Not a large entry this week. The two weeks around the holidays are always busy for me, even though I’m technically on vacation. I’m even busier this year, with new ventures and opportunities looking me in the face.
But, I wanted to take a moment to share something that I experienced yesterday afternoon while at my local theater to see True Grit. I share it because it was a single moment of purity that came out of a trailer of mediocrity.
Before True Grit, I had to sit through the “Coming Attractions”. Now, I’m one of those folks who actually likes to get to the theater early to see the trailers before the movie starts. This time, I had to endure an assault to my senses called Country Strong, with Gwyneth Paltrow as a country singer.
Didn’t she already do this movie?
Anyway, I was almost to the point of clawing my eyes out and setting my face on fire when a scene popped up in the trailer that somehow managed to cut through my anguish and plant warm fuzzies in my blood pumper:
A young boy with cancer asks Gwyneth’s character if she would sing a song for him.
For some reason, the simplicity of that moment hit me right between the eyes.
It illustrated something that we all probably neglect to think about, even for a moment. In a country where we have political parties constantly at each other’s throats for every little difference in policy and belief, where people are quick to push aside their fellow man for their own benefit, where
corporations seem to be favoured over the common man, where people find the need to be ugly to others online because they can… there are thousands of sick children out there who have wants and needs that are very simple – as simple as asking for someone to sing them a song. They don’t care about politics or money or who’s going to be the next American Idol. They just want a song, a hug, comfort, love… life.
These children – though most of them have very short moments left on this world while others are on borrowed time – these children seem to have a better idea as to what’s important in life than any of us do. It’s so simple. It’s so pure. It’s something we should all learn from. It’s something we should all strive to be.
And to think that I got all of this from a crappy movie trailer.