by Michael Naragon
Amid the hustle and bustle that is Christmas, I just wanted to make a couple of politics-neutral observations.
First, my wife and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, so we hired a babysitter and, in an all-to0-rare move, went on a date. Because we’re so rarely on our own, it took us some time to decide what to do with our freedom. We opted on a nice dinner, a little shopping, and a movie. Our second big question, then, was what to see. Again, we rarely go to the movies, and we wanted to pick the best show possible, since it may be quite some time before we’re able to go again.
Despite some of the negative reviews I’d heard, especially among conservative friends, we chose James Cameron’s Avatar. Apparently due to the 3D nature of the film, it cost us over $25 for the two of us to see it, which seemed a little steep at first. After the first few minutes, however, I began to feel that the cost had been acceptable.
Many of those who had given the film poor reviews–and a few of the liberal news services that had reviewed it well–claimed that the film was a vehicle for disseminating the typical Hollywood philosophy, that it was somehow a condemnation of Bush/Cheney, Haliburton, and the war on terror. As one who is as staunch a conservative as anyone and a student of history, allow me to add my two cents: if this movie makes any political statement, it is a retelling of the American West and the treatment of the American Indian. The language spoken by the native people in the movie is very similar to that spoken by tribes of the Native Americans. The religion, as well, is obviously based on their beliefs–in one scene, after Jake Sully’s avatar shoots an animal in a hunt, he rushes up to it, thanks it for its life and service, then ends its misery with a well-aimed knife blow. Very similar to the traditions of the woodland Indians of America.
I won’t discuss any more of the plot of the film here; I believe you can make up your own minds about the nature of the story. Suffice it to say that Avatar was the most visually amazing film I’ve ever seen, and the story was not flamingly liberal, in my opinion. It is definitely worth a view–and this is coming from someone who sees movies on a once-a-year basis, if that.
Second point of order: the aforementioned rambunctious kids. In a day and age where technology is pushed more and more on children and where they continue to become accustomed, almost jaded, to technology (Exhibit A: the group of teenagers behind us at Avatar who got up at the end claiming the movie “sucked” and was “boring.”), my wife and I try to keep our kids thinking hands-on.
Every year at school, I hold an annual siege weapon project for my world history class, in which groups of students must band together to build working catapults, trebuchets, and ballista. No elastic or bungee cords are allowed, and all the machines have to throw a tennis ball. We had many amazing devices show up for the project this year, but one group built a very simple and very effective trebuchet that I was allowed to keep to use as an example piece for future projects. Of course, I took that trebuchet home, set it up in the backyard, and used it to explain history and science to my children, ages 5, 4, and 2. I’m still not sure if the two-year old understood any of my discussion with them, but the four-year old, the future engineer, scoured that machine from top to bottom to understand fully how it worked.
Finally, as this will likely be my last post for this week, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from all of us. Rush Limbaugh discussed the meaning of Christmas on Tuesday’s show, and I pass on his exhortation–celebrate the holiday, give gifts to those you love, and use that practice to remember the reason for the joy… the gift of God’s Son to a once-hopeless Earth.
