I watched a short video clip tonight on the Christmas Day 2004 tsunami. You could hear background voices. Some were giving simple comments on the strange
horizon. Others were speculating on what it could be,
tsunami was even mentioned. The comments turned to screams as it became apparent that a wall of water was coming at them. It all happened very quickly. A few years ago a pastor of mine told me about a film he had just seen,
The Winslow Boy, and how it was superb. I trust this man's opinion immensely and my wife and I travelled about 30 miles to see it. It was as he said, and is now one of my favorite films. In the middle of the showing, the film broke and after about 15 minutes we were told that it could not be fixed that evening. Someone in the audience shouted
Well, how does it end? I stood up and responded in kind
Don't say anything! I felt a little embarrassed. My wife was not surprised at my response. We returned the following night to see it again in its entirety. This film is a reproduction, made in 1999, of the original starring Robert
Donat from 1948. David Mamet directed it from the play by Terence
Rattigan. It's based on a true story in England in 1908-1910. A 12 year old boy is accused of stealing some money while at England's version of a military academy and expelled. The boy's father and sister go to extremes in his defense. To me anyway, most would not agree, there was a potent romantic aside between
Rebecca Winslow, played by Catherine
Pidgeon, and the renown barrister Robert Morton played by Jeremy
Northam. The film begins with the family returning home from church. The father is commenting with all
seriousness on the sermon,
Good man. Good sermon. Pharaoh's dream. Seven fat years, seven lean years. Good sermon, probably a
typical message in Edwardian England. The Winslow family would indeed experience
lean times. The evidence today is that we may have a tsunami coming to America and possibly the world, maybe far more tremulous than even terrorism. A seat on the 50 yard line may be perfect for viewing a football game but is not very good for viewing the world. One might feel the stomping of feet but cannot feel the tremors in the earth. These are not
typical problems in the
nuclear age, for they are combined with
terrorism, with an agenda for a
New World Order, with an American
narcissistic Facebook mentality, and with a
dismissal of God and any warnings or discernment He may give. It is not
extremist to prepare for
lean years, particularly when the
fat years
were spent in revelry and not in thanksgiving.
