Looking Up & Laughing — Vayera 5782
Hello, World!
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”
I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off this week. It’s safe to say it’s one of my favorite movies, and dare I say, a cinematic masterpiece that future generations are bound to under appreciate.
But let’s be clear, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off isn’t actually about Ferris Bueller, it’s about his best friend—Cameron Fry.
You see Ferris has it all figured out, or so we’re led to believe. He’s got the clever schemes, staying one step ahead of his sister and principal all day. He’s got the girl, the loving parents, the looks, the singing voice, the charm, the charisma. It’s no wonder kids at his school started a Save Ferris movement. Ferris seems awesome.
Cameron, though, he’s not together at all. He’s sick the whole movie, he’s nervous and hesitant, concerned about being caught out of school, or about wrecking his fathers prized Ferrari. Only 100 were made after all. And if you haven’t seen the movie, no spoilers, but seriously go watch it. No regrets.
The Torah this week finds Abraham and Sarah in Mamre, when three angels of the Lord come to their tent, and Abraham offers them what hospitality he can.
Abraham slaughters a calf, Sarah kneads cakes, and they bathe the mens feet. In return, one of the men blesses them, and promises to return in a year, when they shall have a son. Sarah, famously, laughs, and immediately is judged for her lack of faith and wonder at what is possible in this world.
I imagine Cameron, so worried about being caught skipping school, had similar feelings of shock, awe, and even horror upon hearing his friend Ferris dedicate a song to him, before watching Ferris rip into a cover of Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen,” and The Beatles “Twist and Shout” from the center float of a parade headed right though downtown Chicago and past his father’s office.
How’s that for flirting with danger and not getting caught? And why, you might ask?
The whole spectacle is an effort to help Cameron, “who doesn’t think he’s seen anything good today,” and only moments before is convinced that Ferris had ditched him and gone back to school—school of all places. Honestly it’s way more preposterous that Sarah laughing. The idea of a 90 woman having a child is kind of laughable. The idea of Ferris Bueller going to school on a day like this? It’s just unconscionable.
Cameron can’t believe how close Ferris has come to getting caught. But by the end of the movie he agrees that his day off with Ferris was the best day of his life.
Sarah probably had a similar reflection, perhaps years later, when recalling the moment she laughed at G-d’s promise of motherhood, only to look back on that day as one of her best, a day when a lifelong dream slowly began to come true. It is the incredulity of that moment that leads to Sarah’s growth, even pushes her to grow, as she readies herself to become a mother, despite the unique challenges she faces at her age.
Ferris doesn’t need a push in his own growth, but his friend Cameron does. That’s what the whole day off is about, inspiring Cameron’s confidence in himself so he can go off and succeed at college, without his best friend Ferris. And it works, eventually.
At their day, Cameron can’t fathom a future without Ferris and Sloan. “I’m really gonna miss you guys next year,” he says. Then the challenges kick in.
At first, Ferris’s failure to roll back the miles the parking lot attendees put on Cameron’s father’s prized Ferrari seems like enough to push Cameron to face his father with confidence. He definitely seemed to feel ready after bashing the front bumper in with his foot. But it’s the final push Cameron gives the car, the one that send the still running Ferrari, with the engine still in reverse, sailing out the back window of the garage that pushes Cameron, no pun intended, straight over the edge.
Looking down at the car he chuckles to himself, runs his fingers through his hair, and smiles. Cue the music, and the slow pan of the camera in on a key character’s face during his moment of growth. “Don’t worry about it,” he says with a rye smile.
Cameron found the strength in himself to stand confidently in his own shoes, despite his own self doubt, just like Sarah found the strength in herself to become a mother despite her own insecurities. Both of them took a moment of incredulity, expressed through laughter, to look up and look around.
After all, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”
And if you’re one of those people who’s “pissed off because Ferris ditches and doesn’t get caught,” or because Sarah laughs and doubts, and doesn’t get punished, well at the risk of quoting Charlie Sheen’s cameo appearance in Ferris Bueller’s day off—maybe your problem is you.
Shabbat Shalom
