Sunday, January 30, 2000

Not Quite Steinbeck...

Bullies. Jerks. People who always make stupid mistakes. We've all had to deal with them. But sometimes we don't deal with them in a very nice way. In The Grapes of Wrath, the cranky grape family upsets Junior Asparagus when they begin calling him names. Disliking his newfound title of "cheese-headed bean boy," Junior hollers for his dad, who explains to Junior that he should forgive the grapes for their unruly behavior. He asks the grapes to apologize, and it seems that all is well...until they find out Junior's name and are given a new reason to tease him. Like Junior, many people would have trouble forgiving someone who was consistently so inconsiderate, but with Mr. Asparagus' help, both offenders and offended learn the value of forgiving those who hurt us.

The next segment, Larry's Lagoon, is a delightful parody of Gilligan's Island. Larry, the Skipper's faithful assistant, shares Gilligan's active imagination, and his daydreaming causes their ship to be marooned. Everyone is so angry about being stranded that they refuse to forgive Larry. Larry, in his dejection, ventures off on his own. It is only after he is gone that they realize how they almost lost a good friend because they were unable to forgive an innocent mistake.

The video teaches a good lesson in forgiving people who do us wrong, whether intentionally (the grapes) or unintentionally (Larry). In place of the silly song is an infomercial advertising the Forgive-o-matic. There are only two songs in this video, less than the usual. In that respect, God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! may not be quite up to par with the other videos in the series, but all in all it's a great show.

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