I found kind of a cool website: www.createpaintings.com. You answer a few personality questions and it creates a painting for you. Here’s what mine looks like:

One of my big pet peeves is when people call a movie “important.” This is usually code for “abstract and unsupported preaching.” There is one movie, however, for which I would be willing to concede such normally annoying descriptors as “important,” “beautiful,” and “haunting.” That movie is Machuca. It is a Chilean movie, set in the year 1973 when military general Agosto Pinochet overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende. It centers around the friendship of two young boys, each from opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum. I know I’m probably biased because of the time I spent in Chile, but seriously you guys, this is a fabulous movie that you should make every effort to see and understand. The movie is pretty clearly anti-Pinochet, but it also doesn’t try to gloss over the problems of the socialist government. Incidentally, that’s exactly where I settled after struggling with the problems of both the military and socialist regimes. Anyway, Machuca has many merits, political angle aside. Even if you never see it, at least let me describe one scene to you that absolutely chilled me to my core.

Much of the movie centers around a posh, private, all-boys Catholic school that the boys attend. Gonzalo Infante (the rich boy) is sent to the school by his parents. Pedro Machuca (the poor boy) is at the school on a scholarship, a concept Father McEnroe, the priest/headmaster, believes strongly in. After the military overthrow, Father McEnroe is removed from his position and replaced with Pinochet pawns. As the new military-sympathetic priest gives mass, Father McEnroe walks into the chapel. He opens the cupboard that holds the Communion elements, takes out the chalice, and starts to eat the Communion wafers, choking and sobbing all the while. When he is finished, he says “This place is not sacred anymore.” He snuffs out the candle with his fingers, then states “God is here no longer.” The image of Father McEnroe eating the Communion wafers is one that will haunt me for a long time. It is extremely jarring. The Lord’s Supper is an incredibly sacred act, and it made me sick to my stomach to watch someone eat all of the wafers, especially a priest of such strong faith. I don’t even know how to explain it- you have to see the scene, and you probably need to have had some experience with Communion in order to understand the gravity of it.

I’ve done such a bad job of explaining this movie. All I can say is please go look up the Chilean military overthrow on Wikipedia, then go see Machuca. You will be better for it.

Last week I wrote about a show I went to called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind in Chicago. Well, Wheaton College has started publishing a monthly paper of activities and fun things to do in the area. I noticed that they listed a show called That’s Weird, Grandma which caught my eye because it plays at the same theater as Too Much Light. I checked out their web page and learned that the show is produced by an organization called “Barrel of Monkeys,” where performers team up with schools to teach creative writing to children and encourage the expression of their voices and imaginations.

Really, you guys, hearing about an organization like Barrel of Monkeys makes my heart so happy. This is a group of really talented people. They could just be performing in plays and improv troupes around Chicago in order to pay the rent and pursue their own dreams of success. However, these guys are sacrificing their time and efforts to bring their skills and inspiration to inner-city school children. They’re taking something they’re good at, something they’re passionate about, and they’re using it to help other people.

I guess my impending graduation and lack of direction has got me thinking a lot recently about the concepts of purpose and talent. Bill Hybels once gave a great talk on this subject. The basic gist was that when people with gifts and passions find their purpose in life, watch out world, because something awesome is gonna happen. I don’t know what the story behind Barrel of Monkeys is, but I like to think some performer or writer saw an unfulfilled need in the city’s public school system, but instead of sitting around yelling at politicians through the TV, they relentlessly pursued the fulfillment of that need through their own talents. If that’s the case, then that’s awesome. Everyone in this world needs to do something like that. I see people like that, and my heart is just filled to the brim with hope for this world.

On the other hand, sometimes I see people who have such enormous talent. Such huge potential. And they’re doing nothing. They dropped out of college and are free-loading off their parents. They work at WalMart, but only so they can have extra cash to buy video games and weed. And I just want to scream at these people. What are you doing? You had so much going for you, and you’re throwing it all away. You could have done something huge. It’s one of the most upsetting things in world to me.

I want to do something huge. I just don’t know what yet. I’m not an artist, and my talents are a little harder to pinpoint. And I still have no idea what my purpose might be. But just you wait. Meanwhile, I’m open to suggestions

Friday night I drove into Chicago to meet Erin. We met in Uptown and sat in a cafe and chatted for a little while before heading over to see a show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. I had heard good things about it, and apparently it’s the longest-running show in Chicago, so we decided to give it a try. Plus, I’d been going through a live-show withdrawal, and didn’t want to break the piggy bank so this seemed like a good option. It was a good call. Basically, there were 8 cast members (who were also the writers) who tried to perform 30 short plays in 60 minutes. The audience can call out the plays they would like to see, so there’s a slight element of interaction/improvisation to the show. The plays range from hilarious to political to thought-provoking. These are some examples of the plays on our program: #3 Oh Yeah? Well my Left hand Could beat Up your House. #17 OPEN CASTING: Romantic Movie Climax. #27 Yet another Pagan Holiday ambushed by the Christians (the origin of St. Valentines Day). The performers were excellent, the space was intimate, the duration was ideal, and it was just an all-around fun show. Also, coming back to Wheaton after a semester in Chile was a little bit of a culture shock in terms of all of a sudden being around a lot of white evangelical conservatives. I have to admit that an evening away from all of that was a bit refreshing. Sometimes, a show is just funnier when a performer isn’t afraid to kiss an audience member in a re-creation of the boom box scene from Say Anything. Even if they are both female. You’ve gotta get out of Wheaton for that sort of thing. Anyways, great show. For more information click Neo-Futurists