Cinemark Movie Bistro & XD
Fort Collins, CO
Monday May 27th, 2019
Memorial Day
It was Memorial Day, Monday May 27th, 2019. I was working on this particular Memorial Day at the podium at the Cinemark Movie Bistro & XD movie theater. The big movie out that holiday was the remake of Disney’s Aladdin. Many came out to see Aladdin that day, along with other Disney holdovers including Captain Marvel, the Dumbo remake, and the massive hit Avengers: Endgame.
I counted tickets all throughout my shift that day, letting my coworkers know how many people attended each movie so they would know how long each theater would take to clean. I answered radio calls from management and staff concerning various issues. I tended to concerns of the guests that came to the theater that day, tore their tickets, and directed them to management and staff if they had significant concerns. I even walked over to the building’s i-Pad on the wall adjacent to me, and throughout the day, updated each movie’s status listed on the i-Pad to “NOW SEATING.”
It was overall a normal day that went by rather quickly. Yet, there was something different about this day.
When the doors would open to the central XD theater, after each Aladdin show, the credits would roll as the new version of the song “A Whole New World” by ZAYN and Zhavia Ward would usher moviegoers out into the “real world” once again.
Like many of my fellow millennials, I cringed standing at the podium, thinking of how ZAYN from One Direction was ruining one of the best movie theme songs of all time.
Yet, each time I heard that song that day, a memory of the original by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, made me smile and took me to another place, over 8,500 miles away.
Almost 8 years before that day, I was a few days into my second trip to Uganda. I was sitting on the porch at the main compound for Come Let’s Dance in Nansana, Uganda talking with people and listening to the radio.
It was a great afternoon, until the moment a certain song, began to play on a very old and busted radio on the front porch. Suddenly, I heard the words…
“I can show you the world…”
Almost instantly, I screamed and squealed in delight. I then took that radio, turned it up full blast, and ran with it through the house in Nansana, screaming and yelling the words to “A Whole New World” to everyone at home.
Manic from still adjusting to jet lag, I could not stop reiterating to everyone at the compound, “I can’t believe it! Of all the songs! I can’t believe it!”
It was a great memory, one I would forever associate with the song “A Whole New World.” And all throughout that Memorial Day, the memory of that song, the joy I felt, and all the experiences I had in Uganda, was just enough to bring a smile to my face and to get me through the day. No “Ken” or “Karen” could steal my joy!
Over the past weeks, many across the country have began to experience another kind of joy, the freedom of not having to wear masks. As states have lifted mask mandates, loosened or done away with restrictions, we’ve begun to step outside, see each other smiles, and feel just a little lighter, not having the burden of a mask.
As movie theaters, concert venues, and even Disney World all optimistically edge closer and closer to full capacity, so many of us, for the first time in over a year, look forward to the future, and have hope to enjoy life once again.
Yet, in this broken world, there are still things to bring us down or make us anxious. Economic uncertainty, political division, future pandemics, end times prophecy, and a “rabbit hole” of conspiracies, so deep, that it can take us all the way to “Wonderland.”
Memories and life experiences are good things to make us happy, bring us joy, and help us to remember the important things. Yet, if the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything: memories, experiences, along with nostalgic music and movies are not enough to keep us secure, safe, and from completely falling apart.
Yet, Matthew 7:24-25 reminds us there is Someone who provides a way to keep us strong and secure.
Matthew 7:24-25 ESV
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
He gives us strength. He enables us to face adversity and pain. Through the rain, through the flood, through every storm, He will lead us, until we grace the doors of Heaven, and enter into a “whole new world” infinitely better than anything we could ever imagine.
Until Next Time,
Jacob McGowen
The Adventures of A Warrior 