Forever Young

Our children (and perhaps me too) enjoy the Pixar shorts, “Forky Asks a Question.” One of them, “What is a friend?” Involves Forky asking a coffee cup which he thinks is named “What? No!” about friendship. The coffee cup has that name because Forky sees the mother holding it and the whole time she holds it, while on the phone, she keeps saying, “What? No!” Towards the end of the clip Forky accidentally breaks the cup and yells out, “What? No!”

As I said, my children really like this one. And this morning before school, they kept repeating the end scene. Specifically, Forky yelling “What? No!!!” and then they’d laugh and laugh. And do it again. And again. And again.

As a parent, if you can’t handle repetition then you are in for a rude surprise because children repeat themselves or want to do the same thing (often with you) over and over and over again.

Today, while listening to them quote this video and laugh, over and over again, I couldn’t help but think of what G.K. Chesterton wrote so many years ago about God. As Chesterton wrote, “The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE.”

That is from Chesterton’s great work, Orthodoxy, which I highly recommend. And it is from chapter 4, “The Ethics of Elfland” which is a chapter every Christian should read. You can do so for free here.

So as my children laughed at the same joke repeatedly, I couldn’t help but think about how old I have grown compared to God. God is forever young. He delights in repetition. Perhaps this is part of what Jesus meant when he said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).

It’s about time

It is important to date your spouse. It helps keep the romantic element of a relationship alive. Mrs. Wine and I arrived at that conclusion in a round about manner but nevertheless we arrived and try to make a habit of enjoying dates. Of course, during this day and age it is a bit difficult to, you know, go out. But we’ve found some ways to get around that. For example, we recently bought access to a “live” concert by one of our favorite bands. It was a ticket good to watch them for 72 hours. It wasn’t the same as a live show, but it was certainly fun. So all that being said, the other night we had a nice steak dinner for two and then watched the movie About Time.

(Side note: when you watch a movie with someone, try challenging each other to turn your phones off. You’ll find that without the distraction of a phone, you actually watch the movie with them).

So anyways, about the movie. And oh yea–spoiler warning.

So Mrs. Wine is a fan of Rachel McAdams. I’m not actually sure why–although I can say every Rachel McAdams movie I have seen is good so maybe that is why. But I was down with this one because it is a science fiction movie about time travel. (Side note: what is up with Rachel McAdams and time traveling movies?).

The movie is the story of a lawyer named Tim. At 21, he learns the men in his family have a special ability: they can time travel. Of course, there are limitations. They can only go backwards in time, and only within their own lifetime. The movie, which is billed as a romantic comedy, starts out with that feel. The first part of the movie focuses on Tim using his powers to find someone he loves. That happens and that story starts to wind down and feels like the end of the movie and then you realize the movie is far from over as they transition into family life and Tim starts to focus on using his powers to try to fix his sister’s broken life. He learns through a very painful experience that going back in time can’t fix everything. Then the story shifts and Tim is forced to confront the fact that no matter how much he may travel in time, his time and the time of those whom he loves, will eventually come to an end. He can’t escape death and he can’t prevent it from happening to those whom he loves.

And that is where the film becomes existential. Because, you see, it turns out this wasn’t a movie about romance, or time travel but rather time. The movie is about time and more specifically, how we spend it and how we see our relationship to it.

Suddenly, the time traveler seems himself no longer as a time traveler but as a steward of the time he has been given. The present is a gift, and each day is meant to be seen as such. The ending is especially powerful and I’m just going to share it with you:

The Bible doesn’t have much to say about this topic specifically. It has a lot to say about time being fleeting. But of making the most of each day–there isn’t much outside of Ephesians 5:16. But, it is certainly implied. The bible is clear we have a set amount of time. And if Jesus is going to return like a thief in the night, it is highly likely that death will also catch us by surprise. So the question is, what are you doing with the time you have been given. It is so easy to fixate on an unfixed date in the future when things will be different and you’ll (fill in the blank). And while it is good to have goals, when we live life that way, we often end up wasting the present. Day after day, week after week, month after month and suddenly, year after year. And then the time for that date to do (fill in the blank) has passed and it is too late. The movie for me was a wonderful reminder to “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days” (Ephesians 5:16). I highly recommend it. But even more than that, I highly recommend taking the present seriously.

The Goat

I don’t like him.

I mean, look at him.

But I have to give credit where credit is due. Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback. Thus far. Saying ever is stupid as it encompasses the future. But there’s no one better than him.

And I don’t like him. He went to Michigan. He’s a cheater. But whatever. It can’t be denied so let’s not talk about this ever again.

Cranberry Cider

Cracked open a bottle of the Cranberry Cider this past weekend and thought I would provide an update for you.

Mrs. Wine and I agreed it was both very good. You can’t actually “taste” the cranberry per say. As you can see from the picture. it does create a reddish hue to the drink, which makes it quite sightly. But while you cannot taste the cranberry, you can tell something tart is present which alters the flavor profile. We agreed it is reminiscent of cranberry ginger ale in the sense that you can’t taste the cranberry but you can tell something tart has been added. A better comparison might be cranberry wine. It is reddish and tart but if you didn’t know it was cranberry wine, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell. Unless, of course, you were a sommelier.

This one is carbing slowly and so I will give it some more time. It will be interesting to see how it develops in terms of flavor profile. Stay tuned for more!

In other gluten free news, I am being sent gluten free beer (for free!) from a gluten free brewery to try out and if I like it, to encourage others to try it out. So if you happen to see some posts here soon regarding some beer which I did not brew, now you know why.