A weekly (sometimes) post of beauty seen, heard or discovered
The past week was a very dark one for me- the darkest in quite a while. The last few months have been difficult and it has been hard to find beauty... much less write about it. But this weekend, I was desperate. I needed something to give me some hope. All my usual standbys- prayer, exercise, reaching out to friends, music- had so far not made much of a dent into the dark cloud.
The first thing to come along was on Saturday night. I hired a DVD, made my scrumptious home-made chorizo, sweet potato and fetta pizza, and sat down with my mum to enjoy.
Liberal Arts was a surprisingly beautiful, funny and heartfelt movie. Its a coming of age story about coming of age... at any age. I was expecting a light romantic comedy, but it turned out to be a funny, heartfelt, profound and very deep story. Its about finding truth and beauty and reality in unlikely places; about embracing the season of your life, whatever that may be; about opening your eyes to the transcendent moments that happen every day, everywhere.
For example, there is a beautiful montage where the young college student Zibby has given the older graduate Jesse a mix of classical music to 'discover'. It's stunning and candid and hilarious.
The scene that spoke most deeply to me was a scene where Jesse is sitting in hospital with a young boy he befriended from college. Dean has just attempted suicide, but survived due to a phone call to Jesse at the last minute. (Note: the following is my paraphrase.) Jesse tells the young Dean that the horrid and dark place he is in will end and there will be a time when he will be able to appreciate the freedom and beauty of all that life has to offer each day. Dean asks in response if that is what is been like for Jesse since he left college? "Hell, No!" Jesse responds. But some days it has, and you learn to appreciate and see more clearly when the beauty comes along. I haven't really done the scene justice, but it is a beautiful, poignant reminder of grace and hope.
And then there are the random throwaway lines that stop you in your tracks like "Any place you don't leave is a prison".
Allison Janney (CJ Cregg from The West Wing) and Zac Efron also make brilliant and funny cameos.
You can watch the trailer here, but I don't think it really shows you just how beautiful this movie is. So go watch the whole thing!
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