Hallie Lord, the adorable wife and mama behind Moxie Wife has a great give away for Father’s Day…her husband Dan’s book Choosing Joy!
It’s still on my Amazon wishlist so while I’m hoping to win it, I want to make sure y’all get a chance too. Enter here!
If you have not watched last night’s series finale of The Office or the hour long retrospective that aired prior, STOP READING THIS NOW.
Okay, you have been warned, now I proceed. Unlike a cranky critic at people.com, I LOVED this beautiful finale and the retrospective that appeared before it.
First, on the retrospective. It was an hour that included scenes from the wrap-party put on by Scranton, PA. Very, very sweet to see Steve Carell in attendance and all of the stars so gracious to their “adopted home town.” It included interviews with Pam (Jenna Fisher), Jim (John Krasinski), Oscar (Oscar Nunez), Angela (Angela Kinsey), Ryan (BJ Novak), Kelly (Mindy Kaling), Andy (Ed Helms) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson). It also included show creators Ricky Gervais (who starred in the BBC original version of The Office as the manager David Brent), Greg Daniels, and Ben Silverman.
It was endearing to hear John and Jenna discuss how they came to love the characters of Jim and Pam and how emotionally attached they had become to those characters. Particularly Jenna Fisher to her character Pam Beesley Halpert. She talks about how emotional it was to create the proposal scene and how, unbeknownst to all of us, the entire cast was off camera watching and getting very emotional. She also describes the scene when Pam bids Michael farewell at the airport and how it was “her moment with Steve” and because there was no sound, she was able to say her own personal goodbye.
Krasinski confirms what most of us came to our own conclusion about anyway, that when they called “Action” in the scene where Jim realizes Michael is leaving that day and Jim gets to say his good-bye (which included the memorable line, “then I would tell you what a great boss you have been,”) that the tears were immediate for both himself and Steve Carell and real and did not end after hearing “cut.”
Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak were added to the cast from the writers room. Kelly added in episode two when the script required Michael to be “slapped by a minority.” And BJ cast as Ryan Howard for the pilot. The two’s on camera “chemistry” was generated from the writers room. Kaling and Novak are long time best friends but would fight endlessly as writers in the writers room and the other writers jumped at the chance to move that dynamic on screen. They both talked about some of their favorite moments directing and writing as well with Novak actually showing us the writers room which looked like it could have been a room at Dunder Mifflin. Probably my favorite moment of their interviews came when Novak described writing the scene in which DeAngelo Vickers (guest star Will Ferrell) and Michael Scott meet for the first time at a bar. Novak said it was so much fun to write a scene where the writers got to play around and see how long these “two idiots” could talk to each other before finding out who the other was.
To be able to see into the minds of the writers and creators also confirmed what made the show so great, it started with great writing and as the characters fleshed out the combination was a slam dunk. Many, including myself, worried after the departure of Michael Scott that the show would be canceled immediately. But on the backs of the strong writing and the fact that although the show did somewhat revolve around Michael and his antics there were very strong characters in support (including Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance, Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson, Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer, and Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone among others) in addition to the other principals (Jim, Pam and Dwight) which made the series last two more seasons. But after the conclusion of season 8, the cast was adamant, only one more season. One final hurrah.
The interviews with Angela Kinsey and Ed Helms were fun and confirmed that Angela and Ed are nothing like “Angela and Andy.” Kinsey has often been described as opposite of her character and has been quoted as saying it was fun to play someone so opposite of whom she is in real life.
Probably most poignant was the analysis of Rainn Wilson aka Dwight K Schrute who felt that audiences connected intimately with the sweet love story of Pam and Jim, of Michael’s desperation to be accepted and Dwight’s naked ambition. Everyone wanted Jim to be with Pam and we were all rooting for Michael despite all his bumbling and while Dwight might have been rather annoying at times, you had to hand it to the guy, he was ballsy.
