The Book Was Better

Brianna, Alexander and I recently finished reading The Spiderwick Chronicles book series together. Night after night for about 3 weeks, we reveled in the delightful descriptions of the creatures, the mystery, the suspense. Tonight we capped off our experience with a family movie night, popping popcorn and watching the film version of the story. (Sheilding Ethan's eyes where necessary.) The movie effects were excellent, the acting was superb, and the story line was clear. Judged solely on it's own merits, it was a good movie.

But, as readers everywhere might predict, it couldn't hold a candle to the books. Not only did the sequence and location of events diverge early on, but it soon became clear that some of our favorite scenes and creatures were left out. No Dwarves, no elves (!!), no Phooka. And no dragon, which meant no arial battle between the dragon and the griffin -- bummer.

As sorry as I am that the movie didn't delight us more, I also feel a smug satisfaction. I love that the experience of huddling together on bed and reading a good book aloud can still trump Hollywood, sophisticated computer effects and all.

Up next: The Tale of Despereaux, which we will start reading tonight. Will we see the movie afterword? Probably, but expectations will be low.

Defending the Faith

Earlier this week, in casual conversation with two other moms from Brianna's basketball team, I used the descriptive phrase "a woman from my Quaker Meeting". (My fellow Friends may already see where this is going.) While I sometimes say "my church" to avoid mucking up an otherwise normal conversation, it doesn't seem fully honest somehow, so I usually try to "speak plainly" as we Quakers are encouraged to do. On this occasion, my plain speech completely derailed the conversation about backyard chickens.

"Is that pretty much the same as Mennonites?"
"Well no, not really. Mennonites were around before Quakers."

It never got much less awkward than that. This is a homeschool basketball program which, while open to all homeschoolers, is run by members of the big Christian homeschool group in town. Our faith doesn't quite fit the norm of this group, which is tends to be theologically conservative. I don't mind being different, but I am just getting to know these women. I like them, and I want them to like me. I want them to be comfortable having their kids be friends with my daughter. Ideally, I would would choose to have them know me better before revealing all the details of how our theologies might differ. I would choose to have them see/hear my life speak for my beliefs before my voice. I know from experience that deep, satisfying discussions about faith are possible between friends when there is assurance that the relationship will endure in spite of difference. I don't yet have that assurance with them, thus I was wary. Alas, my reluctance to have this conversation resulted in a weak and probably confusing explanation of Quaker faith and practice.

So it was awkward, but we muddled through. I wasn't the only one feeling the discomfort. One of the women kept saying "Well, we'll all end up in the same place in the end -- we'll all be one big family." I smiled and nodded, but I should have made it more clear how very much I agree with her; I really wish I had. In any case, I believe our nascent friendships survived the incident. For that I am grateful.

I'm left not knowing quite what to do with this experience. Would a more confident and clear description of Quaker theology have served the situation better? I'm not so sure -- it might have sparked debate or defensiveness, which I don't believe we're ready for. Yet I feel a little bad about my halting and awkward comments regarding the Quaker tradition that I respect so greatly. This is a matter for some seasoning I suppose. Something to think about in a quiet time or to bring into the Light of worship.

If anyone is willing to share, I'm curious to hear other people's similar experiences. Not just from Quakers either -- I'm sure people of every faith must find themselves "outed" as the oddball belief from time to time. How have you responded and how did it turn out?