Love Takes Wing

I don't recall if I have mentioned my love of Hallmark's Love Comes Softly movie series before, but as much as I am in no way, shape, or form the target demographic for those films, I just truly enjoy them.  It's a combination of my love for period films and for innocent love stories with kind men.  These movies are very Christian, and although I'm pagan, it never makes me feel uncomfortable because the characters don't ever judge others that don't share their beliefs -- and they practice the loving, compassionate, non-judgmental type of Christianity that would actually make Christ proud.

These movies make me feel warm and good, and I periodically re-watch the series... and something struck me on my most recent re-watch a few days ago, and I want to talk about it.

So this film series is based on a book series by Janette Oke.  I've only read the first book (and I loved it), but it's quite different than the first film... and from what I understand, the later movies are almost entirely different from the later books.  The film I'm going to be focusing on today is the seventh in the series, and it's about Belinda, a young female doctor in a wild west town.

The reason I'm going to talk about this film, though it's not my favorite in the series, is because right now it really hits home.  Dr. Belinda Simpson begins her medical practice in a town beset by an outbreak of Cholera, and a lot of the behavior we see from the townspeople (in this made for TV movie from 2009, set in 1850-something) mirrors behavior we are seeing NOW amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Love Takes Wing reunites us with Belinda, now a practicing doctor and a recent widow.  When we last saw her, she had just married a young lawyer named Drew Simpson and was preparing to begin studying to become a doctor.  This is obviously several years later, and we have a new actress in the role (and she looks nothing like the previous actress -- but it's fine, the same thing happened with her mother and grandmother lol, it's fine... we accept it).   She arrives at Sikestown (with her best friend Dr. Haylie Duff) and soon finds out about the outbreak of a mysterious illness.  No one in town can agree upon what the illness is and what is causing it.  No one understands how it is spread.  The people are scared, and many of them are angry.  Some of the townsfolk blame the orphanage on the outskirts of town... they think the orphans have caused the illness and are spreading it.

As the disease spreads more, Belinda and the woman who runs the orphanage (played wonderfully by Cloris Leachman) work overtime to care for the children and to try and figure out what is causing the disease to continue spreading.  It's set at a time that not much was known about germs and bacteria, and we see a lot of Belinda having to explain this and certain hygiene and cleanliness best practices.  When Belinda realizes that the illness the town is dealing with is cholera, the mayor attempts to control the narrative around the illness and doesn't believe her that his clean, upstanding town could be facing a disease that he insists "only" hurts the dirty and the poor.  He doesn't want Belinda to let anyone know that she thinks the illness is cholera.

One of the angry townspeople is so insistent that the orphans are the cause of the illness that he campaigns for the orphanage to be shut down -- and when he doesn't get his way, he tries to set the orphanage on fire.

Belinda eventually figures out the root cause of the illness is a contaminated water source.  Some people are thankful to have answers, but others still don't want to listen to her.  She, a doctor, is not trusted as an expert because her expert information contradicts what some people are currently thinking... and it inconveniences them.  People value their own righteous anger and their comfort and their current way of life over science and other people's safety and well-being.

But this is a movie.  It's a fictional story, set in a world where one of the Backstreet Boys plays a saloon keeper and the sidebangs we were all rocking in 2009 are anachronistically rocked unapologetically in the mid to late 1800s.  It ends happily.  Many people died, but the illness ended shortly.  None of the main characters died, and everyone ends the movie in a better place than where they started.  Belinda is more content and confident in her medical prowess, she's remarried to a hot blacksmith, and she adopted a spunky little redheaded orphan.

But in the real world, in Covid-19's 2020, we don't know how this will end.  We're not guaranteed a happy ending.  We don't have a 90 minute runtime to tell us how long it'll last.  We can't say for certain that "main characters" -- ourselves and the people we love -- won't be affected.  If this continues the way it has been going, millions of people will die and every American will know people who were sick or died from this thing.  Even people who recover will be affected for life.  The orphans in this film had Belinda standing up for them, and the leader of the town eventually realized the error of his ways and tried to shut down the irrational hatred against the orphans, but Asian Americans haven't had a leader who stood up for them and did his part to stop irrational hatred against them for something that is OBVIOUSLY 100% not their fault.