Onto the finale episode which was an hour and fifteen minutes. It began a year after the previous episode on the eve of Dwight and Angela’s wedding and with a panel for the PBS documentary. Dwight has asked Jim to be his “Bestest Mensch” for his wedding and as we have watched over nine seasons Jim prank Dwight, Jim pulls off a series of pranks before the wedding, all of which were for Dwight’s enjoyment this go-round including getting Dwight to fire a bazooka as he has always wanted to, surprising him with Andy and Darrel coming back which Dwight had been told they could not make it, and enlisting Moze to “kidnap” Angela and take her to a bar in a Schrute tradition. That tradition also allowed him to reunite with Kevin whom he had fired and let them resolve their issues (Kevin owns the bar they are at).
But the best prank of all, Jim pulls just before the wedding. He tells Dwight that he cannot be bestest mensch because that role must go to someone who is older than the groom. Dwight is stricken til he sees Jim look over his shoulder and turns to see Michael Scott standing in the doorway.
After the wedding and reception (which also brought back Ryan and Kelly) and the panel the group came back to the warehouse for a party and shows Pam’s finished mural of all of all the staff and a group picture which shows the writers and creators of the show in it. Finally the cast members go up to the floor joined by Creed (who had been in disguise at the wedding as he is a fugitive from the law) who plays guitar and sings as they reminisce in confessionals. Those reminiscences include Jim talking about having these years preserved of him growing up, falling in love, getting married and becoming a father. For Pam, she talks about it taking four years to discover happiness was just feet from her desk and hoping that would inspire others not to wait. And for Andy, to ask why we can’t be told we’re in the good ol’ days while they are happening through tears.
What I probably loved best about this episode (which I am leaving lots of parts out of) is that this episode showed us the best of the characters we had grown to love. It showed them at their most authentic. Dwight was bound to tradition. Angela was uptight as ever but happy for real now. Jim was playing pranks. Pam was fixing everything as usual. Erin was naive as could be during panel when Joan Cusack and Ed Begley Jr appeared as her parents (not a dry eye in that scene!). Meredith’s son made an appearance as the stripper at Angela’s batchelorette party but we get to see Meredith in all her drunk and less than noble glory. Toby is still hopeless. Ryan and Kelly are still in love and at each others throats. Nellie gets her dream come true when Ryan abandons his son at the wedding. Creed is still crazy. Kevin is still hapless. Phyllis is still office “mom.” Stanley, while retired, is laid back as ever. Oscar has his life in order again. Philip’s Godfather is now running for state senate.
And Michael. His scenes were brief but showed he hadn’t changed. He was still his silly, fun, and awkward self. According to Pam, he has children he is in love with and has two phones to hold all the pictures with two different contract plans. And as he watched Jim, Pam, Dwight and Angela together at the reception he is true to all things Michael Scott when he says, “It’s like all my kids have grown up. And married each other.”
I was somewhat surprised not to see Roy (who we’ve seen since David Denman left the show, most noticably when Jim and Pam attend his wedding), Gabe (Zach Woods), or Robert California (James Spader) at the round table. David Wallace was present and Gabe was a cast regular for a couple of seasons. I did not like the storyline of Robert California or the “Saber” years of Dunder Mifflin but it would have shown some continuity. Also absent was Holly Flax or Holly Flax-Scott or Holly Scott, I have no idea how she calls herself. Of course, I think that had to do with the writers not wanting the finale to be overwhelmed by Steve Carell and the Michael Scott story-line. Because if Holly was there, the kids would have to be there and we would have had to see some other direction for the finale. Interestingly, we see Devon, who was downsized in the first season, was rehired by Dwight after Creed, Toby and Kevin were fired.
