Love Like the Movies

Ready for a big word: "logorrhea." Jacques Ellul made it up. It means, "words are vastly used but emptied of meaning. One cultural observer said the epitome of logorrhea is advertising that breads a "cultural tide of dishonesty." Political speeches suffer from a lot of logorrhea.

Where am I going with this? Well, it's blog do I really have to going anywhere? Maybe I'm doing some logorrhea right now.

Anyway I thought about this yesterday as I finished my run while listening to the Avett brothers sing, "Love Like in the Movies." Our oldest daughter introduced me to the music of the Avett brothers. I changed Scott Avett's diaper once. See, I have a claim to fame. His parents were our buddies and I got left with Scott one day for some reason. I was used to changing diapers on girls...we had two. But I had never changed a diaper on a boy.

If you are a parent you know where I'm going with this. I got sprayed by dear little Scott. With girls you do not have to worry about that. Somebody send this to Scott and let's see if they can write a song about this!!

Back to logorrheah. Bet you thought I'd never get there. Here are some of the words from the before mentioned song:

So you want to be in love like the movies
But in the movies they're not in love at all
And with a twinkle in their eyes
They're just saying their lines
So we can't be in love like the movies

Now in the movies they make it look so perfect
And in the background they're always playing the right song
And in the ending there's always a resolution
But real life is more than two hours long....

Why, indeed, I changed the diaper of a future philosopher. We use words like "love" and "God" so much that sometimes they loose their meaning. The "real" of the word gets lost in the constant use like we're in some kind of movie that gets played over and over.

I love that line, "real life is more than two hours long." Real is where resolutions take time and sacrifice without the needed music in the background. Real is sticking with it when things are not pretty and the lighting isn't right. Real is taking a deep breath and knowing that the "real" God can't be captured in a word or a scene.

Real is watching the caterpillars that covered the parsley plant that Betsy planted "just for them" eat their way to life. Love is not like in the movies and there is a lot of imperfection in real love because we are not acting out a script. This is real life. There is no dress rehearsal or screen play. Words can only carry so much meaning. Tis in the living of it that makes us human "beings" and not actors. May you have a less logorrhea day. May we be mindful of our words...and may we be good listeners to those around us. This is no movie.
Bless you
jody jseymour@davidsonumc.org