The Secret Life of Bees

I really suck at picking out movies. That’s why movie picking is Mr. Sunday’s job. But I yesterday I took a stab at it. I wanted something that Mad and I could watch together. You know – she’s 12. And, well, it is hard to feel connected with a 12 year old. I am connected all right, but she is in the process of trying to hate us enough so she will be compelled to support herself move the heck out of our house by the time she is 18. I’d say she is well on her way.

Anyway I chose a movie I thought was family friendly, heartwarming, you know “feel good movie” The Secret Life of Bees. She is old enough to understand the social commentary and the story of the teenaged white girl showing up on the doorstep of a black family and how she came to belong to them, has some parallel with MY own story. I thought it would be nice for her to see we are not the only white people who have a WHOLE black family of their own.

Of course Mad decided that she would rather go to bed than hang out with her parents. The Mr. fell asleep less than half way through.

Leaving me to sob, red nosed and snot faced for the entire last half by myself. Really! I am pathetic when it comes to movies. I mean embarrassingly wretched. Maybe I’ll have my friend Yo do a guest post about watching the end of Thelma and Louise with me in a crowded theater. Blubbering idiot. I am still attempting to live that one down in MY OWN MIND.

I hate loss even when I know it is just a movie. It’s a PTSD thing some may not understand.

Anyway I guess I am glad I got a chance to prescreen it for Mad. What are the chances I will weep like a freaking willow the second time around?

I said all of that to say that this quote sums it all up for me. I may have never had that self-sacrificing and unconditional love one expects their parents are capable of, but I have never lacked love. I am one lucky girl and I have lived a charmed life.

“And there they were. All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street. They are the moons shining over me.”

~The Secret Life of Bees

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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