The Descendants and the glory of long weekends
It really has been a glorious long weekend, despite the fact that I have this lingering cold that is preventing me from spending adequate time on my yoga mat.
Saturday evening, Jay and I used our Groupon for the Dedham Community Theatre so we could go see The Descendants. I realize that we’re way late to the game on this one, but seriously, it’s one of the best movies we’ve ever seen.
Note: if you haven’t seen this movie and want to, this post is a major spoiler.
It gets down to the core on so many different levels. Earlier in the day I had been listening to a Buddhist podcast about truly understanding death and the decomposition of the body (morbid, I know). The woman went to a class in which they dismembered a body, layer by layer, until they got to the last organ and realized that they never got to know more about who the person was and that there was nothing left.
This movie, somehow, found a way to help you consider all of that — from seeing the mother’s comatose and slightly decaying body as she is dying to the father learning, from his oldest daughter, that his wife had been cheating on him and was in love with someone else — something you can’t learn from a person’s physical body.
To that, it spoke to the sanctity of marriage and how the father had wanted to make things better once his wife, the love of his life, woke up. He knew things hadn’t been perfect — that he hadn’t been perfect — but he wanted to do whatever it took to make it work. Being married, to a devoted and faithful man, this really struck a cord. I can’t imagine living my life without him or watching him die the way George Clooney’s character had to watch his wife die.
The movie hit the importance of forgiveness, when the wife of the man who had been sleeping with Clooney’s shows up at the hospital and forgives the woman for trying to tear apart her marriage and her family; when Clooney says goodbye to the woman he loves, no matter how difficult she had been, for the last time.
I left with my insides feeling completely rattled. It made me so grateful for what I have — I am always grateful, but it was a really amazing reminder.
Additionally this weekend, I met with author Mary McAvoy, who I had interviewed for the Haverhill Gazette while I was a freelance reporter a couple of years ago. She and I have quite a bit in common, including our love of writing and our battle against chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. It’s inspiring to sit with someone who struggles with the same health issues that I do who has found a way to really do what she loves with her life.
Yesterday I went to an Astrology class in Watertown. I’m looking forward to continuing learning about that next month, as well. Class was followed up by dinner with my family, Desperate Housewives in bed, and sleep early to kick this cold. Today? Already went grocery shopping and now I’m “shopping” online.
How has your weekend been?
