A Reflection on “The Princess Diaries”

*cue music*

“MIRACLES HAPPEN ONCE IN A WHIIIIIILE, WHEN YOU BELIEEEEEEEVE!

YOU SHOW ME DREAMS COME TO LIFE,

THAT TAKING A CHANCE ON US WAS RIGHT.

ALL THINGS WILL COME WITH A LITTLE TIME

WHEN YOU BELIEEEEEEVE!”

It’s been over twenty years since The Princess Diaries came out? SHUT UP.

This is an anniversary post that I meant to write last fall. The Princess Diaries turned twenty last summer. As far as I know, there wasn’t much fuss about it. So let me make some fuss about it now, because this is one of my favorite movies and it has influenced me a lot.

Just to be clear, I am aware that the movie is based on a book series by Meg Cabot. I read the first book when I was in middle school, just to sate my curiosity. Let me tell you, it is quite different from the film. It’s set in New York City, for one thing. Mia is a blonde, her dad is still alive, and her grandmother is Satan. (Lily is about the same as she is in the movie, though). 

The book is nowhere near as wholesome or uplifting a story. So for once, we have a case where the movie actually IS better than the book it was based on. I’m sure that there are people who adore the book series who would like to pick a fight with me on the issue, but I’m not interested in doing so.

“The Showing of His Body”

(Housekeeping note: I know I haven’t written a lot of other posts yet this year. Things are coming, I promise. Also, idk what’s up with WordPress but they’re not letting me hyperlink things. If you want to look up the scriptures I cite in this post, go to scriptures.churchofjesuschrist.org and you will be able to access the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the other standard works of the Church.)

This blog post is directed mainly to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, if you are a non-member who comes across this post I hope this will make some kind of sense and that you can get something out of it. I will supplement my discussion with material from the Bible.

I draw this spiritual thought from The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. For those who have never heard of this book, this is one of the sacred texts or standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Yes, it was the inspiration-ish for a lewd Broadway musical, thank you Hamilton for taking over). The book is a religious history of ancient peoples in the Americas who believed in Jesus Christ–the same Jesus of the New Testament–and how their acceptance or rejection of Him affected their society. 

As a practicing Latter-day Saint, I frequently read from The Book of Mormon to keep myself familiar with the text which, according to my belief, outlines what God expects from me.

The second to last chapter in the Book of Mormon is a letter from the prophet Mormon, who compiled much of the book, to his son Moroni. The majority of the epistle is an account of the wickedness among their people, the Nephites, and their enemies, the Lamanites. Both peoples are wicked and indulge in abominable behavior including, but not limited to, fornication, cannibalism, and murder. Mormon is sure that the total destruction of the Nephites as a people is at hand, as a consequence of their rebellion against God.

But in the final verses of the letter, Mormon offers Moroni a few words of spiritual comfort and encouragement, among which is this:

“My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.”

Moroni 9:25

Once when I was reading from those final chapters I came across the verse quoted above, and the phrase “the showing his body unto our fathers” stuck out to me. I was confused. It doesn’t sound like a phrase that gets used in my church.

‘The Chosen’ Season 1, In Brief

I don’t always binge TV shows on Sunday…but when I do, it’s a live-action drama about the life of Jesus Christ and the experiences of His disciples. 

No, really. I’m here to tell you the good news that this is a thing. It’s called The Chosen and it’s rocked my world on so many levels.

Is there a catch? Unfortunately, yes. There is currently only one season. Eight episodes.

self-generated meme

Christian writer and director Dallas Jenkins has taken the traditional view of the New Testament and the life of Christ and turned it on its head.

Granted, there are several members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are part of the production team, and season two is being shot on location in Utah and produced by VidAngel. I also heard about it on Saints Unscripted. 

However, The Chosen is a huge step away from the formality of the traditional productions of even my own church such as the recent Bible videos. According to Jenkins the New Testament has never been done as a multi-season live-action televised drama before. 

Silver Linings of 2020

This is sort of a belated Thanksgiving post. 2020 has been a rough year for everyone and I am not exempt from that. Thus far, I haven’t caught COVID-19 and no one else in my immediate family has contracted the illness either. My mom works as a labor and delivery nurse at a local hospital, but she and her coworkers have only had a handful of patients with the disease, and they are consistent and thorough with their safety precautions. 

