The Melting Pot of Earth

I just realised that its been ages since I last posted here, so I am rectifying that now :-)

I watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's" on Monday night. Last time I saw it, it was on a tiny little black and white tv at a friend's place. He'd never seen it, but was willing to watch it with me, because he knew I liked it so much. This film is, to me, what "Steel Magnolias" is to my mum and my sister. It makes me cry, it makes me laugh, it makes me feel good, it even makes me want to dance and sing.

I think its a fair assessment to say I am so over chick flicks. I guess that comes from being hurt, trodden on, etc, by people. It kinda takes the joy out of life, and let's face it, chick flicks are about all the little joys in life, so I tend to avoid them, except for a select few, like "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Or maybe its just that I think Audrey Hepburn is simply divine. A girl-crush. Woohoo! She's cool though, and I've seen her in so many things, and can still find her movies refreshing and wonderful. But there is definitely something special about that film. Having watched it again, with fresh eyes, really it's just a film, like any other, and yet there is also so much more to it. Even a fair dash of angst, if you know where to look. Gotta love that angst :-)

It does make me wonder, though, how we as people really look at life. Do we honestly see the world as it appears on film and tv, with that soft rosy glow you get from only seeing what they (the big 'they') want you to see, or do we actually see the world as it really honestly is, warts and all? I have a sneaking suspicion that we see the world through rose-coloured glasses, otherwise why do we get so shocked when we see murder and crime splashed across the daily news? If we were seeing the world as it really is, we'd expect to see murder and crime, wars and natural disasters every single day, because we'd be used to it.

I think we need the movies and tv though, if only to give us somewhere to hide on those rare occassions that we do take off those rose-coloured glasses and see the world for what it honestly is. Because, truthfully, the big bad world out there is a scary place. Of course, the world is often what we make it, so we only have ourselves to blame if its scary, but it's still scary nevertheless.

We as humans feel the overwhelming need to hide from things. We've been doing this since infanthood. That big scary man who picks you up and makes you cry - you don't know why he makes you cry, just that he does. What do you do? You squeeze shut your eyes and scream for your mummy. You run and hide, so to speak. I think the baby mentality - if I can't see it, it doesn't exist - is one that sticks with us throughout our whole lives. We just don't want to admit it :-)

It's the need to stay innocent, and pretend that the big scary stuff that's happening out there, really isn't. We complain that our kids are losing their innocence so much earlier than we did, and yet we are at fault for that too. But can we do anything about that? Are we willing to do anything to change it? I know that the way the world is now, we are in need of a drastic change. Something's gotta give, so to speak. It's just a matter, I guess, of whether this generation or the one that follows, has the guts to actually do whatever is needed to change the status quo.