Ode to the characters

Sometimes I describe my job to people, and I often end up using a form of the word “magic.” Example sentence: “I feel like 45th Street is just this magical world where I can be friends with anyone.” In the same way as Snow White befriends the dwarves, and Sleeping Beauty dances with the forest creatures, so also I befriend the unlikely: the old men and antique dealers children and dogs and cocktail waitresses and soccer moms and fiddlers and med students. It’s a beautiful thing.


Have you seen the movie Amélie? If you haven’t, you sure ought to. It’s a French movie* made in the 90’s about an introverted waitress whose life intersects with all sorts of characters. She starts meddling in their lives and growing in appreciation for them. (In the picture above, she hangs out with her father, whose gnome she will eventually send on a mysterious voyage around the world, sending pictures back to his owner) The portraits of Amélie’s friends go from poignant to hilarious, and I love the way the movie virtually revolves around people. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have some complex of thinking I’m around just to fix people’s lives. On the contrary, (for the most part) they are the ones who enrich my life, teach me valuable lessons, and give me things to think about.

So it is that Eddie teaches me how to make people feel loved, Alan teaches me how to give good gifts well, Susan and Anastacia and Adriana teach me how to be an amazing mom (though I’m not one yet), Gabriel teaches me how to trust God even in sickness, Cory teaches me how to be kind and grateful, Bob teaches me how to love what you do and stand by your work. These people all contain deep riches of beauty.

Old and young, rich and poor, male and female, gentle and outgoing, attractive or hunched and ill, crazy or sane or missing a couple of marbles, Jesus loves the little children of the world. And I do too, gosh darn it.

*The French title for this film is Le fabuleux destin d’ Amélie Poulain, which means "the Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain." I think that’s a nice title. See the French trailer that makes me very delighted here.