Movie Dates and Prayer Time
“I have a theory that movies operate on the level of dreams, where you dream yourself.”—Meryl Streep.
My granddaughter, Zoe, and I have been having a date for many years on Friday afternoons to watch old movies. I wish we could swim together, stroll in the woods, or walk down some of Little Rock’s beautiful trails, but my physical disability makes that too difficult. However, we can curl up in the king-size bed in our master bedroom, all lights out, each covered by our favorite blankets, while we eat popcorn and watch movies. We have seen almost every musical made. Sometimes, we watch drama, and less often, comedy.
One week, Zoe saw Some Like It Hot for the first time. Recently, we watched Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. I forgot to mention that Zoe spent part of her junior year in Denmark and her summer working in New Orleans. Now that she’s a senior at Tulane, we have fewer movie dates. We usually talk a little about the film after it is over. Sometimes, there is much to discuss; at other times, there is very little. One of my favorites to see with her was Babette’s Feast, a film about food and life.
Zoe is a Greek word for life. This is a photograph of Zoe on her first trip to Greece one summer with friends. Life is what our grandchildren teach us about: life in the present moment.
In the past, I have shared paintings from my favorite art museums with Zoe, and rarely have we read poetry together. But, mainly, there is so much grandparents want to share with their precious grandchildren.
However, it is predominantly about the pleasure of being in our grandchildren’s presence. They connect us to our souls. I have learned to drop everything and be with her whenever she texts about a potential movie date.
For me, this movie date has become an icon of what prayer time may be about. I think there is some built-in homing device through which God and we yearn for each other’s presence. Prayer is occasionally words, but mostly presence. I believe God longs to share God’s experience and amazing world with us, but mostly God longs for our presence, just as there is a conscious and maybe even a stronger unconscious longing in us just to be in God’s presence.
Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/