I somehow LOVE shows that have to do with ‘who dunits’.. My first memory? 1985 – ‘Clue’!
Imagine an 11 year old little Dominican-Ecuadorian American girl, whose first language is Spanish loving a movie such as CLUE??!! I can tell you this much.. Leslie Ann Warren will remain etched in my brain.
After that movie, I subconsciously, was interested in all things mystery. I loved ‘Columbo’, and ‘Monk’ and films like ‘Silence of the Lambs’. I recall when it came it out. I was in high school and I somehow ‘needed’ my friends to see it. And so I PAID for their movie tickets thinking they too could see what I saw.. what? I didn’t know.. but I wanted them to see how thrilling the storyline was.
Clarice Starling and Dr. Lector took me to a world that moved my reality. She was an orphan whose father died in the line of duty and he… A killer? A psychiatrist? I actually saw a human side to him at 17 despite the macabre.. I felt how he fell in love with Clarice and how he ‘missed’ his line of work.. he at his core ‘helped’ people with their trauma.. and every time Clarice visited him, he partook in that role.. their ‘sessions’.. his insistence of her sharing.. ‘I don’t imagine the answer is on those second rate shoes, Clarice.’ Obligating her to realize her deflection.
As a teacher that kind of observation was always what I worked towards.. Not to say it was the ‘serial killer’ type but the observant type. Lector focused on the details because the ‘devil is in the details’ and my eye at a young age worked for me now as an adult in my field, a teacher and overall. I can honestly say that regardless of my profession, I am inquisitive by nature. I love to know ‘the Why’. If you start there then the rest is easy.
Despite my not teaching at the high school that nurtured my love for the written word after 15 years, The High School of Fashion Industries, I will always remember the AP English teacher that pushed me to do more. They were never satisfied with mediocrity and so I wrote and wrote and wrote till I was good enough. I realized the success of teaching was because of the teachers themselves than the administrators.
Today my kind of entertainment consists of asking the why.. I can’t stand fluff, I can’t do ‘talk shows’; I can’t do waste of time. I can’t do waste of any kind. I need to be more of a participant than a spectator, and if what I am watching asks questions that will engage me then I’m in.
There are two shows that have me ‘locked in’. These two ‘who dunits’ are ‘The Burbs’ and ‘How to get from Heaven from Belfast’. I should write ‘us’ more so than ‘me’ because my husband shares my enthusiasm.
‘The Burbs’ is an 80’s movie staring Tom Hanks that made me laugh and inquire, ‘is this what people are really like in the suburbs?’ and if so ‘YES!’ and so it remained tucked in my memory till it was remade today with Keke Palmer. Loved it.
Then there is Lisa McGee’s new series, ‘How to get to Heaven from Belfast’. After ‘Derry Girls’ in 2018 I thought, how can she top that? I was honestly waiting on season 4 but I guess Netflix had other plans. This mystery was ‘grand’. I loved the twists and turns all along the way and I can profess that at times it felt longwinded but held on trusting the Irish story telling way and it won. I love almost all Irish written crafted work. They have a way of taking you on a journey that allows you to understand and relate. The love affair deepened after I married my husband.
When you choose to become part of a clan, you must submit to the fact that you are now a PART of them. If this has not registered than you might as well realize that your future has been written out for you. Luckily for me, my husband was not the first Irish lad I fell for therefore belonging to the Celtic tribe was okay on my part. I grew to know about their history thanks in part to him yet somehow in my youth there were ‘attractions’ or ‘loves’ that pointed me to that direction. I LOVED ‘The Cranberries’ and loved movies like ‘ The Crying Game’, all having to do with them. My husband then let me know about their language and how the colonizers abolished the learning of their language. This fact made me relate to my learning Spanish.. How can anyone make you NOT learn your language? And today in the Irish island, so many young people are seeking to learn their own language..
And there is the subject about God.. I loved this show because of it.. because it makes you question it…. because God WANTS YOU to question it!!.. and I do and I don’t.. I love my Goddess… and I know my God.. and SHe knows me.. and S/He knows my heart and S/He knows all I have been through and all I will overcome in their name..
I thought about this recently…
I was removed unjustly from the ONE school that gave me LIFE, The High School of Fashion Industries. I was 12 years old when I was given the chance to go there and it happened. I was given the chance to teach there and it happened, thanks to the SVA program, and thanks to the teachers that looked after and sought over me I overcame, I became the teacher I was destined to be. Fifteen years later the principal decides he doesn’t want me there? I don’t understand. And I have asked via emailed and nothing.. I was taught not to give up. I was taught to fight when I believe an injustice has been committed and I have taught my students to do the same.
Just as the four friends in Ms. McGee’s show stayed ‘separate but inseparable’, digging through the uncertainties, making meaning out of meaningless moments, seeking truth for the sake of friendship and family, I live that kind of truth.. I have few friends and family and they are genuine, thank goodness. I want nothing but to get at the answers because anything else is meaningless and a waste of my time.
I do not know how long I have… how long we have, but I do know.. I have, within this past year remembered, a short amount of time, to make IT meaningful.
All of the answers I need, the answers we seek are around us.. we just need to turn the noise down, observe, listen and participate.
Who dunnit?
Rosa Isabel Chavez 