Because He Must

There was a movie that came out in the late 90s called "Blast From the Past." It starred Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken. The movie is set in the 60s and the 90s. The premise is that Christopher Walken is an eccentric scientist who, in a panic over the Cold War, builds a bomb shelter under his house.

In a twist of fate, there is a plane crash nearby that panics Walken and he takes his wife (Spacek) and young boy (Fraser) into the bomb shelter. They spend the next couple of decades underground. The movie shows Fraser's character as he grows up. Walken does everything he can to educate Fraser on all subjects. (Spacek, who ends up feeling trapped, spends more and more time drunk.)

One subject that Walken cannot seem to educate Fraser about is baseball. He does everything he can to help Fraser understand how the game works, but he is unable to process the force-out. Walken tries everything to illuminate the subject, but ends up exasperated. He keeps saying, "because he [the player] must."

I have been considering this movie and this phrase since I had kids. I'll explain why using a recent example. A few weeks ago, Brian and I attended a wedding of a friend of ours. She gave everyone a little acorn-shaped bell to jingle when we wanted her and her husband to kiss. I left it in my clutch that I took for the evening and Bekah found it.

She has asked me, several times, what the bell was used for. You can see where this is going; how do I explain this tradition to my 3-year-old? I can't even begin to explain what a wedding is. When my husband was baptized this summer, we tried to explain to her what was happening. I explained that, in our family, we believe in getting baptized as adults after we've accepted Jesus into our hearts.

With all sincerity, she listened and then said, "mommy, when I get older, I want to get bath toys, too." I gave her a big hug and smile and sent her up for bed. How, then, must a wedding sound? A girl gets dressed up in a white dress and marries a boy. It must seem foreign. So then, how much tougher is it to explain that, after she marries the boy, everyone sits down to dinner. When the guests want to see the girl and boy kiss, they ring the little bells.

Nope, I knew there was no hope in explaining it. I am sure, when she attends her first wedding, she will (as Brendan Fraser does when he sees his first, real-life baseball game) mutter under her breath, "because they must." It makes me smile to think about it.