Grinch me. I Must Be Dreaming.

I accidentally stumbled upon the Grinch Who Stole Christmas this evening.

What a nice surprise?!?!?

As I get older I notice different things every year I revisit this Christmas classic.
Here are some thoughts that occurred to me while watching this perennial treasure.

1) The commercials they show during the Grinch emphasize what Grinch finds most distasteful about Christmas...and that would be the commercialization of Christmas. Ironic . . . n'est ce pas?

2) The Grinch has a dog. His dog is so faithful. He'd do anything for the Grinch, including superseding the strength in his small dog frame in order pull a sled heavy with the Who's stolen happiness and Christmas cheer. So how bad could the Grinch really be that he commands such loyalty? I realized tonight that he's just a lonely monster who wants everyone to be as lonely as he. So the opposite is also true, meaning he wants to be rescued from his bitter loneliness. He is hiding up in his cave. People who hide, want to be found.

3) I wish I had a 39 and half foot pole.

4) Wouldn't it be great to blend Christmas villains into one movie? Such as combining Scrooge with the Grinch and in the end the villain never really understands the true meaning of Christmas. I want a Christmas story with a sad ending, where the Christmas villain holds on to the notion that Christmas has been blown way out of proportion and perhaps should be toned down a bit. In this movie, the villain is the hero because he is able to think apart from the herd and not live a a falsely happy life just because it's Christmas.

5) Nobody made up nonsense words better than Dr. Seuss which oddly enough reminds me of a teacher I worked with when I was teaching. One of the scarier things I learned as I was exploring this truly noble profession is that New York City teachers aren't always the sharpest crayons in the box. They certainly are well intentioned but . . . . .

This teacher always referred to Dr. Seuss as Dr. Zeus even spelling his name as if this genius of children's literature were a god. Not that he wasn't but you know.....very scary.....don't send your kids to a New York City public school. Finding out who your child's teacher is, is not unlike eating a box of chocolates.