Hey Boo.

I've been trying to feel sorry for myself all day. I was planning to throw myself a huge pity party. Yesterday, as I was gathering steam for the upcoming event, I mentioned to a young man I work with how sad I am. 

 

What with the holidays coming up, knowing my children weren't coming to visit.  I told him I had been thinking back on all the holidays I spent as a kid without half my family. Thinking about my last marriage that ended eleven years ago...the hurt my kids endured because of their volitile parents. Splitting them up like property as in The Parent Trap. You get one, I get one. Stupid choices made while trying to be fair. Eleven years later wondering how I could have done it differently. How I might have spared my children? I have no answer.

Anyhoo....this young man I was bemoaning my life to, just happened to be from El Salvador.  Yes, that El Salvador.  He said he felt terrible to see a mother sad.  He then went on to tell me that he couldn't see his own mother even though he desperately wanted to.  

You see, Juan grew up during the war in El Salvador.  He told me stories of walking with his mother and being told to ignore the dead bodies in the street.  Of not having electricity, and hearing the soldiers come around to houses in the middle of the night to claim teenage boys for the army.  He didn't even want to tell me about things that happened to the teenage girls.  He didn't want me to hear it.  

When Juan was 15, his mother put his things in a paper bag and sent him away.  To save his life.  See, they lived in fear of the men coming in the night and taking him away to kill and possibly be killed himself.  At 15, and not knowing a soul, he traveled to Guatemala...then to Mexico and finally to the United States.  He said many people helped him, out of the kindness of their hearts.  Today he has a young family and works hard to take care of them as well as to send money back to his mother who stayed behind.

Well...you can imagine the damper this story put on my pity party.  Needless to say, I canceled the caterers.  

 So, now....I need a good movie.   I want something that may break your heart, but reminds you of the triumph of the will.  The elasticity of the human spirit. You know, the ability to bounce back and go forward with your head high?   It's corny, I know.   

So, help me out...what would be your top moments in film, that were heartbreaking, yet, brought out the survivor in you?  That showed strength and courage in the face of ....well, of life.

In other words, if you were going to sit in your flannel pajamas, and eat a quart of Cherry Garcia ice cream...what movie scenes would you want to be watching?

The moment that Scout sees Boo Radley hiding behind the bedroom door in To Kill A Mockingbird.  "Hey Boo".

Shirley Mclaine slapping her little Grandson while his mother lies dying in the hospital in Terms Of Endearment.  "I just can't have you criticizing your mother around me."

Spencer Tracy's last monologue in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.    "The only thing that matters is what they feel and how much they feel it."

Anna reading the letter from the King as he lies dying of a broken heart.

Gilbert Grape deciding his mother's death was not going to be a sideshow.

Those are five of the best.

I'd really like to hear your suggestions.  I have the box of kleenex ready to go.  

So, hit me with your best shot!