QUARANTINE BLOG # 248

December 3, 2020

Fans of the newest Star Wars sensation, The Mandalorian, have already seen this (it aired last week on Disney+), but if you’ve been missing it, not only is the series a hit, but one of the characters is the hottest thing on TV.  You see, there is this little green baby who looks awfully like Jedi Master Yoda from the original movies.  “The Child” – his official name – who was quickly nicknamed “Baby Yoda,” plays a central part in The Mandalorian.  And we got a glimpse in the last episode why the bad guys are after him.

We also learned last Friday that The Child’s real name is Grogu.  It is funny, but knowing that he is Grogu and not Baby Yoda has not stopped many from calling him Baby Yoda.  We’ve always known that Grogu is a member of the same race as Master Yoda, but the last episode gave us more of his backstory, and confirmed his relationship with the Jedi in that galaxy far, far away.

The Child did not start out the adorable creature that made series star Pedro Pascal, be so smitten upon first meeting Baby Yoda, in fact, that he admitted to “cooing a little bit” on set.  Director Jon Favreau said, “We got lots and lots of drawings. Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions.”  Early designs show The Child as far more wrinkly and haggard-looking than the final, adorable result that we fell in love with.

If you haven’t watched The Mandalorian I apologize for the spoilers.  Go ahead and catch up, and then meet me for Chapter 14 on Friday.

👉  Dolly, from Family Circus, has a question pertinent to this time of year:

👉  And a couple of non-season observations from our favorite 6 year old”

👉  My brother, Kyle, and I are working on a time-travel device called “The Way Back Machine” (it is shamelessly patterned after the same-named apparatus constructed by Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman).  When it is ready, our first trip will be to 117 Shenandoah Avenue during the late 1950s and early 1960s, but until we work all of the bugs out of it there is an acceptable, although limited, substitute: Perry Mason.

I’ve watched Ironside, Mallory: Circumstantial Evidence, and Kingston: Confidential, but no matter how different those other characters were from Erle Stanley Gardner’s unbeatable lawyer, Raymond Burr was always Perry Mason.  And watching those episodes today, 54 years after the last one premiered, is a trip into the past when men always wore hats, car styles were different every year, the streets were clean, and women wore interesting and ever-changing costumes.

Before Perry Mason, Raymond Burr had a wide resume of performances including appearances in film, television, and on stage.

One of his early movie rolls is remembered for is his role in the 1956 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, as Steve Martin, an American reporter covering the  giant reptilian monster’s attack on Japan.

Burr appeared in more than 50 feature films between 1946 and 1957, creating an array of villains.  

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the character Lars Thorwald gave Burr his most notable film role.  Recuperating from a broken leg, professional photographer L. B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair in his apartment.  His rear window looks out onto a courtyard and several other apartments.  During an intense heat wave, he watches his neighbors, who keep their windows open to stay cool.  One night during a thunderstorm, Jeff hears a woman scream, “Don’t!” and then the sound of breaking glass.  Later, he is awakened by thunder and observes Thorwald leaving his apartment, carrying a suitcase in pouring rain.  And ... okay, no spoilers.

Raymond Burr as Lars Thorwald

Speaking of his career during those years Burr said, “I was just a fat heavy, [in my twenties] playing much older men.  I never got the girl but I once got the gorilla in a 3-D picture called Gorilla at Large.  I menaced Claudette Colbert, Lizabeth Scott, Paulette Goddard, Anne Baxter, Barbara Stanwyck.  Those girls would take one look at me and scream and can you blame them?  I was drowned, beaten, stabbed and all for my art.”

We will return to the court room tomorrow.

👉  First Thursday of Advent

Season of Decrease

“He must increase, but I must decrease” – John the Baptist, in John 3:30.

Into this season pushes the unkempt figure of John the Baptizer. You remember him. He is dressed in a hair shirt. He eats wild honey and such other gifts that he can forage in the rough.

He comes demanding.  He speaks really only one word: Repent!  Recognize the danger you are in and change.  He has this deep sense of urgency about the world.  It is an urgency of threat and danger and jeopardy, one that we ourselves sense now about our world.  

When Jesus appears on the scene, John the Baptizer immediately acknowledges the greatness of Jesus, greater than all that is past – greater than John, greater than all ancient memories and hopes.  John quickly, abruptly, without reservation says of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” 

If John embodies all that is old and Jesus embodies all that is new, take as your Advent work toward Christmas that enterprise: decrease/increase.  Decrease what is old and habitual and destructive in your life so that the new life-giving power of Jesus may grow large with you.  Decrease what is greedy, what is frantic consumerism, for the increase of simple, life-giving sharing.  Decrease what is fearful and defensive, for the increase of life-giving compassion and generosity.  Decrease what is hateful and alienating, for the increase of healing and forgiveness, which finally are the only source of life.

Advent requires both the outrageousness of God and the daily work of decreasing so that Jesus and God’s vision of peace may increase.

In this season of Advent, open our hearts to receive the hard word of repentance. Empower us to decrease what is old, habitual, and destructive in our lives so that the new life-giving power of Jesus may grow large within us.  Amen.

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