ATONEMENTI watched the

ATONEMENT

I watched the movie "Atonement" yesterday afternoon. I don't know what I had expected but this movie had twists and turns that I would never have guessed. The plot centered around a 13-year-old girl whose actions relating to her older sister and the housekeeper's son affected their lives drastically in years to come. Part of this involved a note containing a word that I didn't hear or know about until after I was married. (Be advised, it is rated R.)

The young girl is played by one actress and then by another when she grew older, both of whom were unknown to me. Keira Knightley played her older sister and James McAvoy played the housekeeper's son. Vanessa Redgrave was the elderly younger sister at the very end.

I was pretty well riveted to my chair as I watched it. Unfortunately, there was no closed captioning and the British accents were sometimes difficult to decipher but I turned the sound way up and thus got the general idea of what was going on. (It's good that I live in a house in the country!) ;-)

I do think that "Atonement" is very worth seeing by adults. It contains a lot of food for thought.

*****

Last night, I read through the new Time Magazine that I received yesterday and under the category of "Arts" I found an article entitled "The Next J.K. Rowling?" It is about a Mormon housewife in her 30's, Stephenie Meyer, who has written several books involving a vampire and a young woman, with the first being the result of a vivid dream she had one night. She apparently has managed to maintain sensual drama while still keeping the plot clean, in accordance with her beliefs.

This fascinates me, as I wouldn't have expected Mormonism and vampires to have anything in common. And I wouldn't have thought that inspiration from God, if that's what Mormons might claim this is, would have anything to do with a fearful mythical creature. Oh wait -- Mormons believe in the Book of Mormon, just as one example of believing in mythical beings. ;-)

I wonder how Sister (as Mormon women are called) Meyer's church authorities regard her writings. Most likely, since she is successful -- and if she pays her full 10% tithe -- the powers that be will be most happy to give her their blessing.

Pardon my cynicism here, but my mind is slightly boggled by this situation. Still, as a formerly-frustrated author, I have to admire Stephenie Meyer and she has my blessing. Her first book, "Twilight," is being made into a movie and, although I've never been one for vampire movies, I may have to rent it when it comes out on DVD.

*****

It's about nap time here, providing the noise level at my neighbor's house across the road stays reasonable. They keep their dogs out in their fenced pasture much of the day now that it's nice -- it's beautiful and balmy today -- and that doesn't bother me except when they are let out at 6:30 in the morning and they bark for a while then, or during my nap. When I go across the road to the mailbox and they're out, they rush the fence like they would like to have me for lunch. My neighbor, Bobi, their owner along with her husband Toma, says they are harmless but make great bark alarms. That they do.

I believe I was scared by a large dog when I was quite small, so I do have some discomfort around big, barking dogs. I'm grateful for the fence in between us.