Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is a sweeping, startling orchestra of beauty, whimsy, and melancholic horror.
While The Wind Rises felt, ten years ago, like a gentle coda that left the audience with the sense of Miyazaki gently moving into retirement, The Boy and the Heron shares a drastically different tone that also explores death and the meaning of life. It seems that another retrospective of life was in order for Miyazaki, as he explores a story with more auto-biographical components. The Boy and the Heron follow Mahito, a young boy who loses his mother in a tragic hospital fire during the Pacific War. A few years later, he moves to the countryside to live with his father and pregnant stepmother/aunt, Natsuko. He struggles with this change and the memory of his mother, holding feelings of grief that are often wordlessly represented. The Boy and the Heron is a mix of the grotesque and beautiful. In search of Natsuko and his mother, Mahito wanders through a purgatorial landscape of imaginary and real creatures. Along the way, he uncovers family secrets and a stream-of-consciousness dreamscape unfolds. The background art in the movie was fascinating, at once whimsical and sophisticated. Joe Hisaishi’s music soared. It was evocative, thrilling, and rich with emotion. Perhaps his best score. The animated acting was superb. Mahito, the main character, spends most of his time crouched on all fours, silently escaping notice from his father and stepmother, or trying to enter a narrow crevice in a mysterious tower. The amount of detail put in it needed an attention to reality that most animated movies don’t give. It is details like this, though, along with beautiful scenery, that helps take a quiet moment into something of rapt viewing. After the movie, I talked with the others I watched it with. We agreed that it was a little long – or maybe the story felt a little longer than it should have. There was a rustling in the theater seats a little more than halfway through the movie. One of our party thought it was because it didn’t get us as invested in the emotional arc of the main characters. Even so, right off the bat, the story jumped into the action and swept you along with scenes rich in engaging detail. But somewhere along the way it started to go off in turns that set up newer and newer arcs that had no emotional connection until you might wonder whether the movie would be another hour or end suddenly and abruptly. I think, in the end, the thing that The Boy and the Heron left me with an unresolved aching from my desire to see a movie that explores death from the perspective of meeting a loving God at the end of a journey of life. It felt empty in that regard, but the way Miyazaki resolved Mahito’s journey to coming to terms with his mother’s death was still beautifully done. You can see how much Miyazaki loved his mother through this film and its female characters. So will this be Miyazaki’s “heron song”? To the joy of all Ghibli fans, it doesn’t sound like it. But perhaps a light-hearted Kiki’s Delivery Service is in order next.
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A few weeks later, after a long day at work, Dante made a pot of tea and knocked on Solomon’s door. There was no answer. He opened the door and found it empty. Usually, he was in his room by the evening.
Dante searched the manor until he finally came to the garage and found Solomon at the edge of it. He was sitting in a wooden rocking chair and staring at the view. “Solomon,” Dante asked, “Would you like some tea?” Solomon shook his head slowly, still staring at the end of the drive. He had declined in the past few weeks and no longer visited the sheep, which was sad for him. Sir Wortham didn’t expect him to do any more work these days, and Dante and Mrs. Brewer helped him with most things. Solomon rarely ventured from the house and instead would watch the world go by from his window. It was a surprise to find he had ventured to the garage and pulled out a chair. Dante came and stood over him to watch the view. The smell of rain permeated the atmosphere. Great darkish clouds gathered in the sky. Eventually, water began to fall and sprinkle in the driveway. As Dante pulled up a chair, Solomon smiled at the view. He turned a little and looked over at the droplets that formed on the tall grass next to the wall. “This is heaven, isn't it?” Dante stopped adjusting his chair. “It does look like it.” There was a great pause and then Solomon spoke, almost to himself, “This... it has been a good life.” Dante reeled as if a brick had hit him in the chest. He turned and looked at Solomon, critically. He looked old, gaunt, and tired. He stared off into the distance, with a far-off look in his eye, as if he no longer belonged to the world of the living. There was a long pause, and then Solomon added, thoughtfully. “The veil feels very thin tonight.” Dante paused and considered the breakfast Solomon had refused this morning. Finally, he asked, “Solomon... are you dying?” Solomon took a long, considerate pause, as if it took longer to recollect his thoughts. “I think so.” Dante didn't know what to say at first. “I will send for the doctor.” Solomon barely shook his head. “No. It’s time. I am ready to go home.” Dante did not say anything to Solomon now. It bothered him that he was ready. He tried to think of something to say – to make him want to stay? - but there was nothing. Solomon was now traveling into the world of the things unsaid. A little mouse ran across the garage and planted itself at the end, watching the rain with them. Seeing the mouse made Dante think back to tending the lambs with Solomon. Something tightened in his throat and chest. He stood up and hugged Solomon in his chair. He slowly dropped to his knees, his arms still clasped around the old man, and took in his scent of cinnamon and coffee. “Can I do anything for you?” Dante asked, quietly. “No... I have everything I need…” Solomon smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “Will you miss us?” Solomon put his arm around Dante. “I'm going to be so close to you, Dante. So close, it will be like a tight hug. Tighter than I have the strength for now. So don't worry.” “I don't know how Uncle Harwood and Mrs. Brewer and I will make do without you. We'll all miss you. The tenants will miss you. They all love you. But, I think... I will miss you the most, Solomon.” Solomon turned to Dante and looked at him tenderly with his old, watery eyes. “I will not be far. When you miss me, just imagine that I am out in the fields with the sheep. I’ll be there, watching you. Watching you enjoy life.” “How could I enjoy it?” Dante