Charlie & Rose

Charlie: "A man takes a drop too much once in a while, it's only human nature."
Rose: "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

The African Queen has always been one of my favorite movies. Not long after Gina and I got married - we had cut back on everything. We didn't get cable television for the first year of our marriage. We'd go to the Warren County Public Library and check out movies. I was happy to find John Huston's The African Queen available. John Huston directed another favorite of mine - The Treasure of Sierra Madre'. Gina and I brought the movie home and watched it one Friday night. I found myself still moved by it.

I was once asked what movie reminded me of my life - and I have to say The African Queen. I look at my marriage with Gina - how we muddle through from day to day - continue to learn more about each other. We are committed to our love for one another. We are two very different people and still after almost twenty years of going up this jungle river called life - know that we need and depend on each other. Quite often do we both have to get down in that muck side by side and pull our boat through together.

The African Queen was just a great movie when I was young. Now it is a very symbolic and moving work. I'm no Bogart and Gina is no Hepburn - but I am a slob - and Gina is a real lady. We love each other and count on each other like Charlie and Rosie did. We keep pushing on with our life and love - and trust God to work out the ending. Bob McLeod once said that married couples are like sandpaper. The more we are around each other - the more we rub against each other - the more we sand each other - the more we smooth off the edges. God uses each mate to refine the other.