All posts by Planet Noun

Founder, PlanetNoun.com and Planet Noun podcast
Viewing Pleasures

Hope, sickness, prayer, reality & the secret sit-down in Greenleaf episode 5

God is good… All the time.
All the time…God is good…

The saying is part of the Calvary Church culture, that finds its reality outside the television world and in, I’m sure, enough congregations to make it seem like home. At least it did to me.

So… what happens when God’s goodness competes with persistent sickness of a believer? Is God good all that time, too?

Turns out a couple at Calvary Church is navigating this idea—God’s goodness, illness, and the “God has a plan” mentality.  They are split between what I call brute faith—which has nothing violent or savage about it–and the reality and drudgery of persistent sickness. One half of the couple still believes God is good, the other doesn’t deny that, but thinks letting go would be good for their son, and realistic.

This episode touches on the idea that churchly positivity can seem insensitive and trite in the face of incessant, insistent, persistent, and painful sickness. In this case, it’s the couple’s young son. So how does one figure out God’s will for a young child who has never seen a good stretch of health—ever?

His name is Joshua, born premature with excessive and persistent health problems. Doctors warned them ahead of time that their boy would have health challenges. The husband was willing to let him go, because he didn’t want his child to suffer. The wife wanted to give it a chance because they had failed in previous attempts to have a kid.

After he was born, Joshua had a surgery that almost took him out, so the wife called Bishop… And decided to keep pressing toward health because Bishop told them God had a plan for the little boy’s life.

Only health didn’t come.

Grace seemed bothered by the excessive positivity that, in this case, didn’t seem realistic. So she told her dad not to give the couple false hope, but to pray for God’s will to be done instead.

The boy died.

But not before his mom vocalized that she just wanted her boy to be okay… whatever the outcome of yet another surgery.

Meanwhile in the Greenleaf mansion, another couple got good news, while another is struggling to hold on. Continue reading Hope, sickness, prayer, reality & the secret sit-down in Greenleaf episode 5 →

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Viewing Pleasures

No matter what’s visible, there’s always another story

If something happens in public, best believe there is another story that’s playing out… behind closed doors.

Episode 4 figures a way to address current events such as reactions to police shootings of unarmed black people and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The mayors office approaches Bishop Greenleaf about hosting a “Back the Blue” tribute during church one Sunday. Bishop isn’t inclined to speak out for or against the shooting of an unarmed teen boy, so the mayor’s rep sweetened the deal. With land…

Episode 4 figures a way to address and weave current events such as police shootings of unarmed black people and the Black Lives Matter movement and weaves it into the fabric of the Greenleaf family’s lives and political dealings.

So back to the land, which could be on the table for Calvary…  If they publicly show support for the local police department, it’s implied the land would be made available for purchase.  Bishop hasn’t seen enough of a compelling reason to jump into the controversy surrounding Officer David Nelson, even though Nelson is one of his congregants. But adding land to expand and build a community center? That’s a different story, so Bishop considers being the one black church in Memphis to declare support for the police department. Basie Skanks of Triumph church has outspoken against the shooting and police brutality while Calvary church remains silent.  Should they or shouldn’t they back the blue? Uncle Mac reminds Bishop “Basie Skanks ain’t got no pool.”

So therapy dollars aren’t being wasted, exactly. Jacob is being more open. Just not with his wife.

Cheater and the Shrew

Kerissa and Jacob go to therapy… Kerissa doesn’t want a divorce. Jacob doesn’t answer that question when the therapist asked him if he wants a divorce. A communicative one, he is. Therapist gathers Jacob still wants to stay married but they need to figure out how they will relate to each other. So they start getting to the nitty-gritty… Jacob’s other women.  But Jacob’s expressive words are all folded and put away deep in his mental drawers.  The therapist asked why he cheats… that fool don’t even know. Or maybe he does, but we sure don’t find out.

Continue reading No matter what’s visible, there’s always another story →

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Viewing Pleasures

Dinner & realizations, drunkenness & pregnancy tests, denial, threats & revelations unsealed in Greenleaf episode 3

So the season finale has come and gone, but I’m still writing these episode recaps… because I want to… and because I have to get them all done before Queen Sugar starts in a couple of weeks!  You can also get episode recaps straight from OWN.

