Anyways, On Monday, we finished the television show "Holly Hobbie", which itself concluded in 2022. Now, my mom saw this show a while ago, back when it was new, when she was at home sick during the pandemic. She recently found it again, and started to watch it from the beginning. Now this show, is kind of a re-imagining of a character from American Greetings. It's a re-imagining of this character as a modern young teen. Now, I actually liked this show, for what I saw (which was a decent amount), and from seeing basically the entire last season. I won't talk much about it, since I don't want to give spoilers for anyone who might be interested in watching this (which, I would recommend you do watch it), but I could relate several things from this show into episodes on this podcast. Again, it was a good show, and I enjoyed watching it.
As a quick side note, music from the show, and from the actress herself, can be found on Spotify. The music from the show is very good, and the actress herself was a very good singer. I did check out the music, which is the event that transpired that I talked about in Yesterday's Blog Post.
I want to look at the opening to the show, and one of the important lines, which the show ends on. "Be the change", that the title and one of the main lyrics of the song. Now in this show, part of what we can see, is that the people in this show, do fight for change, they want to see the world and town they live in be better. As I said, there are other things I could look at, but I want to talk about this specific line.
Above all, Pope Francis is Laudato Si', speaks of their issues that currently face our world. And above all how we have to care for it. When I think of care for creation, I think of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis is often remembered for his care for the creatures of the world, and I am sure you have seen him pictured with different animals. Here is the opening lines of Laudato Si':
“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”
I am sure the biggest issue when you think of our common home, is climate change. In fact one of the episodes of the show takes a look at the concern the main character's one friend has, after watching a documentary about climate change.
"Be the change", is one thing I think relates to the Holy Father's document about care for our Common home. "Be the change" is something that does not necessarily have to relate to environmental concern. "Be the change" is something that relates deep down to us. Another episode, the sister of the main character, has to write a report on an issue that happens in the world. She has trouble with the prompt, but reassured by the mom, she is told to look for something that "puts a fire in your belly". "Be the change" involves seeing an issue, an issue that needs to be resolved, and finding a way to resolve it.
Above all, this is also what Pope Francis speaks about with care for our common home, care for the earth. "Be the change" is a message which we can find meaning in, just as characters in the show often did. Laudato Si' was one of the things I thought of when it came to this line. And it makes sense, because even characters in the show, wanted to make a difference for the world, improve the world they live in. And this is what Pope Francis himself calls us to have, a care for the world we live in.
In addition, "be the change", as we can see in the show, does not just involve environmental change, to reiterate. There are many issues in our world, and in our own communities, that we must address, that we can fix. "Be the change", involves fighting for our future, making our world, our communities, and the people in them, better.
Change begins first on the inside, in ourselves. Addressing where we ourselves may have a problem, and where we need to change to be better people. Then it involves exploring where their is need to change what is around us, where we can improve our own situation, and the situation of others.
Change, is a thing we often fear, a thing that can be frightening. But change, can be good, and change is necessary for living as human beings. We as people must grow, and change, and adapt. And not only in ourselves, but the environment and people around us.
I like to think of an avalanche, with stones constantly falling. This is our lives. We are each stones, and as these stones hit each other, they reshape each other. We rub off on other people, and they rub off on us. To be put another way, people shape people, or people change people. Think of a fine skills man, he shapes each and everyone one of this works, refining them to be perfect, but each and every work he makes, also helps to shape his personal skill. Or think of how we might change because of our friends, or how we might change our friends, or how, as friends grow and continue in knowing each other, they change based on experiences that they have together.
"Be the Change", is a phrase I want you to think about, not as a foreign idea, but as a call for our daily lives, a call to improve and make better the world we live in. From a care to our environment, to a care for our human communities. "Be the Change", because you and I can help to improve our world. "Be the Change", because we can look at the saints as people who say where they could "be the change". Look at modern saints like Pope St. John Paul II, or St. Mother Theresa. Look at other saints like St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila, reformers of the Carmelite Order. Look at St. Francis of Assisi, who felt a call deep from God to "restore His Church", to "be the change" in the church.
"Be the change" is a phrase we as Catholic can agree with. From standing up for a change in the harsh conditions our brothers and sisters may be in, to the deep change in the way we treat our environment. "Be the change", always, everywhere, and all the time.
P.S. I said in yesterday's blog post that somethings had transpired since I wrote the script for this video, and that I would edit the script to include those things. In other words. I have not added any of these additions. Well, not as I planned, but I did add one little note. In addition, on the blog and video, I added a personalized image or thumbnail, that appears both on the blog post and youtube video. This may be how things go from now on. I needed to add an image to blog posts, because that way when I posted them on Facebook, it does not keep showing up with our Bishop's face. So from now on, customized Thumbnails (or at least images from the internet) will be used on all future blog posts and videos from here on in. And as time goes on, they will improve in quality. As you can see in this one, it took me a total five minutes on a very simple paint program to make this combination of two images.
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