{"id":407,"date":"2015-03-13T09:19:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T15:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=407"},"modified":"2015-03-13T09:33:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T15:33:36","slug":"cinderella-and-the-radical-courage-of-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/03\/cinderella-and-the-radical-courage-of-kindness\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinderella and the Radical Courage of Kindness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Full disclosure: I missed the end of Cinderella<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t my fault. I went to a screening up in Denver and watched a \u00a0good chunk of the movie before the fire alarm went off, sending us\u2014a theater full of moms, kids and one slightly cranky movie reviewer\u2014outside. Turns out there wasn\u2019t a fire, but it didn\u2019t matter: No one could turn off the accompanying strobe lights, and we all know that fairy-tale balls and blinding, Saturday Night Live<\/em> disco lights don\u2019t jibe that well. So they sent us all home.<\/p>\n

As a result, I don\u2019t know how the movie ended. Did Cinderella take revenge on her evil stepmother and stepsisters like a gown-wearing Liam Neeson? Did she get everyone together for a group therapy session? Did they and the fairy godmother form their own plucky basketball team and go on to win the state tournament? It\u2019s all a big mystery.<\/p>\n

But seeing half the movie might make for a better (and spoiler-free) blog. Really.<\/p>\n

\"Cinderella4\"<\/a>When the fire alarm broke, Cinderella\u2014actual name Ella (Lily James)\u2014was hurting, and with good reason. Her relationship with her stepmother and stepsisters was, shall we say, a little strained. But years before, her dying mother told her to \u201chave courage and be kind.\u201d It became Ella\u2019s philosophy of life: You don\u2019t just turn your back on your mother\u2019s dying wishes, after all.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a particularly easy philosophy to hold to, either. It\u2019s not easy to be kind when you\u2019re hurting. It\u2019s not easy to be courageous when, frankly, circumstances make you want to go back to bed, throw the covers over your head and not get up \u2019til Tuesday. But Ella has the rare ability to be both courageous and kind, and to \u201csee things on as they are but as they could<\/em> be.\u201d That extends even to her hard-to-like step-relatives. They are as good, she says, \u201cas they are able,\u201d which she knows isn\u2019t saying much.<\/p>\n

Her courage forms the backbone of her kindness, and nowhere is that better illustrated when she learns that her father died during a business trip. She\u2019s obviously crushed\u2014and yet she has the wherewithal to comfort the messenger<\/em> before looking toward her own sorrow. \u201cThank you,\u201d she says. \u201cThat must\u2019ve been very difficult for you.\u201d And then, only in the darkened entryway and untended by a soul, does she break down and show the depth of her grief.<\/p>\n

Kindness is a hard sell these days. It\u2019s a luxury of sorts\u2014something we indulge in with kids and old people and when the stakes aren\u2019t particularly high. We can be kind to folks who can\u2019t hurt us. We can be gentle to those who require a little gentleness. But when it comes down to dealing with the bullies of the world, most of us take a more aggressive stance. And I think most of us, in Ella\u2019s slippers, would fight back against the nasty influences around her\u2014most notably stepmother Lady Tremaine.<\/p>\n

Tremaine (Cate Blanchette) is a bully, albeit a refined one. You get the sense that life has knocked her around a little. And when she marries Ella\u2019s widowed father, she resents the fact that he and Ella share history and memories that she can\u2019t be a part of. Every little hug father and daughter share, any mention of Ella\u2019s dearly departed mother, is like a pinprick to Lady Tremaine\u2019s soul. It\u2019s like Ella and her dad share a world that she can never be apart of. So when Ella\u2019s father dies, Lady Tremaine strikes back\u2014excluding Ella from her own affection as Tremaine (unfairly) thought she was excluded.<\/p>\n

\"Cinderella2\"<\/a>In Disney lore, Lady Tremaine is the \u201cevil\u201d stepmother, and she is indeed pretty wicked. But her motivations, or even her actions, aren\u2019t that unfamiliar to us. I think all of us want to hurt people who\u2019ve hurt us\u2014even when they\u2019ve hurt us unknowingly. We can be pretty harsh when our ire\u2019s up. Tremaine isn\u2019t unusual in her desire to lash out, but rather for the degrading length of the lash. Lady Tremaine aims to punish Ella for simply being her father\u2019s daughter forever. And in a critical, painful twist, Ella\u2019s own kindness becomes the tool of her subjugation.<\/p>\n

