A "Dry Bones Case"

Many of us have been riveted from its beginning to the Casey Anthony murder trial. Even as far back as its inception in the summer of 2008, the media have filled its images on television and in newspapers of the beautiful little two-year-old who was not reported missing until thirty-one long days after her disappearance. The case seemed without a doubt to indicate that her mother either killed her by premeditating her murder or by accident and then covering it up. Most of us were outraged last week to hear a jury of twelve pronounce Casey Anthony not guilty on the three most important charges against her. She was found guilty of merely lying to investigators several times. Afterward, one of the law spokesmen said that the case was difficult to prove because it was a "dry bones case." In other words, the six month period of time between the missing child and the discovery of her body was simply too long to prove definitely the cause of death. "Is there no justice on earth any longer?" we ask.

Unfortunately, we know the answer to the question at the moment it is raised. Thousands of children, young women, and men disappear (or are murdered each year) and become "cold cases" after a few months or years. Among the most notable in recent years include Jonbenet Ramsey, Morgan Nick, Natalee Holloway, Kyron Hormon, among many. As Christians, we often comfort ourselves with Biblical truths: that while justice might not be found on earth, there will be justice in eternity.

One of the passages I thought of when I heard the spokesman's description of the case brought to mind the famous passage in Ezekiel 37, verses 1-14. Ezekiel's vision describes a scene of desolation when he finds himself in a valley full of dry bones. God calls upon the four winds to "breathe on these slain, that they may live." Miraculously, the "dry bones" begin to rise to their feet and represent a "great army." I too believe that the bodies of the slain victims will one day rise again and justice for the murderers will be everlasting. Until then, we wait.

Deconstructing "The Tree of Life"

My friend Jo Ann and I saw the movie The Tree of Life last week. The audience was small since it was an art film but starring two of Hollywood's high profile actors, Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. After watching about forty-five minutes of beautiful cinematic scenery of the "big bang" theory, two young women in front of my friend and me turned around and said, "Are you thinking what we are?" I said, "What, leaving the theater to see another movie." They then replied, "This is not the movie we came to see" and promptly left the theater. Several other young people behind us stayed the full length of the film, which had no plot but was just a series of shots of a family with three sons during the nostalgic days of the '50's. Upon the rolling of the film's credits, one young man stood to his feet and shouted, "Did anyone here understand what that movie was about?" I believe I understood the movie.

The premise from the beginning was a choice--that between nature, science, and atheism vs that of grace, faith, and spirituality. The eldest of the three boys, later played by Sean Penn as an adult, illustrated the developmental stages of a Christian's life. The boy, being the firstborn of his parents, is the true center of attention until his two brothers come along. It is at this point that he begins to show some evidence of naughtiness and jealousy in order to get the attention he has lost in the family. As he grows older, he begins to notice that crime is followed by punishment as he witnesses the handcuffing of a criminal in his hometown. He has learned to expect punishment if one is "bad." He prays to be a "good" boy. Later, when a young boy drowns in a swimming pool, he begins to believe the idea that, if good people (and innocent ones) die, perhaps one does not have to be good. If God is not good, he reasons, why should he be either? What follows is a series of cruel acts to his younger brothers. Eventually, he develops a conscience and a sense of right and wrong and apologizes for his actions. As he grows into adulthood, and confronts the death of one of his brothers at age nineteen, he again struggles with the big existential questions of life, "Why am I here? What is my purpose?" By the end of the film, there is a final affirmation of life after death. The director Terrence Malick has simply presented a pictorial portrait of the spiritual struggles most of us encounter as we attempt to deconstruct the tree of life for ourselves.

Boaz's Mom

It seems in reading the Bible that many of its key figures were marginalized in one way or another: Moses was adopted by an Egyptian princess, Joseph was hated by his many brothers, Esau was cheated out of his birthright by his brother Jacob, among many examples. Even Jesus was born to a young Hebrew girl who was without a husband initially. The latest example occurred when I was reading from my daily devotional book the other day in the book of Ruth. I guess I had always wondered why Boaz was so kind to a foreign woman who was in his fields of wheat without permission. Boaz was the one who instructed his workers to let wheat intentionally fall as they threshed it so that Ruth could gather enough to feed herself and her mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth was definitely marginalized, but then again, so was Boaz from the beginning of his life no doubt.

Boaz's mother was Rahab, a harlot. She was the one mentioned in the book of Joshua who assisted the Hebrew spies in their quest for the Promised Land by hanging a scarlet cord outside her window as a signal. As a harlot, she would have no doubted been quite marginalized by the proper wives and mothers of her culture. As the mother of Boaz, she would have been shunned by the other women in her attempt to rear him properly. Perhaps it was this marginalization of Boaz and his mom that gave him the empathy for another woman similarly without country or friends.

The irony, of course, and the end of the story is that Ruth and Boaz married each other. But there's more: Rahab was one of a very few women listed in Matthew 1 as an ancestor of Christ. God indeed is the God of mercy, grace, and forgiveness.

