itsawonderfilledlife

I love to go to the theatre to watch a movie. I love the darkened room, the crowd sitting around me, the buttery popcorn, the trailers (don’t get me started on people not showing up at the theatre until the trailers are done). I love it all!

That said, you won’t ever catch me watching an awards show … not the Academy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, not even the Grammy Awards. For me, seeing a movie is all about my own enjoyment … I really don’t care if others enjoyed it.

The other day I clicked on a video from the Oscars … not sure exactly why, maybe it was because I had just watched the movie Miss. Potter (which I adored) starring Renée Zellweger. The video was the acceptance speech of Ms. Zellweger for her best actress award. In her speech she spoke all of the inevitable thank-yous, then she spoke of heros …

“Our heroes unite us … when we look to our heroes we agree and that matters.” Renée Zellweger

and I nodded, in agreement and appreciation of wise, community-building words.

A similar theme was shared when US President John F Kennedy spoke to the Canadian parliament, in 1961, on the relationship between the two countries, ” … what unites us is far greater than what divides us.”

Those are rarely worded themes in Hollywood, in the United States, in Canada, in our world today.

It is as though our human race is set on a course of self-destruction through the focus on our differences of thought, conviction, behaviour. We not only disagree, but we gather only those around us who agree with us, restricting our growth, our maturity, our ability to see things from others points of view … resulting in a stunting of our growth and (perhaps) a risking of the status of our mental health.

What if, rather than discussing our differences (on social media, at the water cooler, over coffee, etc) we talked about who inspires us and why.

As Ms. Zellweger’s words permeated my thoughts on my drive to work, I began to think about my heroes. The people who, though I largely do not know personally, yet inspire, model and bring wonder to my life. Just thinking about such people put a smile on my face, a joy in my heart and grit in my soul to do and be better. Positivity grew within simply thinking of these people.

Then I tried speaking of them to people, interjecting their stories into my conversations … you know what happened? Those I was speaking to began sharing the names, stories and lives of their heroes. We began sharing joy positivity, unity.

May we speak of our heroes, providing opportunities to find common ground in our unity, rather than in what tears us apart.

“how good and pleasant it is
    when brothers and sister dwell in unity!”
Psalm 133:1

Just a few of my ‘heroes’ : Queen Elizabeth, my dad, my hubby, my mom, Charles Spurgeon, CS Lewis, Corrie ten Boom, Yahweh (God), Joni Erickson Tada, Terry Fox, Fred Rogers, Nellie McClung, Harriet Tubman, Malal Yousafzai, Francine Rivers, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Louis Armstrong, Stan Lee, Jean Vanier, Christina Rossetti … in no specific order, other than the prominence of the images of my parents and hubby.