Chased by the Cops

Last weekend I watched the classic chick flick, Thelma and Louise. I remember being so shocked by the undoing of these suburban women in the film. They evolve from being tightly wound Stepford-like women with no voice into strong-willed independent women who can stand on their own. Unfortunately, their transformation also includes guns, murder, robbery and being chased by the cops (small details, LOL).

Thelma lets loose her inner vixen and flirts with a new breed of men - Brad Pitt being one of them and who can blame her? Along this path of broken hearts, broken laws and miss-adventures they find their courage and their power bolstered by their deep friendship. In the end they are cornered and forced by the cops to be taken captive dead or alive -- and the most powerful moment of the film is when they decide it won’t be either.

It kind of makes you think about your friends and you wonder – which of my friends would be there with me driving triumphantly over a cliff in a blue mustang?

I have this friend, I’ll call her Junie, and she is every bit as powerful as Louise and every bit the vixen like Thelma. Junie has been to hell and back watching the men in her life disappoint her and lead her astray by their lame example. But Junie had the inner resources, the gift, of reinventing herself at critical crossroads in her life. Junie seems to find the strength in herself and the faith in her Lord to pull herself through each impasse to carve out a new corner of the world that beckons her to move past, to move forward, and to do better.

After supporting me through my divorce, rescuing a co-worker from domestic abuse, and offering her home to some hard-luck adults with questionable rental history she has proven the critics wrong by empowering us all, this ragged lot of vagabonds, into standing tall, into rising above our crises, and showing us by example that we must pay it forward.

Junie is moving on this month. She’s trusting God to move her life in a new direction thousands of miles from here. I’m anticipating the stories she’ll post online of her new adventures, her new men, and her new outreach to her community. Junie has changed the dynamic of her past by blazing this new life of reaching out to others. Her example of paying it forward goes before her and will light the path for her future.

If I ever find myself in a blue mustang with the top down I’ll honk my horn and blast my radio for you Junie – you’re my Thelma and Louise package deal! Have a great ride!!