Millie

There are several old tv series that I enjoyed so much that I’ll watch them repeatedly. Andy Griffin is one that I have written several devotions on and MASH is another. I think the reason I enjoy them so much is that they are mostly comedies but not crude comedies.  More importantly, they offer a moral lesson that makes them worthwhile.

For example, I caught a MASH episode from near the end of its run titled “Who Knew?” The episode started with Hawkeye getting back from a date with a relatively new nurse named Millie Carpenter. His exuberance made him gush with a positive emotional summary provided to his tent mate and best friend BJ. The next morning, he found out that she went walking after their date and stepped on a land mine and died. Hawkeye volunteered to give the eulogy and most of the rest of the episode was him trying to find out details about Millie.

Hawkeye kept hitting roadblock after roadblock trying to find out details of her life due to her short time there since arrival and her desire to work the evening shift. The few stories that he heard were fairly negative like her only sharing one piece of fudge from a big box of fudge. Eventually, Father Mulcahy, as officer of the court to return her belongings to her next of kin, shares her journal with Hawkeye.

In presenting the eulogy, Hawkeye explains the few stories that he heard from her co-workers that appeared negative really had a positive rationale. For example, she shared the rest of the fudge with all the recovering patients (which is why she only shared one piece with her co-workers). She picked the evening shift because she was an introvert and liked the quiet work hours. But more importantly, he shared that she, because she was an introvert, didn’t tell the people that she cared the most for how she felt. Hawkeye took that lesson to heart for himself and took the opportunity to tell his fellow workers that he loved each and every one of them. It is a very emotionally touching scene.

“I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.” - Philemon 1:4-7 ESV

In my upbringing (and I think my wife’s upbringing), my parents loved me but rarely expressed it verbally. Compound this with my introverted nature and it is hard for me to tell another person (my wife hears it the most and that not often enough) that I love them. Oh, how I am jealous of people like Patrick who tell me (and many others I am sure) that he loves them. I wish I could learn Millie’s lesson.

As a feeble attempt, if you have read this far, know that I love you with Christ’s love.

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;” - 1 Peter 1:22-23