5/19/11

Curse of the Movie

When I was dating I used to wonder if having high standards would make me seem more dorky to girls.  No one wants to hear that they have a "sweet spirit".  Sometimes you need to allow yourself to have fun and relax when dating, and that might not seem super spiritual.  I think I learned something about righteous dating from Carrie.

Shortly before my misison my friends Ted, Lee, Jeremy, and I decided to ask out all four girls from apartment 2B.  That's how I ended up on a date with Carrie, even though I didn't know her very well.  We decided to go see the new movie "6 Days 7 Nights".  It was an exciting adventure starring Harrison Ford.  It was also extremely vulgar.

Every sentence had at least one swear word, and after 15 minutes I had heard every word I knew and few I figured I would need to look up.  I sat next to Carrie and figured a cool guy would say something to his date at least once during the movie, but I couldn't think of anything to say.  There were obscene gestures and lewd behavior, which made it hard to think about being charming.  Finally for lack of anything better to say I said, "Sure a lot of vulgar language, isn't there?"

Carrie seemed to sigh and said, "Yeah, do you think we should leave?"

Honestly that thought had never occurred to me.  The language was bad, but the plot was interesting, and I wanted to see how it ended.  I really had no intention of not finishing the movie.  After all, this wasn't the first movie I had seen which had profanity.  Never have I actually gotten up and walked out of a movie!  Can you imagine how dorky it would seem if you ended a date because someone swore.  Then I realized she wouldn't have asked if she wasn't thinking it herself.  Fortunately I said the right thing: "You know, I was just about to suggest that.  Why don't we leave and go get a treat?"

She looked thrilled and turned to Lee and his date.  I talked to Jeremy and his date.  The 6 of us decided we would leave the movie.  When they told Ted's date she commented, "Leave?  Why?  This isn't so bad.  We're going to stay and watch the movie."  The trip to get ice cream and the drive back to their apartment was filled with discussion of how uncomfortable the language was.  These girls said that it was very distracting.  They also said it was just a movie, and they wondered why they put themselves through it just for a date.

You might wonder whether it really matters, but Moroni said it clearly, "For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God." (Moroni 7:16)  These girls could tell they were not watching a good movie.

And then they talked about how heroic we were for wanting to pull them out of such an inappropriate show.  I was worried it would seem lame, but they felt like we were knights in shining armor trying to protect them from the evil in the world.  We talked much more than we would have during a movie, and when we got back to their apartment one of the girls wanted to change the dirty feeling to something spiritual.  That was how we ended up reading scriptures on a date. 

I can't imagine a more "church dork" thing than to read scriptures on a date, but it was actually very fun.  We talked about things we learned in Sunday School class, guessed about why the Lord would do things, and I think we bore testimonies without really meaning to.  At the end they said we had turned their worst date ever into one of their best dates ever.  We felt like a million bucks, and I realized how good I felt on my date with Carrie.  Instead of being a turn off her spirituality was a turn on. 

Now I understand why Issac told his son "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.  Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother." (Genesis 28:1-2)  Issac wanted Jacob to marry a girl that would support and understand their values and knowledge of Christ.   Since I was going to fill out my mission papers soon it's not like I could date Carrie seriously, but I realized that I wanted to marry the kind of girl that would enjoy a dorky spiritual date.

The last part of the story came the next day when we caught up to Ted.  We asked him how the movie ended, and after summarizing it in three sentences he said "It was just a movie.  I've seen lots like it, and I'll probably see more.  It's not like my life is better for watching it.  After you left I really noticed how much vulgarity there was, and then I wished my date had wanted to leave.  I was really turned off by the fact that she seemed to think it didn't matter.  I don't think I would want to date a girl that was annoyed when others tell her something is inappropriate."  Spirituality is a turn on for me, and the opposite is also a turn off.

No comments:

Post a Comment