Soul of a surfer: Heart of a hero

My daughter asked me to take her and a friend to the movies as part of her 15^th birthday celebration, so naturally I said “Sure, what do you want to see?”

She said, “A movie about this surfer girl,” and I wondered what I had gotten myself into! Of course this wasn’t just any surfer girl and Soul Surfer is one of the finest films I’ve been fortunate enough to see!

To me a film needs three things to be great; the first is a great story.

Soul Surfer is the story of Bethany Hamilton, and hers is a truly great story. Ms Hamilton is the young surfer who at the age of thirteen lost an arm in a shark attack while training in Hawaii. Her injuries were severe and although she nearly died as a result, they kept her out of the water for only a few weeks. Soon she was surfing again, was able to compete and eventually fulfill her dream of turning pro. (And she is doing well as a pro). Ms Hamilton’s triumph is inspiring on par with the career of “Dummy” Hoy, the deaf baseball star of the early era of the game, Tom Dempsey’s record breaking 63 yard despite having only half of one of his feet, or Jim Abbott’s no hitter despite having just one hand.  While all of these athletes had distinguished achievements, Hoy should be a hall of famer, and all are inspiring what separates Ms Hamilton is the fact she was not born with her “disability” but was presented with the challenge of relearning how to do everything with one arm, not just how to compete at the highest level of a challenging sport. To me the most inspiring aspect of Bethany Hamilton’s story is summed up in the words of Christ in John: 10:10The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.  If any one can testify of having something stolen and destroyed it would be Ms Hamilton moreover if any one is a testimony of what the abundant life of Christ really means it is this remarkable young woman! The wonderful peculiarity of Soul Surfer is that this part of the story comes through loud and clear. Hollywood is usually comfortable only with faith as it relates to a vague and unspecified deity, but the Hamilton family is Christian, their faith is in Jesus Christ, and the director and performers in the movie do a wonderful job of showing and modeling this faith. A home schooled girl who never gives her testimony without specifying that she gave her life to Jesus Christ at the age of five, in a family that goes to church and leans on the support of a youth minister who quotes from the Bible, in fact the Dad reads from the Bible (Phil. 4:13 from the NIV I can do everything through him who gives me strength.)  These people are shown as normal folk achieving extraordinary things?  And you thought Brokeback Mountain was revolutionary!

The second thing that makes a great movie is believability.

Realism and believability are not necessarily the same thing for example the 1933 version of King Kong is incredibly believable but not all that realistic, Soul Surfer is a true life story so realism does play heavily into the believability. The effects removing Annasophia Robb’s arm are flawless, the surfing, much of which is done by the real Ms Hamilton, is great and to my limited knowledge of the sport, the surfing competition seems realistic. Equally important is the scripting, if this story was told in platitude and cheesy dialogue with a few alligator tears thrown in it would hardly do justice to Ms Hamilton’s amazing story, but the script is tight, conversional, edgy and a little uncomfortable at times. You believe real people would talk this way. Finally you need to believe that the actors are the characters they portray and this movie has a heavy weight cast, in addition to Annasophia Robb as Bethany, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton are played by Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt, certainly pedigreed actors, Kevin Sorbo puts in a good turn as Bethany’s coach Holt Blanchard, and Carrie Underwood does a great job in her acting debut as Bethany’s youth leader Sarah Hill. The supporting roles are also all well done.

Finally a great film makes the audience care, it forms a connection, and does Soul Surfer ever do this.

One thing that impressed me with Soul Surfer was the directing. Going in most of us know that Bethany will be attacked by a shark so Sean McNamara does a fabulous job of setting up the incident so that when it does happen it’s a shock to the viewer. Also Bethany has setbacks and discouragements, though she never looses her faith, we are able to identify with her struggles. A few of the films more touching scenes involve Bethany’s attempts to put others at ease about her injury. As a father I can identify most with Bethany’s parents. All of us with teenagers struggle with the conflict between trying to help our kids and teaching them independence, letting them fall and helping them back up if you will. I can’t imagine if my daughter lost her arm!

 In the end what Bethany Hamilton teaches us and what Soul Surfer conveys is that God does not know the meaning of the word limit, and that when we are weak His power is perfected in us.

My advice, don’t miss this one!

for more information check the official movie site.  

http://www.soulsurferthemovie.com/

 

Boehner’s Big Bleepin’ Deal

Famously, when President Barack Obama signed the health care reform bill Vice President Biden remarked behind an open mike, “this is a big bleepin’ deal” (comment edited for content). It isn’t often I agree with the VP but in this case I do. Pres. Obama’s agenda may be unconstitutional, it may be dishonest, it may bring this mighty nation to its very knees, but it is not small. I wish Speaker Boehner understood this.

Last Friday I wrote to my representative Shelley Moore Capito and expressed my disappointment with the 2011 budget deal, you see I thought to come down to 38 billion and surrender all the policy riders was too much.  Sill I thought we were headed in the right direction until I learned that by the time previous cuts are factored in and accounting tricks are removed we actually cut  $352,000,000 from the 2011 budget. Awesome job Mr. Speaker you promise a 100 billion and deliver less than ½ of 1 billion. Way to think big!

Mr. Boehner will say “is this a perfect bill, no, I’ll be first to admit that”

Wrong, it was the perfect compromise, for the Democrats. They got to pretend to support “reasonable cuts” without really compromising on one darned thing. If this is how you negotiate sir, you are not shrewd enough to be speaker

Mr. Boehner will say the troops wouldn’t have been paid,

I’ll give him this, except to say, why you didn’t see that coming, why didn’t you get way out ahead of it and propose a bill before or as part of the first CR to make sure the military was funded. Did you think the President was too honorable to hold the sword of Damocles over our brave men and women’s heads for his own political goals? If you believe that sir, you are to naïve to be Speaker.