My personal problems are limited to the sinus infection I’ve been fighting off and on for a year and everything being canceled. Well, cancellations aren’t as much of a problem for me because I haven’t been working and consequently I don’t have money to spend at events like comic conventions anyway, much less travel to them. So that’s more of a mixed blessing. 

In spite of all the things being cancelled, some good things have come out of this year’s crisis. I would like to share my thoughts on a few of them.   

#1 An excuse to stay home

There has never been a better time to be an introvert, as you may know already. I myself am a little socially challenged. As I said, my health has been a little sketchy this year because of the sinus infection that wouldn’t go away (I am currently taking medication to treat it, don’t worry). For a good part of the year, all of my usual social activities, most of them connected to my singles ward, were completely cancelled. Now they are slowly starting to resume. 

The rule of thumb is, if you don’t feel well or you’re medically vulnerable stay the heck home. I have asked my mother the medical expert multiple times, my sinus infection would not make COVID-19 a worse or better experience for me if I caught it. 

This One’s for You, Charlie Brown

This is one of those posts that I have been meaning to write for a long time, a long time meaning ever since I started this blog or maybe even before then. 

The Peanuts comic strip and characters have meant a lot to me since I was a kid. My relationship with Peanuts is mostly happiness, but with a little bit of agony.

Happiness is when mom turns on Blues Clues for your younger siblings and one of the first ads that plays is for the Peanuts home video collection..agony is when it’s over two minutes later. Watching Blues Clues might be fun for the younger ones but you know what you really want.

The Music Hall

Happiness is going to the babysitter who has all of those Charlie Brown and Snoopy videos and getting to watch them. I remember when I was in first grade, my pediatric dentist decided to perform an unscheduled tooth extraction and I ended up being sent to the babysitter. But then I got to watch You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown on her TV in her bedroom and drink soup for the rest of the day instead of going to school. Not bad at all.

Happiness is also renting a Peanuts flick every once in a while. It’s also getting to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV in early December. Happiness is Mom finally buying It’s the Pied Piper Charlie Brown on VHS and then watching the documentary at the end.

Agony is seeing the clips in the documentary of all the Peanuts shows you haven’t watched.

As you can see, some of these are very well-worn.

Happiness is getting a stack of vintage paperback books of Peanuts strips for your enjoyment for Christmas, reading them all through in one day and then reading them again and again. It’s checking the comics section of the local newspaper every day for the daily reprinted Peanuts strip along with Garfield and Frank and Earnest (and, for a few years, the strip that my dad wrote twice weekly, but that’s another story).

5 Spiritual Lessons from Sharks

This year for Shark Week I am sharing an additional post about sharks from a spiritual/religious angle. I write from a Latter-day Saint perspective but I hope that people of other faiths can find something to relate to.

Prophets and apostles through the ages and even the Savior himself used things from nature, including animals, to teach people to understand the things of more eternal worth. Said the afflicted Job:

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

Job 12:8 (7-10)

For this post, the fishes of the sea will be doing the teaching: in particular, the long, narrow fish with cartilage skeletons and multiple gill slits. 

Sharks and other apex predators often get used in parables as metaphors for the dangers of sin. However, in the spirit of changing the image of sharks, I am going to use the positive side of sharks as inspiration for teaching the Gospel.

#1 Don’t Believe Everything You See in the Media

The prevailing myth about sharks–all sharks–is that they are aggressive predators always on the lookout to eat anything and will glady attack humans. The 1975 thriller Jaws cemented the image of the man-eating monster shark in the popular consciousness.

In the years since, sharks have become popular subject material for man-versus-monster entertainment, from movies to so-called “documentaries” that minimize the science and play up the cold-blooded killer angle that is popular viewing on television at this time of year. Even news reports about sharks favor reporting on “deadly” shark attacks (which do not always result in death or serious injury) and the threat they pose to humans.

A screenshot I took of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week video clips. My reaction is “yikes” but not at the sharks.

If you talk to a real shark biologist, they will tell you that media outlets regularly misrepresent sharks and minimize or even ignore the environmental threats that we humans pose to sharks.  

The First Vision: The Power of God’s Light

This year marks two hundred years since Joseph Smith’s first vision. For those of you who are not familiar with this event, let me put it simply: in 1820, a fourteen-year-old boy saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in a miraculous vision.

(As per my own faith tradition, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings, and this is why). 

