Stuff That Would Bore My Sisters, 11

Hellfighters, 1968, starring John Wayne and Katherine Ross

Sisters, I learned a lot from this movie about Texas oil well firefighters. One of the most important points was a few minutes into the movie. The leading younger man, Jim Hutton, meets a young lady at the site of the fire. He kisses her without asking before he goes off to fight he fire - barely knows her, btw. On his way back, he smiles to himself then glazes his eyes and looks past her. Pays her no attention, dawdles in the doorway, stumbles in - but leaves the door open. She runs in after him! He knew she would do that. It was a trick. How do I know? I've used it many times on my husband, lol.

Sisters - watch out for open "doors" and "windows" on the internet. If you go, like I did, then make sure you take notes - like I did!

The font is red because the dudes in the movie wore red. I will note that John Wayne portrayed a gentleman, and the Jim Hutton character behaved himself once he married. But they did enjoy putting out fires. I suppose everyone needs a hobby, ha ha. At least they didn't start the fires!

Stuff That Would Bore My Sisters, 10

Yul Brynner in Kings of the Sun, 1963.

Sisters, do you ever question my choice in movies? So do I. Whatever the reason, there is much to be learned from many of them. The older ones are closer to the ideals that I understand, the ideals that seemed important to my grandparents, to my teachers when I was a kid. To my daddy. Daddy also watched all the Elvis movies, but I don't want to go there. I enjoy listening to Elvis. I will leave it at that.

I've seen documentary type shows on the history of movie making. The beginnings and the progression make sense. Kings of the Sun makes sense. A group of Mayans (powerful group of people who lived in Mexico long ago) escape takeover by sailing north across the Gulf of Mexico where they nearly go to war with Plains Native Americans.

The two tribes' leaders fight over a woman. The Mayan king is too chicken to do what makes sense with leading his people and with communicating his feelings to his woman. The Plains chief teaches him a wiser way to lead - and almost steals the dude's woman because he has the spine to tell her how he feels, stand up for her. In the end, they fight together to defeat the ruthless 'evil' tribe that followed the Mayans across the water. The Mayan king learns that the sacrifice of all is enough for 'the gods,' so they don't need to shed innocent blood anymore. Many lessons within.

The newer movies, like The Dark Knight (is that the title of the latest Batman movie?), are good examples of how the ideals of the younger generation are in many ways the same - but a hero is needed, and few people know how to be one. And they are lost, waiting around for someone else to do something instead of looking inside themselves to ask 'how can I be part of the solution?' Maybe they think it has to be someone famous or rich. Nothing wrong with famous or rich heroes, but the rest of us can be, too.

In The Dark Knight movie, I also heard a lot of excuses for people who let themselves be led. Most of the characters had some kind of financial reason for not using their own minds, for not questioning their own judgment or the judgment of the person instructing them. And they didn't seem to notice their own inability to think for themselves.

Or maybe making excuses to just 'go along' has become the socially acceptable thing to do.

Stuff That Would Bore My Sisters, 9

Been watching a movie. Before anyone reads, I am aware that each country has its own bad, un-erasable memories that it must contend with, so please don't think I am picking on countries. I refer only to specific situations, events.

The Rabbit-Proof Fence, which stars Kenneth Branaugh, is a movie I first watched in the theater several years ago. Loved it so much, I bought the book. It's around here somewhere. Based on a true story, Aboriginal children in Australia with European lineage were taken from their families to be assimilated into the financially and politically dominant 'white' culture. Watching it again this afternoon, I felt a connection to the "half caste" girls who ran away from their kidnappers who were "trying to help them."

Don't get caught. The path back to their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, the path was incredibly difficult. And then, they still had to be careful not to get caught, forced into 'civilization.' In 'civilization,' the darker skinned children, less likely to blend in, were more likely to have jobs of servitude. An unfair situation, to say the least; and, truly, similar to other types of discrimination, such as political or religious beliefs, sexism.