Noah invites Grace to dinner. Isabel asked him to ask Gigi. It’s Izzy’s effort to get know her fiancee’s old flame. Interesting scene. It’s evident Izzy ain’t having Grace, even though she’s properly proper. Her shade seeps through admiration’s guise when she learns Grace quit her TV job to move back to Memphis. “I wish I could be that recklessly impulsive…” she starts. If Isabel actually liked Grace, maybe she would have said “I admire your spontaneity! I wish I were more like that!” Izzy’s eye is on that sparrow… and I knooooowww she’ll-be-watch-ing-Grace like a hawk.in.the.sky…

Spidey sense says…
Charity and Kevin go to karaoke.  Two men who appear gay sent over two drinks to their table after Kevin sang a warble-laden version of Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour.” I think the two dudes spotted a kindred spirit who don’t yet know he’s kindred.

Charity downs too many drinks and when she stumbles home with Kevin she insists on taking a pregnancy test with her drunk tail. Kevin even holds the stick while she pees… What a cute couple!

And guess what? It’s positive. They’z pregnant now!

Unreal moments…
Zora and Sophia attend this lock-in at Calvary church.Here’s what struck me as unrealistic. After Zora conferred with a friend while the other kids kept watching a movie, then came back and asked Sophia if she wanted to get high. Puhhhlease! Who, outside of a 1980s sitcom character, is really going to ask that? It seems far-fetched… not the fact that some teens actually got high at this church lock-in… That doesn’t surprise me one bit. The fact Zora didn’t say “Hey, old-boy got some weed…you coming?” or even “We’re going outside for some fresh air… you coming?” She was all straight up about it… but then again, these are supposed to be truthful churchy kids honoring their maker in all they do. They’re not supposed to lie, so I guess it’s reasonable for Zora to be upfront when inviting her cousin to smoke what came from their maker’s earth. (Sidebar disclosure: I’ve never been high, and I don’t recall anyone ever asking me if I wanted to get high… So my knowledge base on weed invites isn’t expansive.)

Continue reading Dinner & realizations, drunkenness & pregnancy tests, denial, threats & revelations unsealed in Greenleaf episode 3 →

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Viewing Pleasures

Memphis with a Mission: Grace Greenleaf decides to stay!

So I can’t wait for the season 1 finale of Greenleaf, which airs Wednesday (TONIGHT) on OWN.  For folks with the day off, they’re even going air all prior episodes until tonight’s pilot at 10 p.m.

I’ve seen most episodes at least twice… the first time to catch up with the latest happenings on Planet Greenleaf, the second time to watch and discuss, the third and all subsequent views… usually more like a cozy blankey, that I use to fall asleep . Not that the show is boring. Not.at.all.

No plans here to bore my two readers (of which I am one) with the minutiae of each episode, I’ll keep it to five or so things you MUST KNOW.

First of all, an observation:  Lady Mae is a such a prim-proper one… A true lady—with a scythe tongue:

That’s the kindest way I’ve heard someone say STFU.

Continue reading Memphis with a Mission: Grace Greenleaf decides to stay! →

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Things, Viewing Pleasures

Sin sizzles in new OWN mega-church drama

Okay, so I’ve been watching this new TV show, Greenleaf, on OWN Network. I’m weeks late with all of this, and the season finale is this Wednesday, but I don’t care.

I’m so hooked.  And from my real life perch, I gots plenty of judgments about them church folks.

I was first drawn to the show because it was about a mega church family and all of their goings-ons, some which I figured would be semi-sordid for a church family…  But then again, they’re a bunch of frail humans, so I guess it’s not so sordid after all.  These folks just happen to tote Bibles.

Quick-fast pilot overview

Grace Greenleaf, the drama’s central character. She traveled home to Memphis for her sister’s funeral.

Faith Greenleaf committed suicide.

Grace believes her mother’s brother, Robert “Mac” McReady molested Faith.  Grace also thinks that violation or series of violations was why Faith killed herself at the serene-looking lake on the Greenleaf family estate.   Grace was only coming to Memphis to bury Faith but decided to stay, hell-bent on getting that perv Uncle Mac in jail.

