We started a new tradition tonight I hope. Watching "Ground Hog Day" on Ground Hog Day. This is always my favorite scene ... "Don't Drive Angry!".
NRO has a tradition of running the same Jonah Goldberg column every Ground Hog Day, and I think it is an excellent tradition.
I was raised Baptist, but one of the things now dear to me in the Lutheran Church is the Church Year and the various elements of the liturgy. The Bible says to not use "meaningless repetition" and somehow the Baptists applied that to the liturgy, but fortunately not to Christmas or Easter (they do those every year!).
Matt 6:7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words."
As an Elder, I will be taking Communion to a dear shut-in woman with Alzheimers in February, and one of the lovely things is that she still remembers the Communion prayers and creeds -- not perfectly, but significantly. She tends to always say "I like that the whole church says and does these things ... I don't know why, it just feels right ..." The definition of "meaningless" doesn't include Christ instructing us on how to pray -- but we never did the Lord's Prayer in church when I grew up.
My cynical summary of Baptist theology was "If the Catholics do it, we don't".
BTW, I am NOT "anti-baptist, or even anti-dentite" ... like all human religion, Baptists have flaws, Lutherans have flaws, and mooses are the sum of all flaws!
You may not think of the movie "Ground Hog Day" as a religious or philosophical movie, but I agree with Goldberg, it definitely is. Read the review, and if you get a chance, watch it ... again.
Perhaps when we "get it", then this life is taken from us -- and loving that it goes is part of loving it.
“The curse is lifted when Bill Murray blesses the day he has just lived. And his reward is that the day is taken from him. Loving life includes loving the fact that it goes.”
I hope you bless this Ground Hog Day!
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