movie theaters

I don't like movie theaters. I think it's bizarre to pay $8 (more or less) to sit in a room with a bunch of people I don't know and then watch tv, very loudly, while wondering what exactly is on the floor. It's rude to talk, but I like talking. Other people talk and that annoys me. At home, you can watch the movie for about $3-4, in your own house where you know exactly what is on the floor, you can talk all you want and you can rewind if you miss something.

Having said that, I saw two movies this week: Charlotte's Web and The Pursuit of Happyness. Both were excellent and I highly recommend them. CW was witty, encouraging, laugh-out-loud funny, and tearful. PoH was saddening, encouraging, eye-opening, and dramatic. Both said things about life that were so great, I'm going to share them with you. I was really struck by how both of these movies, which seem so different, have the same exact themes. Now maybe this happens with most movies and I've just not watched enough of them in close enough proximity to one another to catch it, but this time I just really caught on.

Without further ado, three things I noticed in common between Charlotte's Web and the Pursuit of Happyness:
1. The main characters are so determined! (Fern is not going to let that pig be killed, and neither is Charlotte. Chris is going to be a good dad, he's going to be there for his son, he's going to provide, he's going to get their life together.)
2. The main characters work really really hard, all out of love for someone else, not for themselves.
3. The main characters really believe that the world can be different. Even when other people, even significant people, tell them it's not possible, even when everything is against them, even when everything looks hopeless, they continue to see possibilities, to trust, to hope, to believe. Ultimately, I think this is what the Christian life is really about--to believe that things can be different, that they will, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. and then to put into action themes 1 and 2--to work for that different world, to be determined, to love.

And that's my insight for the day. The end.