Then there’s Grace’s brother, Jacob, who doubles as a cheating husband to Kerissa… his ultra-ambitious and ultra, no-plank-having-in-the eye judgmental wife who wants him to rise up the ranks at Calvary, his daddy’s church.  Kerissa is annoying, and had me wanting to smack her in this dinner table scene which, by the way, felt all to familiar to my church-bred tail.

Kerissa knows her Jacob has a side piece who keeps texting his phone. But she doesn’t know it’s Bishop Greenleaf’s admin assistant, Alexa the Trollop.   But she isn’t a trollop on her own…

Continue reading Sin sizzles in new OWN mega-church drama →

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Books, People, Quick-Fast Book Review, Things

QFBR: Measure of a Man

Person: Martin Greenfield; Maximilian Grunfeld
Thing: This book—Measure of a Man; a well made suit
Place: Pavlovo, Czechoslovakia; Concentration camps—Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald, Baltimore, Brooklyn… Various locales.
Idea: Grace makes an improbable life wonderfully possible.

Martin’s life started in Czechoslovakia. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, but Martin says their faith wasn’t especially zealous. Life was good. They worked their own farm, took care of their livestock and even employed workers.

Then the trains arrived… and scuttled Martin’s family away. His mom, baby brother, younger sister and grandparents were sent in one direction. His other sister—taken away as well.

And then there were two. Martin and his dad. But they, too, were separated.

Martin never saw them again.

He survived Auschwitz, brutal marches through the snow, and Buchenwald, which is where Americans liberated them.

Martin’s main question through the succession of atrocities: “Where was God?”

His life took a few twists and turns after liberation–a stint in the Czech army, making a living as a cigarette runner, and meeting young ladies and having fun.

Martin was working as an auto mechanic when a letter arrived from the United States. He got someone to translate it, and learned he had extended family across the Atlantic.

Eventually, he settled in Brooklyn, worked for the suit maker GGG, a company with a client roster that included many high-profile Hollywood names.

Martin married, worked his way up the GGG ladder, and eventually purchased the company and re-named it.

Some have said Martin’s top-notch, made to measure suits are the best in the world. Repeat clients include U.S. presidents, Hollywood stars, athletes, and late night TV hosts.

Martin, whose family was almost decimated by hate, now runs the business with his sons. He notes how grace afforded the opportunity to create another family to love and nurture. Though there were MANY opportunities for death to smother him during World War II, it wasn’t able to snuff his existence.

After decades of hard work, opportunity, and success, and a bar mitzvah at age 80, Martin says he’s “left with nothing but gratitude for my life. Some things, it turns out, are beyond measure.”

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Sleep your way to a better life AND feel good about it

Person: Arianna Huffington
Places: A lot of ‘em
Thing: Sweet sleep… and a book, Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time
Idea: Get some. More than just some. Huffington says get plenty.

Let’s just sum up this book in one command: Go to sleep, d@mmit. Of course there are variations, such as a get more sleep, dammit… Or get better quality sleep, d@mmit… But it all boils down to making the most of our sleeping hours not only to rejuvenate and recharge each night, but to also connect with our inner selves, our subconscious through dreams.

Huffington culls all sorts of research on sleep, From ancient sleep traditions and mindsets that include holding sleep as sacred, to modern conceptions that catching some ZZZZZZs is a an annoyance that prevents folks from getting “things” done, whatever those things might be. Human beings need, need, need sleep to be more productive at work and play, to improve our relationships, and to maintain or improve health.

There’s even an entire section on how to bulk up our sleep lives by adjusting relationships with our mobile devices, with room temperatures at bedtime, and even adjusting our relationship with exercise and diet to aid in getting better quality sleep each night. Huffington even discusses natural remedies for folks who are having trouble getting to sleep.

For fashionistas, there’s also a way to dress for beddy-bye time. Yes, it’s there.  If you choose to jump ahead in the book, it’s called “The Bedtime Dress Code: What to Wear, What Not to Wear.” Don’t expect E!-style red carpet fashion reviews, but the tips definitely work for the subject matter.

Sleep Revolution is a recommended book… Because it’s both informative and an easy read. Hell, after reading this book, I think maybe the world would be a better place if people slept more. We should all take advice from a book written for frustrated and possibly sleep-deprived parents…and “Go the F*ck to Sleep.”