The Death of Civility

I don't know whether it's just the summertime (again record heat and drought in most of the United States) or what, but I am beginning to believe that civility toward others is dead. Just a few examples from the recent news will suffice to make my case. This week we heard of the Little League mom who was threatening the coach--so much so it's going to court. Even my grandson's Little League team is not immune from such drama since one of the parents was thrown out of the game not once but twice this season. Also, who can forget the video footage outside the Casey Anthony trial with both men and women engaging in physical violence (one man is in a choke hold by another)? This scuffle evidently was over someone trying to cut in line for a spectator seat. My favorite example concerns two women in a Trader Joe's store fighting over the last package of frozen tofu Thai food. One was an opera singer and the other, I believe, was a TV personality.

Surely there must be a better way to solve conflicts other than resorting to fisticuffs. I believe reality shows have surely been an influence on our poor behavior. For years, audiences have been watching the Jerry Springer, Maury Povich type of TV shows where people shout each other down and physically assault each other. Even though some shows don't actually have these types of behaviors, the verbal smack downs are just as damaging as guests talk over each others' points. Should there not be some rules of behavior in reality? Do ratings usurp civility?

Gail Sheehy and Me

In regard to Gail Sheehy and me, we have traveled down the same paths for years. She, of course, is the well-known author of Passages published a number of years ago, and I--well, I am simply a follower of her ideas on developmental life stages. Some thirty years ago I was a graduate student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville seeking an idea upon which to write my dissertation. My classes in higher education focused on developmental life stages as presented in Sheehy's research but also that of Daniel Levinson and Roger Gould, among others. I knew that Sheehy was just a few years older than I, so in some ways I felt as if we were sisters on this walk through the labyrinth of life. Now I know we are.

Last week I had an opportunity to hear Gail Sheehy speak as part of a program in Springdale, Arkansas, on aging. Her focus has now shifted from the early twenties and onward of one's life where the energy is spent getting an education, breaking away from one's parents, and establishing a career. Usually there is also a love interest followed by marriage and children. The years quickly march into the forties where one is now more thoughtful regarding the goals in life: Have I reached my career goal? Is there life after 40? How can I give back to society? Sheehy is now lecturing on the latter part of life, especially the task of caregiving to a spouse who's ill. Her own husband battled cancer for a number of years before his death recently.

While it might be depressing for some to reflect upon how quickly life goes, for Gail Sheehy and me, it is just a fact of life. We can even appreciate the joys of aging and its challenges ahead. Sheehy has at least made the life stages understandable and given us the knowledge that we are not alone.

Adolescents in Wartime

I have been inundated lately with images of adolescents in war from both my reading and my film experiences. The movie Winter in Wartime, set in World War II in the Netherlands, revealed the conflict of a young adolescent boy. The boy disliked his father's seeming acquiescence to the Nazi occupiers while he admired his uncle's seeming involvement in the resistance movement. When he has an opportunity to choose sides with his discovery of an injured Allied pilot near his home, he does so and eventually assists the pilot to safety. In the process, he becomes a man quickly. The novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak also features a young protagonist who befriends a neighbor girl and is killed, while sleeping, in a bombing raid. In the film White Material, a story about a civil war in an African country, we see young boys armed with machetes. Even in our own newscasts recently, we are beginning to hear of young boys who are just twelve years old being armed with guns, and that is a frightening reality, not fiction.

I try to imagine what it would be like here in America to put children at such risk at such an early age. My granddaughter who's twelve spends her summer days at the pool with her friends and many of her nights at her girlfriends' houses watching movies and endlessly texting others. Her adulthood will come soon enough, and these days will later be prefaced in her conversations with, "Back in the day . . . . " After growing up too fast myself as a child with an alcoholic father, a clinically depressed mother, and a broken home, I am happy that my grandchildren have peace obviously, but I worry about the millions of children who are experiencing the stresses of war today in Syria, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. What will their future be?

Highlighting Anthony Weiner's Packages

Just about all that can be said on the Anthony Weiner debacle has been said in the past few weeks. America watched as the denials came early that Weiner's Facebook account had been hacked and that the semi-nude pictures of him sent to young women were not his. After ten days or so of interviews and constant questions, Weiner issued a press statement that, indeed, he did send the pictures. Now he has resigned from Congress. As a literature teacher for most of my career, the situational ironies are strong.

For one who had been the dramatic center (and screamer) for Democratic party issues for years, Weiner found himself the dramatic center of ridicule by women and jokes by the late night comedians. The incident seems to dismiss the idea once and for all that Jewish males are repressed. The notion of using Bill and Hillary Clinton as confidantes (after all they have been through with Bill's sexual escapades) is startling. Talking dirty on the camera while family pictures are in the background of the shot is just plain wrong. Just when one thinks an easy divorce would definitely be plausible for the Weiners, the announcement comes through that his wife is pregnant. I am sure Weiner's thrill of "highlighting his package" is now diminished.

If that news isn't enough, we now learn about the retirement "package" worth $1.2 million that now awaits Weiner. I taught over twenty years at a university, and my retirement was worth less than l/10 of that amount. The argument, of course, is that Weiner was not charged with a crime, and he deserves a nice package for his service to the country. I somehow doubt American taxpayers feel the same way.