In 1994, I
was captivated but a nice show about two angels
named Monica and Tess who were occasionally joined
by a tall, handsome fellow named Adam... who liked
turkeys. And Monica had an accent I
envied. And beautiful clothes. And 12
year old me was happy. I wanted to be Monica
when I grew up. Then, a year later, some
blonde guy showed up. And I wanted him to go
away because Monica sure didn't seem to like
him. But he didn't go away. He stayed...
and I had my first serious crush. And then
Monica actually believed some reporter... who she'd
just met, I might add... over Andrew. Over her
friend! And Andrew was so beautiful...
And she kicked dirt on him ("Only Connect")!
Seriously! What was her problem!?
But we all have bad days... But then she
snapped his suspenders ("Voice of an Angel")!
Rudely!
Thus, bit by bit, did my affection for Monica get
sidelined by my crush on the ever-lovely
Andrew. But deep down I still really liked
Monica. No, she wasn't perfect. But she
didn't have to be. Only God is perfect.
And so while I'd get annoyed by her occasional
lapses into snobbishness (seriously, show some
respect for Ronald!) or emotional cluelessness (yes,
it's totally okay to hug Tess like that while Andrew
just stands there so you can all maybe get a page in
Awkward Family Photos), I did like her. But
then "Netherlands" happened. And, try as I
might, I just can't accept that Monica. I
couldn't get over how a supposedly compassionate
angel with this oh-so-wonderful heart could know
that so many, many people had died and so many more
were grieving and in need of comfort and yet
leave. I could not accept that she... who did
not lose a child or a spouse or a parent or a
friend... could have a woe-is-me fest and dream
about pregnancy as humanity grieved losses they
would feel for decades. My animosity towards
this Monica got to the point that I could barely
write her in stories. But as Joshua
approaches, I wanted to make peace with the
character. (The Dyeland twist on "Hurry and
look busy! Jesus is coming!") So I wrote
this. And I came to realize that, with all due
respect to the TBAA writers who wrote so many
beautiful episodes and lines, what bugged me about
"Netherlands" is that I really don't feel like that
was "our Monica" in that episode. She just
seems terribly out of character to me. I can't
fathom that the angel who was ready to give up
everything for Jean in "Liberty Moon" just walked away from a dying
child... and contemplated walking away from someone
whose presence in her life I envied more than any
accent or any dress. So this story isn't about
the Monica of "Netherlands." This is about the
Monica whose accent and clothes I loved and who I
wanted to be when I grew up.
Put bluntly: This is my twist on
"Netherlands." I had to alter a few things for
reasons I explain at the end. But mostly this
is me just trying to find a way to keep what I can
of "Netherlands" as part of the Dyeland universe and
yet not have it seem quite so much like the Monica
we know and love was replaced by a narcissistic
doppelganger. My default position when writing
Dyeland has always been that the actual experiences
of Andrew, Monica, Tess, and the others very, very
closely mirrored what we saw on TBAA. With
this story, I take a slightly different approach but
I hope I succeed in keeping it within the spirit of
TBAA ("God loves you") and the spirit of Dyeland
("So love each other... tons.")
God bless,
Jenni
The Coffee Summit
October 3, 2010