Advent One

 

Hello all. I hope you are well. I thought today about writing about the Assisted Dying Bill but I really feel that it is something much deeper and wider than I would like to do today. Except maybe to say that obviously, no one would ever want to see anyone they loved in agonies in their final days. So, the drive for this law is perfectly understandable. People want to take control - of course they do. However, for me, it is part of a bigger whole. We live in a world where the disabled or the dying are second-class. Where we measure the quality of life by how people look or their physical contribution to society. Anything that draws more from us than we are prepared to give needs to be put quietly to one side, while we get on with whatever it is we all think we are achieving. And all the time the vulnerable, the scared, the ill pull us in directions we don't really want to go in and their parents and those who love them have to fight like tigers to get what they need. Mankind is off-kilter and is not what it should be. Our values are rubbish. Our palliative care system is rubbish. No one wants to invest the money to change things. Oh and by the way - there's a lot of money to be made from assisted dying - drugs, pods etc. Capitalism don't you know. 

To turn on a sixpence. Today is December 1st.  We lit an Advent Candle today at church and I tried to take a photo of it but I failed miserably because I was in the balcony and can never work out how to work the Zoom thingy on my camera so everyone is really tiny and it looks like Lego Christmas. We sang our first Carol. I thought it was nice but one of the people in the Worship group said he doesn't really like Carols because we will hear nothing else until January. Poor bloke probably works in The Range or somewhere they have been playing Christmas music since the clocks went back. Bless him. Instagram is full of favourite Christmas films and I thought of joining in. I warn you that there are MASSIVE SPOILERS ahead. These are the Top 10 and these are the correct answer. This is not a debate. 

1. Muppets' Christmas Carol

2. While You Were Sleeping

3. Nativity!

4. Father Christmas

5. The Bishop's Wife

6. Die Hard

7. The Holdovers

8. Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version)

9. A Charlie Brown Christmas

10. The Shop Around the Corner.

So those films are really good. Some Christmas films are not. Again I am correct.            I'm the first to admit that I'm a bit out of step here but I'm living with it. For instance, the plot of the film "Last Christmas" actually follows the Wham song as in "Last Christmas I gave you my heart" because he literally did give her his heart - as in a transplant. What? We are all going to die horrible deaths as a punishment. You mark my words. I haven't seen many of the very popular ones. I find the thought of Elf a bit upsetting because everyone is being mean to him and, because he is like a large child, it makes me think of kicking a puppy. Also, I have a general rule not to trust any character Jude Law plays in any film. This means that I had him marked as the baddie really early on in Captain Marvel, I was quite happy to see him done in in The Talented Mr Ripley and I'm off Dumbledore a bit. So, I'm not sure I would like The Holiday very much but I haven't seen it. Not having seen it never stops me from having an opinion by the way. 

However, the King and Queen of annoying Christmas films and one of the most popular is Love Actually. HOH and I saw it in York when it first came out, in a packed cinema and the only reason we didn't give it up as a bad job and sneak off to the pub was that we were trapped at the end of a row and it would have made a big fuss to leave. My best friend, who usually takes my ability to verge on the pompous in her stride, tells me that my opinion on this shows that I can be "really up myself" but I don't care. Either way...point by point...this is why Love Actually is just plain wrong. 

1. Someone called Colin played by Kris Marshall goes to America and comes home with two women he meets in a bar. That's it. 

2. Martin Freeman plays a body double in a porn movie. He has a nice chat and tries not to get cold.

3. The best man (and groom's best friend) at Keira Knightly's wedding comes to their front door and using a cheap knockoff Bob Dylan cue card thing - declares his love for her thus ensuring there will always be an issue between the three of them - but one of them doesn't know anything about it. Lovely.

4. Colin Firth falls in love with his Portuguese housemaid who speaks no English. NO ENGLISH. They have not had a conversation. Her language skills are not required.

5. Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister. He falls in love with Martine McCutcheon, despite there being zero chemistry. They are not only from different worlds but different universes. And there seems to be an underlying narrative that he loves her even though she is fat. She is tiny.

6. Laura Linney's mentally ill brother makes lots of demands on her - including calling her on Christmas Eve. Her possible new boyfriend thinks she is being unreasonable by going to her brother so they break up. Lucky escape for her if you ask me. 

7. Liam Neeson is a widow who eventually meets someone else - someone spectacular. This could make you think that if his plucky wife had managed to beat cancer he would never have got to go off with CLAUDIA SCHIFFER. 

8. Bill Nighy does some singing. I can't tell you anything else. I had to keep making my eyes go blurry so I couldn't see it. 

9. Emma Thompson crying on the toilet. Alan Rickman being genuinely horrible. Acting masterclass obviously but not what you would call full of Christmas cheer.  

Feel free to disagree. I know that lots will. I am not immune to the charms of Richard Curtis. Notting Hill is lovely I think. Four Weddings is very clever. This is just weird. 

Anyway, Happy Advent. The wheels are in motion to look back at God starting the greatest rescue process in history. Cute Baby and Amazing Grace are on the way. Have a great week.