|
In the 2004 movie “Welcome to Mooseport” (2oth Century Fox), President Cole, played by Gene Hackman, loses his bid for re-election. Cole returns to his home in Mooseport, Maine to regroup. The city council talks him into running for mayor. It assumes he will be unopposed and put the town on the map. One small hitch arises. A popular, local handyman, Handy, played by Ray Romano, decides to run. Handy pits his small-town campaign against Cole’s expert strategists.
In one scene Handy is by the lake, practicing on a driving range. Cole pulls up with his entourage, on his way to vote, where voters will decide whether Handy or he will be the next major. Handy gives him a golf lesson. Cole imparts another lesson, a very important life lesson, to Handy.
Handy shows Cole how to grip his club. After shanking another ball, Cole turns to Handy and asks why he never asked Sally so marry him. Salley is a woman Handy dearly loves but finds himself avoiding committing to and, thereby, risks losing her. Handy says, "Scared, I guess." Handy was so afraid of losing Salley that he never pursued her, essentially guaranteeing what he feared would come to pass—losing her. Cole turns to Handy and speaks, "Handy, on the 16th hole of our match, you laid up." Handy admits that he did. Cole says, "You played it safe." Seeking to justify himself, Handy remarks, "So? You ended up in the water." Cole observes, "I never would have been President of the United States, if I'd have laid up." Cole tees up another ball, concentrates, and hits the ball beyond the farthest marker. He smiles at his accomplishment. He says to Handy, "Sometimes you just gotta go for the green."
In a Gospel scene Jesus speaks on the need for immediacy and determination in commitment to spiritual ideals.
18When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.
19Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you no matter where you go!"20But Jesus said, "Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head." 21Another of his disciples said, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father." 22But Jesus told him, "Follow me now! Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead." (Matthew 8, NLT)
|
|
Jesus was an embodiment of Love. However, he understood Love makes a great demand on us. Love, while compassionate and patient, is not tolerant of half-heartedness. Love, giving all, expects reciprocity.
In the above scene from “Welcome to Mooseport,” we get a glimpse of the fear that keeps from heartfelt commitment. Like Handy, we can pass by opportunities for commitment, while we fritter away time trying to get by on protecting ourselves from the demands that commitment entails. We may want the benefits of a relationship, for example, but without our taking the perceived risk of giving ourselves more fully.
Fortunate are we, if we are awakened by a major crisis or life transition to our need to review our lives and commitments, or failures to commit. In this review we get opportunity to see the good things we passed up, due to fear. We get to look at past and present possibilities that remain untapped due to trying to protect our personalities. We may see how we have tried to find Love without offering enough of ourselves to receive the Love we longed for. Some of us renew abandoned commitments religiously, after years of rebelling against the Spirit, using being wounded in the past as excuse to avoid commitment in the present.
Handy comes to see that his love for Salley demands a clear, fully commited response. He does this only after she pulls away from him. Before the movie ends, Handy and Salley, due to his commitment, are reunited in mutual loyalty to each other.
Life is in a reciprocal relationship with us. Our fear of commitment means the opportunities to fulfill our deepest longings draw away from us, when we resist making the commitments to them. Life, however, is patient. We get the same lessons over, until, like Handy, we are prepared to reciprocate. When we reciprocate, we find Life draws near to us; we discover other opportunities to learn more depths of this wonder we call Life.
|