I’ve seen some great series finale’s—The Cosby Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, and That 70′s Show come to mind as especially good as well as Cheers. Others, ahem, Seinfeld, were awful. The Office‘s finale, to me, was the embodiment of what the series was overall. We saw the characters as their most authentic and therefore best. We had resolution to some of the more teasing issues. And we saw where the future was for these characters: in Austin for Jim and Pam and their kids as well as Darrel, NY for Toby, Europe for Nellie, in the bar with Kevin, in politics and still accounting for Oscar, on the farm for Dwight, Angela and Phillip as well as still at Dunder Mifflin, in retirement in Florida with Stanley, Erin’s new relationship with her parents as well as with Pete, Andy at Cornell, prison for Creed, Bob and Phyllis happy in Scranton at their respective businesses, Meredith still a bad girl at heart and Ryan and Kelly off in the sunset together where they can break-up and make-up eternally. What began as something we related to as office workers in real life, ended with us missing these characters as we had grown to love them like family. And as Semisonic sang in “Closing Time” (which Andy Bernard played when he was manager every day at 5pm): every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Lately I have been drawn to blogs about redemption. Mostly from alcoholism. They are all rather well-known blogs, well, except for me knowing about them until recently.
Redemption. Christ died on the cross in the most horrific way imaginable (at least at the time) to redeem us. I celebrate it every single week. Every Sunday at pretty much the same time in fact. I pray for Christ to redeem me by His body and blood. I pray for Him to release me from the sins of sloth and gluttony. From my wrath toward certain people or situation. My envy. All those deadly, deadly sins that I struggle with so deeply it feels.
I wonder as a struggle and sometimes fail with sin, if I am not being drawn toward these blogs because Christ is showing me it is possible to feel that big wonderful redemption in this life. Or even just many small ones. Or if He’s showing me, yeah, everyone screws up, but it is still worth it to ask and beg forgiveness and try to do better the next go-round.
I have times when I feel spiritually gutted. As if my entire soul is being wrenched from my body and I am lost at which way to turn. I refuse the ennui. I force myself to pray. I force myself to go to mass. I fake it til I make it all the time crying out, “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24). I guess the gutted feeling is my version of spiritual dryness and I am determined to not give into it. I am desperate not to allow it to control me. I surrender to God to use this time in some way, somehow, to make me better. To make me whole. These are not lies I tell myself to help me sleep. This is the truth I embrace to keep myself awake. Awake in Him. In His love.
I am drawn to stories of redemption in the hope of knowing my own.
So, I can barely piece together a five favorites or seven quick takes post of late. Words, it appears, are my enemy right now. They defy me at every paragraph strophe and then mock me in others’ blog posts.
Well, it could be worse, right?
A friend who is also enduring secondary infertility (longer for her than me…her first and only child was born 10 years ago) and I were talking recently about life in general and how these seasons seem more difficult rather than less some years. We both recounted how during National Infertility Awareness week we got more pregnancy announcements and births than the rest of 2013 combined (this week Mother’s Day week, is a close second) and how exhausting it can be to smile with the invisible veil of tears on the inside and that exhaustion forces us to retreat.
And it doesn’t help in my case that Joey will go to kindergarten this fall and Will will go to pre-K so I’ll have all my kids in school and yeah, there is one still in diapers, but it’s not like it is with an actual physical baby.
I try to cheer myself up and stop the “woe is me business” and chastise myself, “But you have THREE kids! You were told one was a pipe dream.” But somedays it works better than others. It totally didn’t work the day a friend who is a state social worker told me on the strict promise of anonymity that we probably should focus our attentions elsewhere than adopting from foster care because not only is the goal to reunite the child with his or her biological family but we wouldn’t get placed with a child because of Shelby’s autism (autism, the gift that keeps on giving). And she wasn’t crass in telling me this, and not just stating a fact, she was trying to protect us and I realize that. After a lot of discernment, we decided it was the only way we could possibly pursue adoption and knew it was a long shot. Well, turns out it wasn’t shooting blanks, it was never loaded.
As my other friend (the one going ten years and counting between kids) said to me, “We practice NFP dutifully to conceive, we’ve been to the Pope Paul Institute, have a pro-life OB-GYN locally and there is no human answer. When do I get to assume God is saying, ‘no?’ When is it officially considered acceptance of divine will and not giving up?” I know her pain. I have no answers. I have been told it’s a lack of faith to consider myself “done” or consider that “no” might be the answer. I have been praying the same novenas for over three years now…with all this prayer, isn’t it possible God’s said, “Three is enough,” ?