asked honestly. “Without you. You don't have to die, yet.” Solomon looked compassionately at him. “When your parents died, you were very young. That was years ago, but they have been watching over you ever since. When I die, you can be sad, but don't be too sad. That's no good. You have to take care of everyone here. They are counting on you. As your uncle has impressed upon you – you're a Wortham.” Dante nodded and wiped his eye. Solomon turned and looked up towards the sky. The rain was passing. “And I won’t be the only one watching you. God is always with you, and He loves you more than I can. And I love you very much, Dante. But, as the veils thins for me, I can see how much He loves us. God… In His Trinity of Love… is our father, friend, lover, and advocate. He is faithful beyond what we have imagined.” He continued to muse. “We are to have faith in God in times of weakness and in times of strength. When we are weak, He is strong. And we think we are strong until we come face to face with something weak. A strong man is faint to face weakness. You can't deny human weakness. But it is not something to be ashamed of. God is strong, and we depend upon Him. He is endeared to us as a father is to a child. Realize it as soon as you can, and call upon Him wherever you go. Develop that relationship, that friendship with Him, and when it's your time to die you will find that you are simply going home.” Dante looked up at Solomon. Any bit of fear left the old man's face, and he looked enveloped in the deepest of peace as if he were going to spend an evening with the closest of friends. A new understanding of why he was so calm came to Dante. He felt like he was just now understanding it. Dante sat down in his seat again and gently took Solomon's hand. Solomon looked over at him with a loving, fatherly look. Dante remembered that look for the rest of his life. They sat in silence as night descended upon the town and the stars came out. Then in a low, quiet voice Solomon began to murmur a hymn. Dante closed his eyes and listened. It was very low and deep, barely audible. Even hoarse but gentle. It was joined by crickets chirping in the distance. When Solomon stopped singing, all became quiet. Dante opened his eyes and looked at Solomon. He was bathed in moonlight, and his eyes were shining from something Dante could not see. And, in that moment, he knew everything Solomon said to be true. - The Sound That Never Ceased, copyright by Marina Baldwin Trusting God is a battle all believers will have to fight for, at some point in their faith journey. Alongside the Sacraments, here is a list of ideas on how to grow your trust in God:
1. Be desperate OK, so this one is not exactly a constructive action, but depending on your situation, this is a timeless tool God will use to draw you into His lap! You see, if you find yourself in a valley, you are in a moment in which God is giving you an opportunity to trust Him. Read the story of Hannah in the Book of Samuel for an example of desperate prayer and how God works through it. 2. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with faith - that is why Jesus sent Him! This is the mission of the Holy Spirit – to empower you with the gifts of the spirit, including faith, which empowers you to trust God. Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit after He went to the Father. He did this to empower us to walk in all the gifts we need to be holy and happy. God delights in filling us with gifts when we ask. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the gift of faith! 3. Read stories of saints and listen to testimonies of faith-filled people Immerse yourself in stories of saints and modern testimonies that will bolster your faith and put you in the mindset of faithful people and how they think. You may find that it is very different from the way the world thinks. Faith-filled people don’t think from a perspective of lack but of abundance and possibilities. For faith-filled people, dead-ends are God’s way of showing a new way, and not the end of the road! 4. Read stories of God’s promises for His people in the Bible Trusting in God is an age-old story for His children. In the Bible, we see promises from the Old Testament, where Abraham is promised a son through Sarah, to the New Testament, where God promises Mary, through the angel Gabriel, that she will conceive the Son of God. A couple of my favorite (smaller) promise stories in the Bible include God’s promise to Simeon, and Jesus’s promise of heaven to the Good Thief on the Cross, who suffered on a cross alongside Him. As you read these interactions with God, note that in all of them, God has a good end in mind. He does not forget His children, and He finishes what He starts. He makes good on His promises. He does not leave things unfinished. The process may be different from what you imagined or take longer than you expect (like for Abraham), but it is not left unfinished. God works for completion. 5. Offer a sacrifice of praise. You can do this in Eucharistic Adoration, the quiet of your room, or anywhere you wish. Find a chapter in the Psalms that speaks to your current emotions and circumstances. Pray it aloud, and let the words speak to you. What verse in particular moves you and encourages you? Repeat it to yourself, and experience God's Heart for you, through it. 6. Pray for the grace to forgive – even if you don’t feel like it Did you know that forgiving someone is an act of trust in God? It is a declaration that God will have the final say in a situation and that His love will prevail. Ask God today to give you the grace to forgive those in your life who have wronged you, and if that is hard, add the little line: “Even if I don’t feel like it.” And see how the weight lifts off of you. 7. Ask God for the next step and make a movement of faith As you find yourself growing in love of God – a sign of faith and trust! - you might find yourself ready to take a step and ask God what He is asking of you next. Look at your situation and see how God might be using it. Are circumstances aligning in your life that might indicate a calling for you to change a situation or start a new project? Maybe to reach out to an old or new friend or make a move? If you have asked God, sat with the idea, and felt peace despite discomfort at the prospect, it is time to make a leap and know that God will catch you (and often in ways you could not have imagined!) A year from now, look back at the leap, see how God worked, and thank Him! |
Quis ut Deus?In search of the Face of God in life. Personal blog with musings, thoughts, and stories. Archives
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