Day 14: Movies

Is it really a 30 day challenge if you take two months off?

I haven’t been completely inactive the last couple of months with my writing. Just piecing stuff together in the time I have. Two paragraphs during a cigarette break at work, a couple sentences while Chase is in the bathtub. . . But it’s literally been just little bits and pieces here and there. I did write a whole blog post for the thirty day writing challenge, but it was out of order, so I’ll edit and publish that one tomorrow. I’ve been extremely busy though. I’ll have an update post, too. For now though. . .

If there’s a post for the writing challenge about music, you know there’s a post about movies. And really, I see the point in this. You can tell so much about a person by the art they enjoy, the stories they love. Whether it’s love stories or action movies, rock music or country – you find out a lot about a person through their choices in entertainment. I’ve often thought about how I can be such a happy, upbeat person but love a good, loud, anger filled rock song. I’m sure there’s a blog post in that somewhere. But for today, we’re talking movies.

Day 14: Post your favorite movies that you never get tired of watching.

First off, I don’t watch television much, if at all. I lived in my first apartment without a TV for almost a year, and didn’t even miss it until someone came over and was like ummmm. . . Where’s your TV? When I was pregnant with each of the boys and then when they were babies I did watch some TV, but it was mainly because I was too tired to do anything else, and once they were born I didn’t have hands to hold a book to read. With my pregnancy with Matt it was Fear Factor and NCIS with Dad, and some cartoons and news as well, but mainly because those were my dad’s shows of choice. While Matt was a baby it was House, and just about anything on HGTV, and in the wee morning hours MTV music videos were background noise as I tried to keep my eyes open. For Chase it was sitcoms with his older sister, and an occasional movie as I shoved popcorn in my face. . . the only thing that seemed to take away the nausea that plagued me through the first two trimesters. I spent time reflecting and scrolling Facebook after he was born, and watching kid movies with Matthew.

I do make a point to have regular movie nights with the boys, and have come to love Marvel movies and a handful of newer Disney movies. But if we’re just talking movies I love? That gets a little difficult.

I happen to have three go-to movies on the rare occasion that I want to watch a movie – Rent, How Stella got her Groove Back, and What Dreams may Come. They puzzle even me, given my general taste in music, and my preference for Stephen King and Dean Koontz for reading material.

All three have uplifting story lines, however. Rent tells us we can be whoever the hell we want to be, to love each other without condition, and that pushing through the hard times is doable. Stella lets us know that a relationship shouldn’t define us, and love can be found anywhere – regardless of age, location, or any other thing that society may want us to believe. What Dreams may Come lets us know that love transcends everything.

I have literally puzzled over this for the last two months – I’m aware that I stopped dead in my writing tracks just before Inkcarceration, my deepest apologies to you and to myself for this. I started this post just before I left and kept coming back to look at it – how am I going to explain why I love these movies?

It finally dawned on me, though.

I have to be super tired to take the time to sit down to watch a movie by myself. A kind of tired that goes beyond physical and mental fatigue, my very soul must be tired. And if I’m that kind of tired I need a reminder that humanity and life in general are not that bad, that there is still hope regardless of how I am feeling and what I’m feeling it about. These movies do that for me.

There is also the rare occasion where there’s a movie I just want to see that I missed in theatres that Matt won’t watch with me – a good action movie, the new Stephen King remakes. . .

But when I’m too tired to think, and to do. . . When I’m too tired for the things that I normally do to soothe my soul – reading, music, writing, gardening or yoga – I reach for these movies. I kick back with junk food and a blanket in a dark room and lose myself in the hope and love in these movies, in the joy found in unexpected circumstances. I forget my world for awhile and lose myself in this other world, where despite it all the characters predictably come through it, and perhaps better for their tribulations. I do nothing, I am nobody. I shut down and forget my day to day. And when it’s all said and done, I’m better for the mental break.

Happy Sunday, folks. Take time to take care of your mental and emotional self once in awhile. Trust me when I say, you’ll be surprised with the renewed energy you have.