How I started writing this about writer’s block and ended up here, I have no idea. Stream of consciousness, I guess. I try not to talk about these struggles because I know no one wants to hear them. Everyone wants us to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and soldier on. Get a British stiff upper lip and keep calm and carry on.
I wish it were that easy. I’m tired of feeling like an ungrateful child. And I certainly am not going to God saying, “Send us another baby or at least make my heart so grateful for what it has that any ‘want/need’ for another child is overwhelmed by the gratitude.” So, if I retreat, it’s to keep myself fresh for whatever challenge lies ahead and allow myself time to grieve and marvel over my blessings. To rest my smile and ensure it’s not forced. To rest my heart and mend the places it is broken.
Joining Maria again this week to share more moments of light in darkness.
This week I want to share a personal story. No video, no links, just something that happened to me.
Last week I had a meltdown. A mommy meltdown that manifested in a post on facebook with a picture. I was upset and I was vulnerable and probably not in my best frame of judgment in choosing to post all this on facebook. Well, as it turns out, my lack of judgment in being willing to share my vulnerability was what was needed not just for me, but for a lot of my friends as well. Instead of anyone tearing me down, people chose to build me up. And others as well. And it helped others realize they were not as alone in their parenting insecurities. Some of the things people shared were deeply personal and heart wrenching. Some of the encouragement people offered was prayerful and very heartfelt. But it was all to better one another. And I am so thankful God directed my heart as He did in that moment of my weakness and vulnerability.
Joining Maria of Four Blessings Academy for this week’s Light in Darkness Meme.
This week my light in darkness comes from my own parish. My parish, St Mary, is a designated shrine to Our Blessed Mother, and we have so many wonderful ministries. We are incredibly blessed to have Sister Issac, a sister of Saint Ursula to both lead RCIA and our social ministries. Our church started the Tileston Outreach Clinics which later separated to become their own thriving non-profit, but realizing that Tileston alone could not reach the poor and uninsured in our communities medical and dental needs, we now have the St Mary clinics as well. Sister Isaac has a pantry to give out food and her thriving ministry helps those who could not otherwise afford them to get clothing, furniture and even assistance with paying bills. Our previous pastor, Father John and our current pastor, Father Bob, have both enthusiastically embraced the social mission of our parish in our community.
And while that alone is enough of a “light in darkness” for most, I want to highlight a new program in our social ministries. Inspired by then Cardinal Bergoglio’s use of public transportation in Buenos Aires to get around instead of a limosine and driver, our social ministry has started the “Pope Francis Bus Scholarship” to help teens and adults who are in need of transportation to get to and from work or school but cannot even afford a bus pass. It is a wonderful gift filling a need not yet met in our community and one I’m not even sure we realized was not being met until the media showed pictures of our current Holy Father riding the bus on his daily commute.
So, I guess it had been a while since Joey had made it to mass with all the illness that we have been going through this spring, because when we were at mass this Sunday, when he saw Father up at the altar he asked, “Mama, is it Pope Francis?!” Oh dear. 
He was so excited thinking he was seeing Pope Francis, I had to gently let him down and tell him, “No, that’ s Father Bob, he’s still our priest. The same one who baptized Shelby, William and Isabella (my niece).”
I have begun reading Amy Welborn’s The Words We Pray. I am a huge fan of Amy’s and it is so awesome learning the background of prayers I have said since childhood. It also helps to answer that nagging question Protestants always ask about how can we “pray” words we’ve memorized over and over (most notably, Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o mentioned this in an interview about being Mormon on a Catholic campus/team).
And speaking of prayers, yesterday was the National Day of Prayer, in case you didn’t know. I had to make a grocery store run where I overheard part of this conversation where a man said,
You know, instead of complaining about how others pray today, or don’t pray, I’m just going to celebrate the National Day of Prayer by praying. And for everyone, because, you know, we all need it.
