TCM Remembers 2022

A bit of a look back today. As a classic film fan and lover of old Hollywood, this type of memorial strikes a chord. TCM always puts together a classy memorial reel, providing the most comprehensive look at the loss that film suffered in the past year.

This past years list included legends and personal favorites. While their presence will be missed, their contribution lives on.  

Held

"I thought I was called to challenge the atheists, but the atheists ended up challenging me.  I thought God wanted to use me to show gay people how to be straight.  Instead God used gay people to show me how to be Christian."

Rachel Held Evans, 2016

The Christian community is morning the loss of progressive Christian blogger and author Rachel Held Evans, who died Saturday May 4, 2019 at the age of 37.  She died from a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics that had been administered for a combination of the flu and an infection.  She developed seizures, and was put in a medically induced coma, from which she was not able to recover.  Her death has been a shock to her friends and family as well as the many who follow her blog and read her books, and to the broader Christian community as a whole.

In the days following her death, testimonies poured out from across the spiritual spectrum, reflecting on what an impact her ministry had.  And all of it centered on the brutal honesty and truthfulness from which she spoke.  She highlighted the difficulties that exist for a woman in a theological landscape dominated (and often fiercely gatekeepered) by men.  She fought back against the notion that questioning one's theological elders means defying God or "backsliding" into atheism.  She wrote unflinchingly about how hard it can be to trust God, to forgive church leaders, particularly in light of some of the horrific abuses we have heard of, and how to wrestle with Scripture.  Hers was a real and genuine life that reminds us that faith is often messy and complicated.

From her work, we can see a faith that should be more interested in the questions than the answers.  In living in the questions, instead of having to have "the" answer.  A faith that is continually seeking.  That is questioning and not just taking things that are told to you.  That seeks to learn more, to grow more, to understand more.

To become more gracious, more kind, more understanding.  More patient.  More loving.  More merciful.

That opens itself to outsiders.  To the excluded.  To the hurting.  To the broken.  Particularly those that the church has traditionally shunned or ignored.

And her faith wasn't afraid to step outside the bounds that the Christian community has traditionally drawn for itself.  She wrote about being pro-life but voting for Hilary Clinton because she believed the Democratic party created progressive social policies that make health and child care more affordable, contraception more accessible, alleviate poverty and support a living wage, resulting in driving down abortion rates.

She called out churches for trying to make church "cool" to appeal to the new kids.  "For a generation bombarded with advertising and sales pitches, and for whom the charge of 'inauthentic' is as cutting an insult as any, church rebranding efforts can actually backfire, especially when young people sense that there is more emphasis on marketing Jesus than actually following Him."

She was a progressive Christian writer who found her faith again in the traditions of the sacraments and liturgy.  

Somewhat beautifully, her last post before becoming ill was about Ash Wednesday, Lent, and an acceptance of death.  

"It strikes me today as the liturgy of Ash Wednesday teaches something that nearly everyone can agree on.  Whether you are part of a church or not, whether you believe today or your doubt, whether you are a Christian or an atheist or an agnostic or a so-called "none" (whose faith experiences far transcend the limits of that label) you know this truth deep in your bones: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.

Death is a part of life.

My prayer for you this season is that you make time to celebrate that reality, and to grieve that reality, and that you will know you are not alone.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

In a perspective piece in the Washington Post, a colleague noted this as the true arc of Christianity; "that death comes before life, that doubt comes before belief, that the gospel of Jesus comes to us in a world sick with pain, loss, brokenness, and, as we know too well, senseless death."

But we also know the beauty that such darkness gives way to light.  That pain gives way to healing.  That brokenness can lead to repair.  

That the product of our faith is restoration.  So long as we keep seeking, keep questioning, keep learning, keep loving, keep growing and deepening in it.  

I pray her life, her death, and her message remind us of that.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee passed away today at the age of 95.

I knew this day was coming and was still not ready for it.  It's been a hard year for comic fans, losing many legendary creators.  Steve Ditko, Marie Severin, Harlan Ellison, Norm Breyfogle.  But this one hits the hardest.

Stan truly was the Man.  An American comic-book writer, editor, film executive produced, actor, and publisher.  He was the first editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and has been its publisher, chairman, and chairman emeritus.  Of late, he has been known for his cameo appearances in the Marvel Studios films.  It was great to see how he appreciated his creations being brought to life on screen.

While Stan may have gotten more than his share of the credit of the creation of Marvel characters over time by virtue of his visual presence, his contributions to the art form are unparalleled.  Stan brought character to comic books.  He brought real struggles and emotion to comic creations, grounding the Marvel Universe in 1960s New York.  And though it was Spider-man's motto, you could see the mantra "with great power there must always be great responsibility" throughout his work.

More than anything else, Stan was always comics greatest advocate and cheerleader.  A born showman with a bit of P.T. Barnum huckster, Stan knew how to evangelize his art form.  Always the optimist, he was simply a great personality.

I had the pleasure of getting a signature and a picture with the legend a few years ago.  I remember thinking at the time how frail he looked, but he just kept bopping along, smiling and going through the thousands of signatures and photographs that day.

Stan always used the word Excelsior! to sign off.  He took it from Arthurian legend, stating it meant "onward and upward to greater glory."

Rest in Peace Stan.  Excelsior!

Rest In Peace Queen Of Soul

Next traveler's report delayed until tomorrow for something more timely.

Aretha Franklin passed away yesterday at the age of 76 from complications in advanced pancreatic cancer.

The Queen of Soul is dead.

And with a six decade career, Ms. Franklin definitely earned that title.  Forty-four Grammy nominations, eighteen wins.  Sold over seventy-five million records worldwide.  112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart's history.  First woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Kennedy Center Honor recipient.  National Medal of the Arts and Presidential Medal Freedom recipient.  Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee.  

Voted the number one vocalist by Rolling Stone magazine.

And boy was she.

She took every song and made it transcendent.  Far beyond pop and R&B, she was up to whatever challenge presented itself.  No other act demonstrated this more than her performance of Nessun Dorma at the 1998 Grammy Awards.  Luciano Pavarotti's signature aria from Turnadot, he was slated to perform at the Grammys but became too ill to perform.  Pavarotti's cancellation left a big hole in the show and producer's scrambled to find a replacement.  The producer of the telecast Ken Ehrlich had remembered Franklin performing the aria previously and knew that she was slated to perform in another portion of the Grammy ceremony already.  As the ceremony crept closer, Ehrlich ran to her dressing room to ask a huge favor.  Armed with a boombox and cassette tape so Ms. Franklin could here the dress rehearsal. She gave it a listen, reportedly said "I can do that." 

And the rest is history.

I like to imagine she is now singing gospel more richly than anyone could understand here on earth and I look forward to being able to hear that.