This vision is important because this is considered the start of Joseph Smith’s career as a prophet, and eventually led to the original Church that Jesus established on the earth being restored, organized officially in 1830 (which means in ten years we’ll have another big anniversary to celebrate, yay). 

I am not writing this post to debate the authenticity of this event or the legitimacy of Joseph Smith or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That being said, I just want to make it clear that I believe that it actually happened. 

The reason I am writing this post is because I want to share an insight that I have about the First Vision. About a year ago, I was casually thinking about the First Vision, and I realized something: this event is a metaphor about how we are rescued by God’s light.

12 YouTube Channels To Cure Your Quarantine Blues

So, COVID-19. Yeah, I’m not too thrilled about it. The way I see it, however, there’s no reason to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, either.

Chances are you’re not working right now. I’m not working, either—I’m unemployed in the first place and I haven’t gotten around to job hunting recently. Chances are, though, if I did have a job, I might still be working at the moment since I live in a small town and we haven’t had any Coronavirus cases closer than fifty miles from here. But it’s only a matter of time.

However, if YOU are quarantined and looking for entertainment that will make the most of your time, I have a few suggestions, and they’re all on YouTube, so if you aren’t subscribed to any other services then you’re in luck. It’s just a short list of some of my current favorite channels and programs.

You may notice that several of these are animal-related. It just so happens that watching animal videos is one of my favorite pastimes. If you like animals too, then maybe some of these channels are for you. Also, if you’ve got kids stuck at home, some of the channels I have listed could help you keep their education going.

1) Men of the West

 

Interests: Literature, Fandom, Tolkien

Let’s start with something geeky. If you’re really into the Lord of the Rings and Tolkien lore, then you might want to check it out. The videos are ten to twenty minutes long and each one covers a topic in the history, kingdoms, beings, and leading characters of Arda (Middle Earth + the rest of the world that J.R.R.Tolkien created). The host, Yoystan, has done background research on ALL the extra books you don’t have time to read, but you can also play it in the background and listen to it like you would a podcast. The presentation visuals include movie stills but also lots of fan artwork and vintage illustrations. If there’s a topic in Tolkien’s universe that you’re curious about—the Nazgul, elven lords, even artefacts—you’re likely to find a video about it.

Channel Link: Men of the West

The Promise of Christmas

Holidays and celebrations are about ideas and traditions, but they are also about remembering. Many holidays are about remembering events of the past—in the United States, for instance, we celebrate our independence from Britain every fourth of July to remember the official decree of our independence as well as the war that was fought to secure it. On Thanksgiving, Americans reflect on the struggles and sacrifices of a specific group of early colonists and use that reflection to engender gratitude for material (and hopefully immaterial) blessings.

In some parts of the world, however, holidays and festivals are based more on mythology or religious belief, and there are also holidays tied to the changing of the seasons and the natural cycles of the earth. 

Christmas is a holiday that incorporates multiple aspects. Over the last two millennia, Christmas has picked up practices of pagan Solstice celebrations and become associated with winter, since it celebrated in December. Faithful Christians, however, still celebrate the birth of the Son of God, a miracle in itself, and the miracles associated with the Savior’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. It is a season to remember Him. 

shutterstock

 

Here’s an angle you should consider: Christmas is important because Jesus came to fulfill a promise, a promise given by Him and by the Father before the world was. The angels, the star, the wise men coming—all of those things happened because Jesus was the Messiah that had been promised to God’s people for centuries, promised ever since the creation, promised even before time began

Names of the Nativity

I haven’t gotten around to seeing Frozen II yet. In the meantime, I am going to post about something I discovered earlier this year.

Upfront, I need to confess I have not participated diligently in the ‘Come Follow Me’ scripture study program sponsored by my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, I was better at studying the weekly materials earlier in this year.

When I was reading the accounts of Christ’s birth in the gospels for Come Follow Me, I had the impression to research the names of the people involved in the births of Jesus and John the Baptist. What I learned was that Jesus and John both have names with meanings that reflect their roles, and not only that but their family members do as well. The meanings of their names add wonderful insights to the story of Christmas.

Bartolome Murillo, The Adoration of the Shepherds (Humm Tunes Music)

The discussion below explores the meanings of these names and my unprofessional opinion about their interpretation. My sources include the Bible Dictionary in the LDS Scriptures and some online name dictionaries. I also recently found a book called Mary: The Mother of Jesus by Camille Fronk Olson that shares some good insights, and I will refer to it also.