A Month of Thanks: Day 4

I am thankful for coffee! Especially today when I was awoken about two and a half hours before my alarm. Even on a normal day I can hardly functions without it. 

A Month of Thanks: Day 3

Today and today only, I am thankful for the time change and getting 10 hours of sleep. I guess really I am thankful for sleep. There is nothing more refreshing than much needed sleep. The refreshment is most welcome after a stressful fortnight, and feeling overwhelmed I am now actually feeling peaceful. I feel like I can make the decision about whether or not to defer my applications to PhD programs.

A Month of Thanks: Day 2

On this feast of All Souls, I am thankful for all those who love me now and have loved me while they were here on this earth. Especially my grandmother, both my grandfathers, and my step mother.

And remember this prayer that Fr. Drew wrote:
"All our family and friends who have died, pray for us as we pray for you, that you may have everlasting life.

A Month of Thanks: Day One

I did this last year and it really helped me cultivate an attitude of gratitude, which as a Christian is a necessary disposition, for all we have is gift and we are supposed to give it all back.

So on this first day, the feast of All Saints day, I am thankful for the MBOC, the Mystical Body of Christ. Living 1800 miles from your friends and family it is nice to know that especially through the Eucharist, that most holy sacrament, I am not only united to my Lord, but also to all those whom I love even worlds apart. If I can't see them face to face, at least, I can see them in the Eucharist. 

Warm Bodies . . . Hints of Humanity from Hollywood

Last night I watched the movie Warm Bodies. It was really cute, a zombie rom-com, how can you go wrong? Beware, I am going to spoil it, but if you saw a trailer, it kind of already was spoiled.

Watching this, I reminded of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (available here), in which he recounts his time in a concentration camp and how those that found some meaning or purpose survived while those without something to live for died.

The zombies in Warm Bodies, are called corpses or bonies, depending on how far the disease that infects them has run it's course. The bonies live only to feast on the flesh of humans.

R, the main corpse character, starts out the movie longing for some sort of interaction as he wanders around the airport where the corpses live. He meets Julie, and begins to fall for her, and saves her from the other corpses and protects her in the plane he lives in. His going outside himself, caring for Julie and protecting her, sparks something in R, and some of the effects of the infection that made him a corpse/zombie begin to reverse, and he becomes human again.

Caring for another, loving another is a quintessential human act, and through doing something human, R becomes human again. Much like those in the concentration camps, his care for Julie is the meaning that gave him something to live for.