THINGS TO COME: MEGA SHARK VS. CROCOSAURUS

Okay, so Mega Shark was no Sharktopus, but who could be really? That’s why we were more than content to spend 90 minutes with the old boy as he threw down with Giant Octopus and Deborah Gibson. And now, he’s coming back, this time to combat the awesome combination of Crocosaurus and… Urkel.

Now I was never much of an Urkel fan. In fact, I recently showed my 8 year old a clip from Family Matters and he ran from the room completely disturbed. But I’m willing to cut Jaleel White some slack because (1) he’s still managing to get work despite having played Urkel for a decade, and (2) this just looks like more of the same brainless goofy fun as its predecessors. I can’t wait!

But I have to, don’t I. At least for a few more weeks. Kind of reminds me of something else, something that’s right on the tip of my tongue. Oh, what could it be now? I don’t know, maybe…

ADVENT!?!

Pope Benedict XVI knows how it is. During his recent reflection on Advent, the Pontiff remarked that "Expectation and awaiting represent a dimension that touches our entire individual, family and social existence… Expectation is present in many situations, from the smallest and most insignificant to the most important… a couple expecting a child; awaiting a relative or friend who comes to visit us from far way… the expectation of the result of some decisive examination… in personal relations the expectation of meeting the loved one.” He didn’t mention anxiously awaiting on the release of a ridiculously bad movie, but it’s gotta be in there right?

Well, maybe… but he did go on to meditate that “we could say that man is alive so long as he expects, so long as hope remains alive his heart. And man can be recognized by his expectations: our moral and spiritual 'stature' may be measured by what our hopes are… in this time of preparation for Christmas each of us may ask ourselves: what do I expect?… And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, the community, the nation. What do we expect together? What unites our aspirations, what brings us together?"

Hmm, if man can be recognized by his expectations, I wonder just what it says about me that I so often look forward to dreck like Mega Shark Vs Crocosaurus? Maybe it’s that if I hope, therefore I am, as the Pope seems to be saying, then even the littlest of anticipations matter, existing as a pale, yet real, reflection of the expectation for something much larger and better, like the things we learn to wait for during Advent. Maybe.

Or maybe I just have bad taste. I suppose that’s possible too.