Watched a movie the other night. It was one that I had been wanting to see for a while and I finally did. I watched it with some friends here at the house. The movie was Burn After Reading.
I really like Joel and Ethan Coen and the movies that they make. I really liked No Country for Old Men as well as Fargo and O Brother Where Art Thou? and Raising Arizona. This one wasn't horrible, it was just different.
The basic story is that of a woman who is unhappy with her body and is looking to have plastic surgery, yet her insurance won't pay for it. She has tried to figure out how she can get this all done since she doesn't just have the money for it. It seems hopeless for her. She has tried internet dating and finding that "perfect" someone. None of it is really filling that void for her. What she doesn't see is that there is someone right there who finds her to be perfect just as she is. She can't see that for him there is nothing that she has to do to herself cosmetically or to hide behind a virtual persona.
One of her co-workers finds a disc in the ladies locker room of the gym where she works and discovers that it is filled with CIA information. As it turns out the information is actually useless, but she refuses to see that and has found her way, she thinks, to finally pay for her procedures. This of course all goes awry. As far as the movie itself, it wasn't badly done. The acting was good I thought and the story was solid. It was pretty much typical Coen brothers. It was also a tale that fits very well into our culture.
Every where we look, we see the perceptions "ideal" beauty. We are bombarded by images of what we should look like and how we should dress. There are none of us who are really immune to this phenomenon. No matter what we do, there seems to be a part of us that wants to be like what we see on the magazine covers. I get a daily email (at least one) from Men's Health with information about how to lose my gut, and build my chest and my legs and arms. Tips for how to "get the girl" (don't need those tips seeing as I already got the girl) and what to eat to be healthier. It's all there, staring us in the face and filling our minds with ideas of what we should be...at least according to the world around us.
The problem is that none of that can ever really fulfill us. It might make us feel beeter and helo us to be healthier (that's a good thing) but in the end, it's not what really matters. What matters is our knowing who we are and being known. What can really make us happy is to be known for who we really are deep inside. We can only do that when we finally let down our gaurd with others and show the real us. It's not our adornments that make us who we are, but rather what we have to offer from our hearts. When people find the courage to be who they are and not who they want others to see, then we will begin to find what it means to be actually satisfied with ourselves. Peace and Love y'all.
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