Napolean Dynamite, Part 2

I recently read a book called When People are Big and God is Small. Started out I was being lame and was just asking someone if they had the book just so I could say "I found your blog -- ha ha" It backfired but there was a reason I read it and was to discuss it. It has given me a LOT to think about, I am amazed at how much this book has impacted me.



I remember being stuck on Chapter 5 ... the title is "The World Wants Me to Fear People". While processing the movie Napolean Dynamite, I realized that there is an underlying theme to the movie. I'm not sure if other people over analyze things as I do, or if they saw the movie and just saw the slapstick parts in it and laughed or if the theme I found from it was realized by many in addition to the slapstick parts (because I was laughing too).



One thing I noticed from the movie is how many instances of popular kids vs the unpopular kids there were. I cringed the first few times, but I enjoyed seeing an unpopular kid end up becoming class president over this stuck up cheerleader. :) The world teaches us in high school to "fear" the popular folk. That if someone does not have the right clothes or right appearance, that person is not worthy of being in the popular circle.



There was one gal who never overcome the unpopular title, but her attitude and appearance changed. The best line in the movie, for me, was when she said to Napolean "I don't need to take herbal supplements to feel good about myself." I liked was Deb and watching her transformation through the movie. Not just her appearance, though that was a great change too. As for her appearance, she started out with the typical 80s hair do with the one ponytail on the side of her head but by the end she had it down rather than wearing it in a ponytail. She reminded me of Tula from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" or Mia in "The Princess Diaries".

Though all three of these characters are fictional, it gives me the challenge to overcome all the labels I've been given, especially recently. I won't even get into those, that is a major tangent. But, I couldn't help but find the comparison to those three movies and the book.. filled with symbolism about how one should look on the outside as opposed to how one should look on the inside.

Napolean Dynamite

Interesting movie. I decided I wasn't going to see the movie in 2004 when it came out in the theater because it looked dumb. But, a group of people were going to watch it last night at a friend's house, so I thought I'd stop being a party pooper and be there to see it and see if I had just judged it wrong. Well, not really... it was total slapstick... and I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was in the right frame of mind. But there is a deep meaning to this movie... one I'm not sure most people pick up on. I want to explore that soon, in my next post, hopefully tomorrow.

I can't get the movie out of my head. :)

Thankful.

I am thankful I have such a wonderful church family. There is so much I can say about why I think God brought me back to Compass even though I "assured" people I would probably not end up back there after leaving the other group I was in. Yeah, but what do I know? ha ha

Pastor Jon said today that he can already name a lot of reasons humanly speaking why I’m back at CBC but asked me why I think God brought me back. The only thing I can think of is family. God wanted me away from CBC while things were forming with this group, knew I needed to be around people my age, so He provided a path for me to get there through the group at the other church. Regardless of why things ended up so badly there is a moot point now, but it ended badly and I met quite a few fake people. With this group at CBC so far, there is nothing but love and respect for me. I’m not saying people will not irk me and let me down here, but the chances are much greater at CBC that there will be fewer fake people.