Kenneth Branagh movies always make me think. Another of his movies, Conspiracy Theory, made me think, research - I researched the real people in The Rabbit-Proof Fence, too. One of my favorite things to do after watching a movie or reading a book is to get on the internet and find out as much as I can about the people, the events, the reasons.

Anyway, the Conspiracy movie is about how Hitler's military leaders, concerned for the morale of their soldiers (who did not like firing upon innocent, unarmed people), tried to remove the human element of killing. Their solution was to gas human beings (tricked them into 'taking showers'), and then cremate them.

All copies of the minutes from the meeting were destroyed except for one. For that one, we know the details. One of the details that struck me as horrific was how the men joked about the people turning pink from the gas asphyxiation. The human element was already eliminated from the leaders' minds - most of them. The few who disagreed were either afraid to speak up, or they were eliminated, if they did not escape.

I'm grateful for being alive, for living in the United States. I am proud that we no longer have lynchings here in the South where I live, that we can live and work alongside each other and be from Croatia, from Mexico, from Haiti, from Germany, from India, from anywhere. Well, some of us still have trouble with that, but it takes all of us seeing past the different names - people used to make fun of my Hispanic last name in the small town where I grew up. We have to see past skin color, eye shape; to hear past accents.

However, I am tired of having to defend myself for discussing the shape of my nose, the straightness of my hair (which, until I finally got a short hair cut, has been a curse). I should not be afraid to notice that I don't look like the person next to me. That doesn't make me better or worse, just different. If God wanted me to look like everyone else, then He would have made me that way. I am proud of my heritage.

I don't know all of my heritage, but I also feel the Rabbit girls' affinity to nature. Nature is a beautiful thing. Once, for a college class in fall 2005, I wrote the following Haiku:

Silent, old oak trees
Would have a thousand secrets
To tell if they could.

I have always felt them, with their secrets, hundreds and thousands of years old, passed along from generation to generation. Sometimes, I can almost hear them. And the ground, the grass, the wind, the hills and mountains... the rain. This is why I cannot believe that the way of the world will last forever. In the voice of what has been long before, kind of like "the deeper magic from the dawn of time" (C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), there is a truth long forgotten by all but a few who are waiting. I'm waiting. And I am ready.

Stuff That Would Bore My Sisters, 2

Sense and Sensibility would probably interest my sisters. Men, instead, would probably find that one boring.

The movie ends well for the characters only because they follow their hearts after society's rules (regarding love and marriage) leave them wanting. I completely understand the feeling of being left wanting for love by trying to do what others think is right. I can also identify with Mary Anne's character for 'becoming acquainted with the world' too quickly and in a manner that nearly led to my 'ruination.' Only neither am I as innocent as she, nor am I the type to sink into a depression until a man resues me.

That being said, I like Colonel Brandon's character as he is truly devoted, nonjudgmental, and, throughout his lady's introduction to the world and subsequent downfall, her knight. Everyone sees how much he adores Mary Anne. Knowing that Willoughby is a scoundrel, he expresses his hope that the young man will be worthy of her. Yet he does not want to appear treacherous, allows her to choose her suitor. Only after she learns of how she has been played does the Colonel reveal his knowledge of Willoughby's indiscretions.

Even when Mary Anne is still getting over her unfaithful lover, Colonel Brandon cares for her. She falls in love with him after all. And he restores her to a place of honor in society. As tough as I feel I've had to be in restoring my own honor (though not without help from some others after all), I rather cherish chivalric behaviors and long to give my handkerchief to my most worthy knight.

Stuff That Would Bore My Sisters

I spent two hours yesterday chopping up plums and boiling them for the juice to make jelly. Chopping up plums is a good way to relieve stress, you know, and to relieve boredom. Since I don't have a job, I have a lot more time to make jelly, read, watch movies... Perhaps some of us should get together to watch a movie and then talk about it over salsa or cheese dip!