Mr. Boehner will say, “Welcome to divided government.”

Our government is divided?  Sen. Reid and Pres Obama don’t think so. They seem content to do as the please while we boast of leaning a 6’ ladder against an Everest of debt and proclaim; “now we’re climbing!” this is the definition of thinking small.

Mr. Boehner will say “we are only ½ of 1/3 of the government”

Ah but sir, you are the chamber where all spending and taxation legislation must originate. You have tremendous power Mr. Speaker, not to do every thing, but to do great good, PLEASE USE IT!

The fight is not over, the Ryan budget and the debt ceilings are the issues upcoming, we need a bigger plan, a bigger fight. It was said at the last election that if Republicans failed to govern according to the principles of the voters they would loose the people’s trust forever, this deal isn’t that but it’s a huge step in that direction. We pesky tea party folks are not going away sir and we do not buy the conventional wisdom that the people want republicans and democrats to get along, we aren’t in favor of gong along to get along  with those who steal our liberty and bankrupt our children. You can be replaced Mr. Speaker, our liberty cannot. As of now I will accept that Speaker Boehner is a good man who got his political butt handed to him by a powerful, though not overly popular president, who is not afraid of the big issues.

Please Mr. Speaker get on the firing line.   

To pick a fight

        non·es·sen·tial

    [non-uh-sen-shuhl] –adjective 1. not essential;  not necessary: 

This is the word of the day. We are facing a shutdown of nonessential government functions if the Republicans in the house insist on anything other than purely superficial cuts in spending,  In other words if the Republicans do what we sent them there to do. Now the reason we are here is that the Democratic house never even proposed a budget for the Democratic senate to vote on or the Democratic President to sign. Yet according to conventional wisdom the Republicans are to blame if nonessential government functions shut down. In the liberal mind, this makes sense. Still the Republicans have agreed to a number of temporary spending measures and have approved even another, this one cuts 12 billion instead of a measly two. If passed by the senate, which is likely, the President has threatened a veto, so if a government shutdown happens it will rest squarely on the shoulders of our historic President.

I am reminded of the scene in Braveheart before the battle of Sterling where the Scottish nobles (a.k.a. the establishment republicans) ride out to negotiate with the English nobles (a. k. a. the liberal Democrats). You see the Scottish people are suffering mightily and these nobles have sworn to defend them, but upon seeing the massive English army (a.k.a. the liberal media) the nobles get weak kneed and start to talk of the importance of cooperation and reaching across the aisle in friendship. Of course the oppression of Edward Longshanks would continue with this compromise (a.k.a. Obama care, EPA overregulation et al.)  And Scotland would still be bankrupted by Longshanks’ oppressive taxes, but it would be a little better and the nobles would be safe. But in rides William Wallace (a.k.a. the tea party patriots), and rallies the troops. It is better to fight for freedom, and maybe loose it all then to fear the battle (a.k.a. a government shutdown) and live as slaves “THEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES BUT THEY’LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!” then when one of his aids asks where he is going Wallace responds “to pick a fight.” While I am not suggesting telling the President to “stick his head between his legs and….” You get it, but we must say this far no farther we must have this fight. The Scotts win the battle of Sterling and would eventually win their independence.

Mr. Boehner, stand strong. This is not 1995; the country is not in the same place. Many Republicans fear a backlash from a shutdown, but I think the opposite is true, and the polls back me up. America itself will be lost if spending is not reigned in. (Actually spending is really a symptom of the out of control size of Government but that is a blog for another day) besides if you want to see a backlash, go against the teaparty on this one.

So often our friends in the GOP have let us down, Pres Bush did nothing to control spending and it cost the Republicans dearly, now Obama has surpassed Bush’s highest one year deficit in one month. The country is at stake, let’s pick a fight.

The President and the Democrats along with the propagandists in the media will say that any spending cuts will kill children, starve old people and hurt women’s health. Heck, faced with literal default, Harry Reid says it would be a catastrophe if we lost the cowboy poetry festival. Yes friends better to bankrupt your children’s future then to stop government subsidies for a cowboy poetry festival. Just who are the extremists anyway? The president won’t agree to pay the military during a shutdown but he will take a stand for Planned Parenthood, if that does not define extremist I don’t know what does.

 As important as the spending cuts in the remainder of fiscal year ’11 are, and lets be honest 61 billion dollars is not enough to make a real difference, yes friends $61,000,000,000.00 is not nearly enough to make a real difference, it is where these cuts are that really matters. Planned parenthood, NEA, limiting the EPA the tiny beginning of defunding Obamacare these are the victories that will frame the debate for the 2012 budget. Yes, the Republican house has a budget proposal which is an essential function of government according to the constitution. Rule of thumb: If it is a constitutional duty of government like national defense or securing the border the Democrats oppose it, if it is not an essential duty i.e. cowboy poetry, it is indispensable and people will literally cease to exist without it.

I have hope. In spite of the media and in spite of their own leadership the Republicans are framing the debate and driving the issues, thank God for Paul Ryan, and the people are with them. Perhaps at last the era of McCain has passed and we have Republicans wiling to fight for our countries future. If your congressman or woman is taking a stand call them up and say a big fat thank you. To our representative the honorable Shelly Moore Capito I say “keep on the firing line”