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Books, Ideas, Quick-Fast Book Review, Religion, Things

Quick-Fast Book Review: Quitting Church

Person: Julia Duin
Thing: Book—Quitting Church
Place: Various
Idea: Once adherent congregants are ditching their churches. Whether they’re fleeing in droves or trickling one member at a time, the attrition is noticeable. But those who leave aren’t necessarily ditching their faith. So what’s the deal?

In this book, Duin breaks down some reasons God-fearing and God-loving folks are finding a more comfortable home outside church structures and strictures.

In short, the faithful pack their belief and find spiritual solace elsewhere because the church is:
• Irrelevant and not addressing 21st century needs.
• Not a teeming and supportive community that folks need.
• Not concerned about singles over 35 years of age outside of how those unattached individuals can serve the church.
• The teaching is too basic and doesn’t stretch the mind. Some need basic biblical teaching, but that doesn’t encompass everyone’s needs. And what about tough areas of ambiguity? What about questions with no easy, pithy answers?
• Some churches are strangled by controlling pastors.
• And although women make large, large swaths of church membership, their leadership presence is glaringly absent… and in some cases, glaringly stifled into second-class status.
• Some can’t find that passionate spirit they so long for within a church body.

I think this book brings up some interesting points. Some I relate to more than others, as a once-weekly attendee who now finds a growing comfort with regular, but decreased frequency.

I recommend this book for anyone who is frustrated with the church experience and anyone who just wants to know they’re not alone. As for help fixing what’s broken, that’s an individual decision. Maybe you’ll find solace in leaving your church, or inspiration to tinker about and repair what’s broken in your local congregation—or even your denomination. If you’re not religious at all, ignore this recommendation and continue being kind to your neighbor… Amen.

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QFBR: Why Certainty is Sometimes Certainly Wrong

Person:  Peter Enns
Place: The mind
Thing: Book – The Sin of Certainty
Idea: A bunch of Christians might get sad reading this book.  Maybe they’ll weep or get steaming mad and gnash their teeth. According to Enns, the rock-solid certainty many segments of Christianity seek—is a sin.  Clutch your church pearls, your beads and your prayer cloths folks, and I’ll explain what he says:

Faith has nothing to do with knowing rules and tenets of what you believe. Faith is about actual trust in God. It’s also about distinguishing between knowing doctrine and trusting the God of whatever denomination to which you adhere. Enns says separating the two is key to a deeper, abiding Christian faith experience.

Christians seem certain about everything. What happens when people die, how the world developed, how the world will end. But with so many denominations and interpretations of scripture, someone’s certainty is certainly faulty. Doubt is cast as an enemy to be avoided… and vanquished if it pops up anywhere. Peter Enns writes that doubt isn’t the enemy a Christian should fear. Doubt is something to be faced head on… not as a warrior, but an explorer. Doubt’s pain and uncertainty, if explored, can be a means to develop trust. (I imagine trusting God is the entire point of being a Christian…)

Ditching certainty at all costs can unsettle and challenge faith…  It’s a lack of certainty that can make a person cut and run or stand firm (or curl up in a writhing ball) and insist “ I’m going to trust God anyway.”  THAT seems more demonstrative of faith than running down a list of creeds.  It’s certainly more Christian than shafting and bad-mouthing fellow believers who dare rethink faith as something bigger than reciting fundamental beliefs.  But maybe that’s too much of a challenge to some Christian communities. Knowing what you believe is nice (Enns insists knowing those beliefs is not a sin) but it’s never, ever better than trusting God in all matters… even the ones that seem counterintuitive, stupid and senseless. Doubt forces us to look deeper then our tenets  and find, define, and refine a relationship with the divine through difficult moments.

Ends insists God is still God, even if and when we get pissed off at Him… or Her… (or Him/Her).  Enns challenges readers not to fake like all is good when we’re mad at God. Just be mad, but work through the mess to find a closer, trusting connection with God. Trust is a habit you won’t find in a doctrine book. Folks just have to live it because (as the books subtitle says) “God desires our trust more than our beliefs.”

This is a highly recommended book because:

  1. It’s controversial… I imagine this might ruffle some stuffy fundamentalist feathers (and I say this as a Christian).
  2. It’s also a fun and thought-provoking read that might make someone reconsider another aspect of what it means to “have faith.”

 

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