Watch "The Terminal"

This is one of those surprise movies that challenges how we view the world. Tom Hanks plays a traveller who has lost citizenship because his country has dissolved into war, and ends up caught in a crack in the immigration system- unable to enter the United States, but unable to return to his native country. He ends up living in the airport for nine months, using an abandoned gate as a refuge, and using local amenities for essentials- washroom as bathroom, bookstore as school, condiment stand as grocery store. We are led into an imaginative play between the mediated world of the airport, and the uncontrollable community of airport workers. At one end, you see the recognizable shopping world, complete with Starbucks and Borders, but on the other end, you see a darker world of what goes on behind the scenes- airport workers as part of a ridiculous cult, security personnel as voyageuristic egoists. As Rem Koolhaas would say, the airport environment is remarkably similar to the commodified environment that we live in today.

Joyful Suffering

How can you show thankfulness when so much has been taken away from you? How can you have joy when much of the time you're in pain? I'd be lying if I said I knew the answer, but these questions have no doubt been on my mind since getting arthritis during my China trip. These past two months have been both the most painful and the most joyful of times. At every moment when I realize that I am completely helpless, something always happens. I discover something and I realize that there is a higher power. I have rarely received so much.. at a time when I have so little. Thesis is going well, I am surrounded by a cloud of good friends, I have loving parents who worry and care for me, I have a God who provides for my every need and who is healing me. The question is.. how can I not be thankful at a time like this?

On Sunday we became kids again.

After Sunday School, a dozen of us went to the local chicken diner. Not only was the place a genuine family-run restaurant, but it looked like a 1970s throwback, bringing us back to a time when bell-bottoms, folk music, and long shaggy hair were trendy. The pastor was there, with his wife and four kids, and as the children screamed and giggled when we teased them, we too felt like kids at our favorite restaurant on a Sunday afternoon.

We played card games till the sun went down. We screamed and yelled until our sides hurt as we sat around on the floor hurtling insults at each other, laughing at our silliness, and concentrating hard when it was our turn. Bang! Five! Two! Three! Spoons!! I broke a nail!! You're a P-I-G!!!

We watched old Jackie Chan films, impersonating the voice overs and laughing at the cheesy music.

We stood and sat around in relative silence, savoring and slurping fudgsicles.

Eighteen grown-ups that for a moment forgot the world around them and became kids again.