Thursday, January 10, 2008

Avoidance

Avoidance isn't always a bad thing. For instance, Kellie at La Vida Dulce has found that avoiding the full-on media blitz that happens 24/7 in this country allows her a level of personal peace. I have another pal who keeps completely away from all alcohol because of the pain that abuse of alcohol has caused in her family.

But it isn't always good either. I personally avoid watching intense movies or reading intense books. For some reason, my imagination will place me in whatever scenario is unfolding and I will emotionally "experience" sadness, hurt, loneliness, loss, fear...whatever is taking place in the story.

So what is the big deal? How this affects my husband and my date night. He likes intense films. He thinks they are exciting and finds my standby entertainment of chick-flicks a little tedious.

Well, we have sat on 2 movies for the last week, both dramas. One was Pay it Forward and the other Amazing Grace. I felt totally hoodwinked by Pay it Forward's ending, but still managed to handle it fairly well. But I was avoiding Amazing Grace because I was afraid of how it would portray the horrors of slave trade.

I was wrong to avoid it for this long. Perhaps it wasn't the greatest film in the history of film making, but it held my attention so completely and was so moving that I was actually sorry when it came to an end. For Wilberforce to have persisted through years of discouragement and through so many obstacles to follow through on what he felt called to...it was inspiring to me!! I need to learn from his example!!

And another lesson learned, I shouldn't avoid things just because they will be intense. That being said, there is balance in everything! I still don't want to give up on my chick-flicks, thank you very much.

3 comments:

Lara said...

Loved Amazing Grace but I kept waiting for Willberforce to bend and slide under a door (the actor played that kind of character in Fantastic 4) haven't seen Play it forward.

Anonymous said...

I am laughing that Amazing Grace was intense for you. Remember Con Air - where you shivered through most of the movie and swore you would never watch something like that again! Here's to Emma, Sleepless in Seattle, Sense and Sensibility, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, What Women Want, etc. I love watching them with you.
Big D

Unknown said...

SO funny that you should write on movies because weaks ago The Mister asked me to put X-men 1.5 on the Netflicks list so we could watch it. Together. I kind of put it a little lower on the list to avoid having to see it. Not because it is intense, but because it is a total boy movie.

But, on Saturday night we will be watching it. Together. Avoidance has come to an end for me too.

Also, I had never heard of Amazing Grace. We'll have to put that on the list!