Movie Review and A Word About Being Me.

So, I heard a pastor use the words "off the chain" today in his sermon. Is that weird? It sounded kind of weird to me, but it rolled off his lips as if he uses that phrase all the time. Tell me, did off the chain come from the African American community or was it used in academia before it became slang? Correnta brought up this all important possibility on the way to lunch today.

On Saturday night I went to see the movie Madea's Family Reunion. It was a great movie. I really like Tyler Perry's films for two reasons....

1. They are very theatrical- the movies he has produced were originally stage plays, musicals actually. So, when they are adapted for the screen he keeps some elements of theatre in them. He definitely has his own style.

2. He films are funny, and so much more. You get humor mixed with human dignity and depravity. Even more than this element is the taste of the divine that is woven through the story line.

I give the film two thumbs up, way up.

Another reason I had such a good time was partly because of the audience in which I saw the movie. Seeing an African American movie with predominately black people is an experience of community. It is sort of like seeing a movie with family and/or friends who treat the story portrayed in the film as an added relative. So, everyone interacts with each other and with the scenes. It is so entertaining. I found myself verbally agreeing or debating with the characters on screen. So fun. This is something about African American culture that I love. We are usually a very demonstrative people.

I feel like I have closed off that part of me some what. When I think about a caged bird I resonate deeply with that image. I long to be free, but I am in a cage. The difference is that my cage is self made. In order to make life work I closed off some of my heritage and my individuality. I became what everyone else wanted me to be. In doing that I have not become freer, but more deeply bound.

Living in East Asia and in Kansas have taught me more about who I am than I thought possible. I am able to back away from my home environment and see the things that are true about me in terms of who God made me to be. Secondly I am beginning to come to know and disclose things about my heritage to others because I accept those cultural traits as valuable. In part that is due to the interest that some great friends have shown in knowing who I am and where I am come from. They want me to be me...not like them. This is a freedom I started coming to know through my friend Lisa, and am increasingly experiencing through others in my current community. Thank you ladies for journeying with me.