Easter weekend is all wrapped up, and it could not have been more lovely-my mom goes out of her way to make holidays fun for the kids (and the big kids, too)-we play games and hunt eggs and eat too much candy. It’s delightful.
I also took an extra day off just to spend with my girls, and it could not have been a lovelier day. Each of them got to pick a movie to watch- Betsy is going through a Dirty Dancing phase just now (Betsy in many, many ways is her mother made over) and Felicity picked Return to Oz. I loved Return to Oz as a kid. It’s a bit of a trip to watch as an adult because it truly has many frightening moments for a kid’s movie, but it is also just so much more true to the nature of the books.
(We watched The Wizard of Oz on Saturday because I always associate it with Easter because when I was a kid, that’s when it was on tv. The version that I had taped as a kid-on a Beta tape, mind you-had a commercial for McDonald’s that I loved so much, and I looked it up on YouTube and showed it to the girls-it’s called “My Little Sister” and it’s about this brother and sister growing up and sharing McDonald’s together and I swear to you, it’s the reason that I always wanted to have a big brother.)
We also, of course, are continuing with our 90210s, and we have reached the college years (Betsy has rightly assessed that they are not as good as the high school years). It’s interesting, watching these storylines that meant so much to me when I was a young teenager and seeing them through my wizened, 40-year-old eyes. Paul Johansson portrays John Sears, who is the newest wrinkle in the Dylan/Kelly saga-I love, love, love Paul Johansson because he is Bart Jeffris in the tv movie, The Laker Girls, which is honest to goodness one of my sister’s favorite movies of all time and I love that character.
Anyway, in 90210, Paul is the guy trying to lure Kelly away from Dylan, and since I have never been a fan of Kelly and Dylan, the first time that I watched this, back in 1993, I wanted John to succeed-even though he of course turns out to be a total louse. This time around, though, he just seems like a creep-he’s one of those guys who only really wants Kelly because he can’t have her, and it’s obvious that he would dump her if she did break up with Dylan for him.
(It is the opposite of Dean Cain’s character, Rick, who truly fell in love with Brenda, and who she dumps because she wants to be with Dylan-the girls and I both agree that even though we love Dylan McKay with all of our hearts, we would have chosen Dean Cain over him-and they have never even seen him as Superman.)
It's a bit fascinating to me, how differently I feel even toward fictional characters on television shows- I want to scream at Kelly, I want her to realize that a guy who will cross any line to get her to cheat on her boyfriend is not worth it. I want to insist that she and Dylan realize that they tend to coast on obvious physical attraction rather than truly discuss hard topics.
Does it make me wiser this time, that I know these things? Or does it make me unable to push past my hangups to reach that bliss that is falling in love? I don't know the answer, and I promise I know that it's more complicated than Kelly and Dylan's endless breaking up and getting back together.
But just now, as spring has given way to these beautiful 70 degree days, and my girls still want to watch all the movies and 90s tv shows, and Jesus has risen and all is right with the world, I'm grateful for all of these hard as heck lessons in humility and grace that the past 3 1/2 years have seen fit to send my way. We'll figure it out as we go.
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