Step by step, Tremaine turns Ella from daughter to serf. It begins with a simple drop of a saucer, knowing that kind Ella will pick it up. When Ella offers her room to Tremaine\u2019s quarrelsome daughters, she finds herself banished to the attic. Every good deed Ella does is repaid by evil.<\/p>\n

But Ella perseveres. \u201cHave courage, be kind\u201d continues to be her mantra. And the radical kindness that Ella shows takes courage indeed. Says Lily James to Time<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The message in the film is quite clear, and it\u2019s that if you have courage, be kind, then all will be well\u2014that your strength can come from within. Oftentimes when they re-do the fairy tales, the princesses suddenly have swords and armor, that\u2019s where their strength comes from\u2014which is great, but with this one, we wanted to show that there are different kinds of strength. Any kid in the world can draw from strengths within\u2014we all have the potential with that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That radical strength\u2014the strength found in Ella\u2019s kindness\u2014that is at the heart of what Jesus spent lots of his time talking about.<\/p>\n

Y\u2019all know the verses probably better than I do. \u201cLove your enemies,\u201d Jesus says. \u201cIf someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also,\u201d Jesus says. Those things take courage\u2014deep courage. It runs counter to everything we are as human beings. Even Christians have a hard time with these words, because the implications are staggering: The bully at school? The back-biter at work? We\u2019re really supposed to turn the other cheek? Really? And Jesus says, yeah. Really.\u00a0<\/em>If you look at Jesus\u2019 Beatitudes in Matthew 5, they could be a promise given specifically to Ella: Blessed are the poor in spirit;\u00a0 those who mourn; the meek;\u00a0those who hunger and thirst for righteousness;\u00a0the merciful;\u00a0the pure in heart; the peacemakers;\u00a0those who are persecuted because of righteousness.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing. Jesus knew better than anyone that the tangible benefits of some of those \u201cblessings\u201d can be a bit \u2026 iffy, at least in this world. \u00a0God is no fairy godmother. \u201cRejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,\u201d Jesus tells us. But Jesus\u2019 own earthly reward was punishment, shame and an ignoble death. There are no guarantees in this life. We can do everything right in God\u2019s eyes and, on this fallen planet, still get screwed.<\/p>\n

\"Cinderella1\"<\/a>And that\u2019s where I left Cinderella<\/em> when the fire alarm went off. \u201cHave courage, be kind\u201d was her mantra, and what good had it done her? Lady Tremaine and her daughters continued to dump their work and abuse on her. In an effort to get a little warmth, Ella would sleep by the dying embers of the fire and wake up covered in soot. There was no magic pumpkin yet, no glass slipper, no beautiful dress. Ella had no hope of a fairy tale ending. All Ella had was her courage and kindness; her principles and optimism and her ability to see what could <\/em>be.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d like to think that, even if no fairy godmother came to visit Ella, it would\u2019ve still been enough. Even if goodness doesn\u2019t net you worldly rewards, there\u2019s a certain reward in simply being good<\/em>, isn\u2019t there? To try to, in your own small way, make the world a better place? And I think even in Cinderella we see that reward in play. Ella, after all, has a joy in her life that Lady Tremaine can\u2019t understand, much less embrace. All the soot in the world can\u2019t hide Ella\u2019s joy, nor can Tremaine\u2019s makeup hide her bitterness, anger and fear.<\/p>\n

Critics of Christianity sometimes say that we live in a fairy tale world, and there\u2019s some truth in that. Maybe we\u2019re a little like Cinderella in that discomforting between time, living in a fallen world that sometimes seems spiteful and mean. And how are we told to face that world? With courage and kindness. To see the world for what it is and face it boldly \u2026 yet spread, as much as we can, a little mercy and love and hope. In a way, there\u2019s nothing so courageous as kindness.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: I missed the end of Cinderella. It wasn\u2019t my fault. I went to a screening up in Denver and watched a \u00a0good chunk of the movie before the fire alarm went off, sending us\u2014a theater full of moms, kids and one slightly cranky movie reviewer\u2014outside. Turns out there wasn\u2019t a fire, but it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[158,159,73,160,26],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-cinderella","tag-courage","tag-disney","tag-fairy-tale","tag-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nCinderella and the Radical Courage of Kindness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Full disclosure: I missed the end of Cinderella. It wasn't my fault. 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