Dialogo: How do you remember?

Today marks the opening of the summer blockbuster season, officially, and the return of Indiana Jones to the big screen. As happened somewhat with the "return" of the Star Wars movies, some folks beging waxing eloquently about the good old days, or share stories of how the very first Indiana Jones film impacted them as kids, teens, or even college students. All of this sharing is a good thing when we have a collective memory to share information from. As you watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull there are references to each of the three preceding IJ films, films which the youngest star, Shia LaBeouf would never have been able to see as a child (he was 4 when the last Indiana Jones movie was released).

Throughout the new Indy film, there are pictures of older characters, musical inferences of past adventures, and even occasional story arcs that link up with previous stories in the series. All this led me to wonder how we remember stories from our past.

When teaching smaller children, or reading to them stories, it is always interesting to see how many of them remember these stories later. Maybe you remember The Grinch, or Bilbo Baggins, Heloise, or Flicka, Black Beauty? All these are characters in literature that most people come into contact with at some point in their lives. For many of us today, we see these characters in elaborate films, or in exciting, beautifully drawn anime or mangas.

But all of this reflection on stories, makes me wonder...how do you remember a good story? What stories do you remember from when you were just a child? What images stand out to you that keep returning years later from a book you read, or a movie you saw as a child?

The grand story we are all in, God's story, has an amazing narrative, one that has been told for thousands of years. Yet, sometimes those images and people have been forgotten. For most of us, a stained glass window may hold little meaning if we never heard the story. So what part's of God's story are important for you? Are you willing to share some?

--sak--