I was inspired and posted on facebook (I also managed to do the entire Divine Office, a Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Regina Caeli yesterday).
Then, a friend who is a “pastor” published this status:
Wonder what would happen if all the people of God really cried out to him with sincere, not recited prayers today?
I’ve decided the best way to proceed is to offer my “recited prayer(s)” which are indeed sincerely cried out to God for her eyes to be open and her heart to understand. I was tempted, oh was I tempted, to engage and offer up what I know to be true, but I think this is probably the best solution for now.
So, we’re having an actual spring this year and not going from 30 degrees to 80 in one weekend, however, it is roughly two months late. I’m not complaining except it’s wet. Normally, I love wet weather, but we live one street over from protected wetlands and while the snakes have been few and the alligators non-existent, the mosquitoes are terror. I am one of those mosquito magnet people as are my olive skinned children Shelby and Will. They are both, we’ve found out in recent years, allergic to mosquito bites. Traditional “DEET” formulas are too wet and bother Shelby both with wetness and smell. We like the OFF brand dry spray, but my kids tend to waste it and Shelby and Will have to be saturated everytime we go outdoors. So, we’ve found a solution for Shelby. (She’s also not crazy about the dry spray as it gets in your eyes, nose and mouth no matter what.) Jeff, on a whim, picked up OFF brand’s Botanicals plant-based insect repellent lotion. Shelby loves lotions and it smells good. So she’s protected and happy. In fact, when I opened it the other day, she stuck her arm out for me to slather it on. It is expensive for a small (3 oz) tube, but we’ve found a little dab will more than ‘do ya.’ And since the weather is still on the cool side, I will keep her in pants for as long as is humanly possible.
I am super excited because in two weeks our community’s Greek Orthodox church is holding their annual Greek Fest. I know my kids will love the dancing and music. I’m also hoping I get to take a tour of the church there. And of course, the food. Oh the food. We have never been disappointed (most years Jeff gets our food to go and brings it home). I am hoping the weather is decent and behavior holds for it this year! So exciting to go in the wake of Pope Francis’ election which was memorably marked by Orthodox leaders attending his installation mass.
That would be the cake my youngest wants for his birthday next week. I hope we manage it!
Guess that’s about all for this week!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Joining Hallie again this week for Five Favorites, this week my theme (I’m better with themes for the moment) is favorite animated movies Dreamworks edition:
1. How to Train Your Dragon
2. Shark Tale
3. Madagascar
4. Monsters vs Aliens
5. Shrek
Joining Maria for her weekly Meme Light in Darkness
This interview and and the book that inspired it (which is on my reading wish list). I’ve been a huge fan of Rod Dreher’s common sense conservatism and although he left the Church of Rome for the Church of the East, I still greatly value his religious insights as well. Rod Dreher’s The Little Way of Ruthie Leming tells the story of the hometown he left behind and the sister who stayed there and her eventual battle with cancer and death and Rod’s eventual move back and realizing the value of the life he left behind.
Ruthie’s life, Rod has mentioned several times on his blog, even after ending its earthly run, has changed others for the better. And Ruthie is indeed a light in our world, shining now through her brother, her hometown, and her story.
The interview/feature ends with this quote from Ruthie’s friend Ronnie Morgan, “…When I’m gone? The only thing that’s going to show up to say I was here is the people I left behind.” Followed by reporter Debbie Elliot’s addition, “… And the way they carry on in your absence. In the book, Dreher quotes Leming’s husband Mike telling a friend, ‘we’re leaning, but we’re leaning on each other.’”
May God give you someone to lean on today and always, may God teach us all the value of community either that we are born into or create ourselves.
This week, I’m going for five favorite animated movies (Pixar Edition):
1. Up
2. Finding Nemo
3. Wall-E
4. A Bug’s Life
5. Ratatouille
