"Finding Mr. Chips"

I joined the Church in 1969.  That was the year the movie version of one of my favorite books, "Goodbye Mr. Chips" by James Hilton, came out starring Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. The movie had a profound effect on me.

Perhaps it was one of the contributing factors as to why just a few years later I would fall madly in love-at-first-sight with David Lisonbee because, with his moustache (which he only had for a very short time) and his wire-rimmed glasses he would remind me of Peter O'Toole as the young Mr. Chips.

Peter O'Toole's scholarly and timid character, Mr. Arthur Chipping - affectionately known as "Chips" spends 58 years as a professor teaching young boys at the prestigious boarding school in England named Brookfield.  It is the kind of place where one's IQ is increased just by walking around it's ivy-covered walls and through it's hallowed halls.




It's a love story. But it's not just about the romantic love that Chips discovers late in life when he meets and marries the beautiful, talented, and gregarious actress, Katherine Ellis (Petula Clark) while vacationing in Pompeii, Italy. (Another reason to love the movie is because of the scenes filmed in some of my favorite places in Italy - Pompeii and Paestum)  But it is also about the love of learning and goodness and virtue and character.

When I heard the main theme song of the movie I never forgot it. "Fill The World With Love." In the film it is the school song that the boys sing every day. I would end up singing it for the rest of my life.   I dreamed of a world where young men would still sing a song like this. But by the end of the Sixties, lyrics about God and virtue would hardly have been the topic of the most popular songs of the day. So while my friends were singing about The Age of Aquarius and Crimson and Clover I continued to sing the theme song from Goodbye Mr. Chips.


More important to me than my quest to find my own Mr. Chipping was to find a world like the one depicted in the movie that featured young men trying to cultivate character and virtue. Virtues that were quickly being lost in the era I found myself in. I was surrounded by a culture touting the virtue of mind-altering psychedelic drugs and the mantra to make love not war. I longed to know that the world still contained young men who would sing songs about integrity and character and songs that weren't just about making love, but about filling the world with it.

I prayed that these ideals would survive in a world where traditional values seemed to be going up in smoke as fast as the burning of the incense so popular with the hippie culture of that time. When my sister Rita and I expressed our desire to find a virtuous young man we were told that what we were searching for was only to be found in fairy tales and that this world no longer had gentlemen and knights in shining armor.

For years I searched unsuccessfully for the music of this song and for the movie.

I'm happy to now report that my quest to find both the song, the movie, and the ideal were successful.  My sister and I found the ideal that year when we joined the Church. And just the other day, over 45 years later, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have found the song and the movie. I now share the song with you. Click on the arrow to hear the first verse.


"In the morning of my life I shall look to the sunrise
at a moment in my life when the world is new,
And the blessing I shall ask is that God will grant me
to be brave and strong and true.
And to fill the world with love my whole life through."

(Second verse)

"In the noon-time of my life I shall look to the sunshine,
at a moment in my life when the sky is blue,
and the blessing I shall ask will remain un-changing,
to be brave and strong and true,
and to fill the world with love my whole life through."

At the end of the movie Peter O'Toole gives a moving rendition of the third verse

"In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset
at a moment in my life when the night is due.
And the question I shall ask only I can answer,
was I brave and strong and true?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through."

Recently David and I watched the movie. I was nervous that like many movies one loves from their youth they are not the same when viewed years later. But I was pleased to see that like David, the movie has aged very well.  It was as wonderful to me as when I first saw it. And I was also pleased to see that my companion, who at one time reminded me of the young Mr. Chipping, loved it too.  I'm not quite sure what I would have done if he hadn't! But you must be warned - when you watch this film you will need what they call in Portuguese, "um lenço". A handkerchief.

When I first saw the film many years ago it stirred in me a desire to be brave and strong and true. It also caused me to long for a world where virtuous young men still sang songs expressing a desire to be their best selves and to make the world a better place. My sister and I were told that young men like this no longer existed and if they did they were a dying breed.  The good news is that these young men are not extinct. We work with them every day. They are alive and thriving within our Church. They really do exist and they continue to sing. They sing loudly and with conviction songs about God that inspire us to be better, to serve others, and to fill the world with love our whole life through.

Missionaries singing at the Provo MTC

May we all continue to be brave and strong and true and to fill the world with love our whole life through.

Until next time, Onward, ever onward!

I also found the song, Fill The World With Love performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on their album Showtime.

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