There’s nothing like a good movie to trigger some emotions, right? My roommate Rachel and I didn’t have any plans this past Saturday night so we decided to head down to the Laurelhurst Theater to see “Julie and Julia.” What’s better than a $3.00 movie and a pitcher of beer with a good friend on a Saturday night? When we got to the theater, we were dismayed to find that the movie was sold out. We scanned the movie list for alternatives and opted to see “Where the Wild Things Are” instead.
The movie started 20 minutes later than our first pick, so we sat patiently in the theater with our pitcher of PBR (we were lacking cash that night….again, not my first choice) watching the local advertisements flash across the screen mixed with photos of snowy mountain tops. It’s not like I ever stop thinking about Anthony and Mt. Hood, but for some reason I just didn’t want to see those pictures. The movie finally started, but I just kept on thinking about how much Anthony would have loved this movie and imagining him sitting next to me laughing the way he always did. Those kinds of thoughts are getting more and more common these days.
The second to last scene is what really got me. Max, the little boy in the story, has a life changing experience with the Wild Things and builds relationships with them. I don’t know about you, but I form close and unique bonds with the people that I experience life-changing events with. Max and I have that in common. Although his time with the Wild Things wasn’t all fun and dirt clod fights, his departure back home brought tears to their eyes…and mine. They were the same tears that streamed down my cheeks at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy when Frodo sails off into the horizon with Gandolf, never to see his best friend Sam or his other companions again. Think of the life changing experiences they had together! If two people in history were ever closely knit, I would say that Frodo and Sam are as close as you can get. So when Sam realizes that he would never ever see Frodo again, of course his heart broke. Mine broke too. I’ve always had a hard time saying goodbye to people that I’m close to, but most of the time, it’s never final. I will see them again sometime in my life, or at least be able to talk to them on the phone, over email, instant messenger, etc. But the finality of Max and Frodo’s departure went deep and brought emotion. At least they got to say goodbye.
Say Goodbye Max
I wish I would have been able to say goodbye to Anthony.
The last time I saw Anthony was on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at the Horse Brass in Portland. He was in town with Maija, her brother Ben, and a friend of Ben’s, so he called to see if I was free to join them for a beer at our favorite pub. Luckily I was free. See, I was supposed to hang out with a girl friend of mine that night but she cancelled on me saying she had food poisoning, which I found out later that night from her roommate that she wasn’t actually sick, but out of town with her boyfriend. Bummer lie, if you ask me but that just goes to show that God is a God who redeems our sin! And since we are to give thanks in all circumstances, I can’t help but be thankful that she lied to me because that opened up my evening to see Anthony one last time before he was taken home. Had I known that that would be the very last time I would see my friend, who I had many life changing experiences with, and had a strong bond with, I don’t think I would have just hugged him briefly and went on with my evening. I don’t think he would have either. I think we would have made one last memory together…for my sake since I’m the one who is still on earth.
What about the last scene though? The last scene in “Where the Wild Things Are” is Max returning home to a worried mother and them embracing each other with so much love and affection. In “The Return of the King” it’s Sam in the Shire with his beautiful hobbit wife and hobbit kids. The last scene is always a reunion with the one they love, or seeing the character prospering and happy. I’m at rest knowing that Anthony’s final scene is more joyous than any movie can depict. Heaven is infinitely more beautiful than the Shire and his reunion with Christ is more than we could ever imagine.
