I am still behind on blogging about our summer, but I wanted to post this while I was thinking about it.
Those of you who know me well, will know these two things.....I love movies, and I am easily entertained. I usually pick movies that are going to entertain me, not necessarily make me dig deep, because that's why I watch movies, to be entertained. Lately, there has been a shortage of non "R" rated movies that will purely entertain without being offensive (someone once said to me that I love every movie I see, I have a simple explination....I DON'T watch movies that I know I won't like ie. with gratuitious sex, extreme violence, kidnapping, or vulgar humor). Call me simple if you like, naive, whatever, but I watch movies because I like a happy ending. I watch a movie to escape. Back to there being a shortage of movies that I want to watch just to entertain me. This past week we rented two movies that made me think. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Soloist.
Benjamin Button had some things in it, that while to other people are just part of life and how the world works, and to me they were a little bit on the edge. this movie however made me think about how much we judge people by their outward appearance. We often times assume someone is going to be some certain way because they look a certain way. I am not unguilty of this. I too tend to judge people unfairly. I am working on improving this.
The Soloist highlight for me the homelessness problem our nation is facing. I would highly recommend this movie...it is awesome! It had a statement at the end that rocked me to the core. There are an estimated 90,000 homeless people in the greater Los Angeles area. That's as many people as live in the entire city where I live!!! Ninety thousand!!! How can that be in one of the (if not the) most prosperous nation in the world! I don't even know where to start on trying to help this situation, but it is eating me up. Yes, maybe if I would dig deeper, or "inform" myself by watching the news, this wouldn't be such a shock to me. How can the "Hollywood Elite" walk around paying thousands of dollars for a single outfit that they will wear once, when that money could buy food or pay for housing for another human being? Okay, enough being critical of others, because Heaven only knows how much money I have wasted that could have benefited someone else.
Okay, now that I have shared my lessons learned from the secular world, I would like to share something I read in the current Ensign magazine. I often struggle with not being the "perfect" wife and mother that I feel I ought to be. I enjoyed what Pres. Uchtdorf shared in his article called The Influence of Righteous Women. He said, "May I invite you to rise to the great potential within you. Bt don't reach beyond your capacity. Don't set goals beyond your capacity to achieve. Don't feel gilty or dwell on thoughts of failure. Don't compare yorself with others. Do the best yo can, and the Lord will provide the rest." This is a wonderful article, that reminded me just how valuable I am. I encourage everyone to read it. It made me feel like, if I did my best, I would be blessed and continue to grow.
2 comments:
Teri, very insightful. With all that is going on in the world, especially my world, it reminds me to stay grounded in the Lord. I wish we lived closer to each other because I know our "Emma"'s would love to meet!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I LOVE movies too and I am usually a pretty soft critic. :) I really liked Benjamin Button (even though Kurt was falling asleep in the theater) but The Soloist put both of us to sleep! I thought it was going to be really entertaining from the previews but it kinda disappointed me and I struggled to make it through the whole thing. It was really disturbing though to see how many people were living on the streets and all the violence, drugs, and starving people. I also really liked that Ensign article and what Pres. Uchtdorf had to say about women. It's hard not to feel guilty sometimes and like we don't measure up to the "perfect" wife & mother ideal. It's refreshing to realize we just need to do our best and we will be blessed. Thanks for letting me borrow the book for next week. I'll be there!
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