Whatsoever Things Are True, Honest, Just, Lovely

Elwes, asked which role he has enjoyed the most, said he enjoys them all and that’s why he does them.“But I have to say the one that is probably going to stay with me for the rest of my life is ‘The Princess Bride.’ It will say ‘as you wish’ on my tombstone. Billy Crystal said the other side of the tombstone should say ‘mostly dead.’ ”

when people imagine anxiety, they always imagine risk averse behavior. you overthink, you’re deliberate, your thinking is catastrophic, and you’re always thinking through seventeen possible scenarios in which things can go wrong. 

but sometimes you’re so anxious and things feel so horrible that you do things without thinking because you want the bad feelings to stop. you say something stupid in a group chat, so you immediately leave all of your servers and block your friends so that you don’t have to see the aftermath. you’re unsure about your relationship, so you break up with your partner out of nowhere or you wake up one morning and just decide to ghost them so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. you’re uncomfortable at a party with people you don’t know, so you run outside and take the train home at 3am without realizing how dangerous that is because you just need to leave. 

Jonah ended up in the whale because he *wanted* the Israelites’ enemies destroyed, and God wouldn’t have it. He bolted and God caused a storm so bad that Jonah told the people on the ship to throw him overboard.

And instead of killing Jonah, God had a giant whale catch him and carry him back to land.

Hi, yes, can we talk about Lucy’s drawings? The litte sketches in her journal that illustrate moments in history? I can’t find the photo, but in the first episode Flynn is seen with the journal and there’s drawings of the moon landing in it. Just headcaonnoning here, but maybe art a way for her to practice self love. By doing something that doesn’t affect the war, is just for her, and because she simply enjoys it, it helps ground her and be a reminder that she doesn’t have to work all the time.

Lucy’s gotten quite good in her opinion but never shows her art to ANYONE because Carol got into her head at a young age that “doodling isn’t important and she isn’t good enough at it to persue. Best just stick to history, it’s what you’re good at dear.” That is one of the reasons she believed Flynn stole the journal at first. Because she would NEVER share that piece of herself with anyone. It was Sacred and Hers.

Now that she sleeps in the bunker living room, Lucy only draws in the dead of night when every one is asleep. Flynn walks in once while Lucy’s drawing, hunched over the table, biting her lip, homemade paper shaders scattered on the table as she concentrates. Flynn brews an extra cup of tea while he’s there, studiously ignoring how she closes the note book she’s been using so he won’t see. He leaves her a cup without saying anything. Lucy doesn’t know how to react so she stays quite. And also, how does Flynn always find her when she’s trying to hide?

Lucy starts to find art supplies from different time periods (Antiques! Should she even use them? Maybe she should mail them to the Smithsonian?) set out on the dinning table (in very ocd order) and she’s just ???????? No one knows where their from and who even knows she likes to draw? Oh wait, who has the social skills of a cat dropping off dead mice and has actually seen her art? Of course it’s him

When her birthday roles around nobody notices and really, what is the point? She’s not even sure how old she is with all the time travel and dose it even matter? She’s about to settle into her “bed,” another disappointing birthday past, when Flynn comes in with a present wrapped in brown paper (once again perfectly semetrical.) Lucy takes it and can tell it’s some sort of book and if he bought her a fucking journal...

But it’s a sketch book and she once again has no idea know what to say. He doesn’t ask her to share her art or why she does it, just tells her to make good use of it and he hopes she likes it. He turns to go, he’s said his pice, but suddenly there’s small arms incircling his waist and he freezes. Lucy presses her cheek to Flynn’s back and she thinks he’s the most consistent thing in her life.

When all is said and done, Lucy never fills the journal from her mother with words. It’s pages are plump and creased like the one Flynn once held as a bible, but not with grim plans for battle. No, there’s pictures of her team from when Jiya snuck her phone onto missions. There’s half finished illustrations of birds in motion, nolonger seen in Virginia forests. Chalk colorings of long forgotten Native America ceremonies.

But mostly, there’s sketches of a lost sister getting her black belt and making a podcast while baking cookies. Her father, mixing cocoa for her as she does the homework Carol assigned her. And her partner, in a soft turtle neck with a matching soft smile, drinking coffee, way to chipper for six in the morning. Him sitting at Lexington and Concord, tired but happy with the Hepatica she gave him behind his ear (And damn him, he was the perfect mixture of adorable and attractive with that uniform and flower.) Him and that kitten who was feral to everyone except him that he managed to sneak into the bunker (Denice loved that.)

And just maybe it’s ok if Lucy’s art is just for herself.

———

I have a lot of feelings about Lucy drawing and Flynn being supportive but not intrusive. Letting her have privacy and being ok if she never decides to share it with him. He loves her for who she is and if she wants to keep something for herself after fate as wripped everything else away? That’s just fine with him.

Credits to the artists who did the beautiful sketches pictured above.

well, in a spiritual sense, yes… it actually will.

if we don’t tell people the good news of Jesus… how He loves them and died for them… and they never hear the truth—we may not be killing them, but we are allowing their soul to perish without effort on our part.

now, you can’t force people to follow Christ. you can’t force them to believe. but, you can still share the gospel in love and truth. and in the end, at least you tried and were obedient to the Lord.