting the movie a few additional people wandered in while a few left.  It was a small number of four that stayed for the show.

As the movie progressed I was consumed by memories of watching the movie with my wife and kids.  I knew where everyone would laugh, cry or make funny comments.  This crew simply watched it.  I tried my best to keep as quiet as everyone else but it simply was not to be.  I longed for Kimmie to laugh when Gru called his ‘dog’ Kyle and hearing his appropriate jocular response.  When the little ‘twinky’ guys were doing their sped up talking and mimicking, I missed hearing Jon and Stephanie  giggle along at the absurdity of it.  I wanted to cuddle with my wife when Gru read the little unicorn story near the end and hear Chris sigh when he kissed his minions on the foreheads.

I know movies can be time wasters to some extent, but I also recognize the closeness that comes from watching, laughing and participating in them with loved ones.  It forms a bond of sorts that always seems to bring a smile and a fond memory.

Perhaps it began on Friday nights years ago when the family would gather around the brand new color TV and have milkshake and popcorn night.  John and Jan would mix up some elaborate flavored malted milkshake like chocolate, peanut butter and banana.  Mom popped up some fresh popcorn with butter and put it in the great big green and white plastic mixing bowls.  Then with dad in his recliner, mom on the padded rocker and the four kids scattered on the floor in the den we would start with Wild, Wild Westor Neils favorite, The Time Tunnel, and then roll on to more important shows like Star Trek, the original, not a rerun, or Mission Impossible.  We would ooo and ahh at the special effects, laugh as a family at the humor and bask in the resolved story line.  It was a tradition that carried on into adulthood that formed a special bond that exists to this day.

I’m not necessarily saying that movies and TV shows are an answer to how a family gets close, but I am saying that those special moments of growing up together watching the new medium of TV helped to frame our family in a way that made us want to relive those memories of laughter and to be a part of something special.  As we grew older it carried on beyond the movies and expanded into a desire to be a part of each others lives in a rich and different way that is quite uncommon in our culture today.  And more than that, it has trickled down to my kids and to their cousins.  It is even a finer thing that our times together are founded in our Christian faith along with doing other fun things like cookouts, parties or campouts.  We are also discovering my mom’s wisdom in playing word games like Scrabble as they quicken the mind and prod the players to help each other by ‘friendly cheating’ and stretching the Webster’s Dictionary to its limits. 

I miss those times with my wife and kids.  I thank God that He made our family close and closeby so we can enjoy those benefits whenever we can.  I look forward to resuming those contacts when I return in a couple of weeks.  I’m also hoping that Stef is keeping up with the movie list that we have to catch up on.

It will be a grand time.