I’m begining to have a new idea of giving, and I’m going to work on my obedience to God in this area.
Watched J toss his offering in desperately at church, for fear he will retrieve back his offering. I know he will be blessed. Come to think of it, there was a better spirit of positivity.
I watched An Education with him. I think it really provoked me to think and reflect on what education really is. Is it a curriculum? A social passport to a higher life? A product of being in a branded school? An acquiring of social status? A crucial alternative if one didn’t want to lead a life of low crime and trickery because “we’re not smart people”?
The lead character, Jenny, led a humdrum, repressive life in west London surburban, determined to do well in a preparatory course for Oxford. Oxford became the embodiment of adult freedom that she could aspire to, to be clever, smart, arty and French speaking once she got there.. except her life almost got derailed by an encounter of a oily antiquities pilferer and lousy landlord and two-timing husband, David. Only after she agrees to an “engagement” and gets “proposed to” does she realise the man is actually already married. What amazed me is that every review says David is a scumbag. Only a scumbag? Yes, he is.. but is that the only thing about him? He seemed to be totally convinced by his own lies, which was amazing, really. What really tells me is that if we repeat the same things to ourselves, we eventually believe it. He seemed genuinely moved by his passion and sensitivity to the girl, except it happened… to other girls as well. What motivated him and his friends, Helen and Danny? The premise of a good life. Yes, Jenny is seduced by their intoxicating lifestyle of good food, good wine, debauchery and culture, except that this culture is more a reflection of the need to enjoy the five senses rather than to really show an appreciation of art. So when the camera does a sweep of Helen’s and Danny’s house, it is opulent and rich, but lacking in soul as the motley objects are displayed randomly. Compared with the gravelly teacher, Miss Stubb, we see Stubb’s house is a coherent, modest and tasteful display of art, showing her modest but rich inner life. I watched with a mixture of horror and fascination that David, Danny and Helen can lead such aimless lives of enjoyment day after day.
Really felt very much for Jenny in the end. it seemed like a bit of a cop-out. Although she did get into Oxford despite the heartbreak and the disillusionment of feeling “older but not wiser” after all the desperate attempts to be a sophisticate, I felt she got into Oxford not out of choice, but out of an awareness there was nothing very much awaiting her if she did not get into marriage. Her education at school was depicted as cold, dull and irrelevant to life. Why should it be that way? Why didn’t anybody tell her what translating all that Latin was for? Why didn’t anybody tell her what was the purpose of reading Jane Eyre? But she had to choose it to get on somewhere in life. Although one argues the process of studying made her more purposeful, I do wonder if she genuinely likes what she is doing. Her teacher, Miss Stubbs, leads a life of respectability in well-ordered universe, but is that the end of the story? Does she really get any excitement from her static world? More importantly, as an educator, are we helping or at least facilitating our kids “to talk to people who know lots about lots”, like Jenny wanted to, so that they turn to the right avenues? Jenny’s loss is a story provoked by too much repression and control. On the cusp of young adult life, nobody explained to her that the world was bound to be intoxicating. And nobody introduced her to things out of the academic world so that life outside would not be so intoxicating. Very thought-provoking. Do we get a second chance if we fail? But if we want to pass, do we want to pass for the right reasons?
