Holiday Inn's Real Star

Jim Hardy and girl friend Linda

 It's Not Christmas---

But what a Gift!

 

Oh Holiday Inn—much more than a Christmas Show.  Talk about an all-star cast!  Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire to name just a few.  But Louise Beavers, aka “Mamie,” steals the show for me.  It’s Thanksgiving on the set, and Jim Hardy (Crosby) is moping and pouting for having lost his girl to Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire).  Mamie enters the room and sees that Jim has not eaten anything.  She lays into him.  Tells him to get off his butt and on his feet for California and go win her back.  “You can melt her heart like butter.” 

Louise Beavers as "Mamie"

Mamie does two things for me.  First, she tells the truth about Jim.  Then second, she gives him the confidence to be himself.  Oh she may turn him down—that’s the risk whenever we step out—but who plays the “Truth-Teller” for you?  

TS Eliot told our story that “People cannot stand too much reality.”  Emily Dickinson told us to “tell the truth slant” or it won’t be heard.  Jesus said that he is “the way, the truth and the life” and was crucified for it. Perhaps what truth-tellers really do is to get us to “tell the truth” which means stepping out from behind the stones from which we hide it, compromise it.   

I guess the best part of Holiday Inn is that Jim Hardy hears the truth, believes it, so it sets him free.  He then can speak the truth of his love to Linda.   It's not Christmas.  But sure is a gift!

 Truth-tellers are God’s gift to us.   

How we tell the truth, regardless of the cost, 

is our gift to God.