I don't have all the answers.  I just know that if we don't start listening to actual experts, if we don't continue staying home, this is going to get worse before it gets better.  I want to see it start getting better, and I need people to care more about human lives than they care about the fact that they want a haircut.  All everyone wants is for this to end soon and with as little damage as possible... so many people have had to suffer this painful illness.  So many people have died and had to be buried in a mass grave because of it.  Medical professionals are being traumatized by what they're having to see and the conditions they have to work under.  They and all other essential workers are putting their own lives at risk every single day -- because they don't have a choice.  We can ease that somewhat by doing something as fucking simple and easy and just staying home.  Being quarantined is not easy, even for someone as deeply introverted as myself, but we are not being asked to do something impossible.  Just please do your part.  Please think of others.

Please watch the Love Comes Softly series -- maybe it'll teach you a thing or two about caring for other people (and just maybe you'll enjoy it, lol).  As for myself, this seventh movie that I've kinda slept on is definitely one I'll be looking forward to much more in my next re-watch.

Despite having nothing but time on my hands, I did not read my March book.  To be fair, I didn't stop working until the middle of the month, and then I got Animal Crossing, lol.  I will at some point, though, and there will be a post about the book.  And... good news, I'm writing this from my new laptop!

Superman Smashes the Klan Review

I've been meaning to sit down and get this post out for a while, and since I've had nothing but time, I have no excuse other than life has been real weird, lol.  Anyways, I recently finally sat down and read the Superman Smashes the Klan miniseries and I just want to talk about it, because it was phenomenal. 

I'm sure you all know that this is based on a storyline that ran on the 1940s Superman radio show -- and that that radio show storyline actually really undermined the real life KKK.  You can grab this book if you want to read more about that, because it is truly fascinating.  Late last year, DC did a three issue miniseries adapting the radio show into a beautiful comic by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru.  The thing that impressed me most with this story was how wonderfully deep and complex Clark is written to be.  Clark Kent is my favorite fictional character ever, and I dig any work that bothers to explore his feelings.  Gene gives us a Clark who is scared and insecure but trying his hardest.  We get a Clark who doubts himself and doesn't always know how to express himself, but a Clark who isn't afraid of his emotions and loves with his whole heart.  We get a Clark who is as emotionally strong as he is physically strong and doesn't give up when he's tested.

Clark wasn't the only character who I loved though.  I absolutely fell in love with Roberta, the young Chinese girl whose family faces discrimination.  She and Clark have very similar character arcs in that they both have a lot of fear holding them back, but they push on for the sake of doing what is right and end up realizing that they're capable of more than they ever realized.  Roberta is sweet and brave and lonely and sad and a little weird.  She's a spectacular character, and I know this is a self contained little miniseries but I wouldn't mind seeing more of her if it was somehow possible.  Maybe a Roberta spin off series?  I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd read it.

 

One thing I also liked was how absolutely shocked the well-meaning white characters (including Clark, to some extent) were to see the Lee family face the kind of discrimination they were dealing with.  It's very realistic for people who are sheltered and who are pretty accepting themselves have a hard time wrapping their minds around that kind of hate.  It also shows that you couldn't really understand how it feels to be treated like shit for who you are unless you've experienced.  Clark is an immigrant and grew up feeling like an outsider because he was different -- he gets it, and I think that's why he and Roberta bond so well.  They have a lot in common. 

I think the fact that there are also white characters who aren't outwardly violent and aren't members of the Klan or anything but still support the same racist views was very important.  A lot of racists are quiet about it, but they're bigots just the same.

Each of the three issues has a prose story from the author about his experiences with the character of Superman and his experiences growing up Chinese.  This story takes place in 1946, and Gene obviously grew up much much later -- but not a lot of things have changed.  The piece is even more relevant now than just a few months ago -- especially considering that anti-Asian racism and hate crimes are on the rise right in the wake of the Coronavirus... really proves that many people are still looking for reasons to hate Asian folks, and it's disgraceful.  (Side note, racism is never excusable, no matter what your "justification" is.)

The art is absolutely gorgeous -- these issues have a precious Clark -- and I would love to see more comics in this style.

Over all, I couldn't recommend this series any more highly.  Do yourself a favor and check it.  Even if you're not a Superman fan, I think you could get something out of this.

And if you're an old time radio fan like myself, or if the comic has piqued your interest, you can listen to the entire Clan of the Fiery Cross storyline from the Superman radio show here on youtube!