My tied for favourite movies of all time are Victor/Victoria and Auntie Mame. Auntie Mame tells the story of a young boy, Patrick, who is send to live with his eccentric Auntie Mame, played by Rosalind Russell. Auntie Mame lived by the phrase, "We need to live, live, live."
For most of the movie, Mame does just that. She lives life to its fullest. She is constantly seeking ways to experience life in all of its fullness. However, there is the section of the movie that deals with a tough time in Mame's life. The depression hit Mame hard. She was wiped out in the stock market. She had to go from job to job, but unfortunately she was not skilled at any of them. Her furniture, jewels and furs were at the pawn shop.
One day after getting fired yet again from one more job, Mame comes home quite depressed. But then she decides that her little family (Ito the Chauffeur, Norah the maid, Patrick and herself) needed a pick me up. They would celebrate Christmas right now (even though it wasn't until a week Tuesday). The family puts aside their worries for a few minutes and makes merry. When questioned why, Mame says, "We need Christmas right now."
Well right now we need some good news. We need some humour. The news is bleak. The future is uncertain. With 24/7 news, there never seems to be a break in the gloom.
I think we need a little bit of Christmas right now, just like Auntie Mame says. Oh maybe not Christmas, but we need to find celebration to brighten our way through this. I for one have appreciated the extra reaching out that people have done via, phone calls, emails and texts. I like reading clever jokes and memes that people have putting on Facebook. A few have caused deep belly laughs for me and I don't often belly laugh.
Psychologists would call these jokes gallows humour. The situation is so stark that we need to laugh about it to get through. Maybe that's true. We need to laugh now, we need Christmas now because what was certain last month is no longer certain today. Today we need to laugh, not because we are insensitive, not because we are foolish, not because we are ignoring the problems of the world. We need to laugh in order that we might live, live, live. Blessings.
