Movies that start with "S"

So, we didn't see "Stepford Wives," instead we saw "Saved," which I kinda liked in spite of the bizarrely mixed-up Message--God loves fags and shoplifters, so g'head, swipe your sister's credit card--Jesus still loves you, or something. I just enjoyed the acting and the weird quirky characters. I think it was a little too much like a return to Bible College for loopy, who emerged from the whole thing looking a bit green around the gills. I guess it's also ridiculous to gloss over the fact that in real life, the teen-pregnant heroine and her gay ex-boyfriend would have been seriously fucked over, not let off the hook by people who suddenly realized that "hey everybody's human." Still, there were some very funny moments and good one-liners...

OK, so, well, 'nuff about that, tonight we saw "Spiderman 2" which I enjoyed so much I wanted to stay for the next showing, but Loopy insisted that we eat dinner instead (silly girl). I liked that I found it hard to predict how the romance angle would turn out, even up until the absolute last minute.

Either there's been a sudden wave of characters who struggle with the theme of "but do I have to save the world? exactly how much of it do I have to save, exactly?" or I'm just noticing them all of a sudden. (Frodo, Aragorn, Spiderman...) I'm kind of struggling with letting go of the save-the-world thing, which tends to distort one's perceptions--perceptions of others, of their needs, of my importance, and of my abilities. If I'm going to keep teaching for the next twenty or thirty years, I need to be able to survive it, plus I think the best teachers aren't hung up in a vision of their own heroism, but just like doing the job. I do genuinely like the job, and tangling myself up in some delusion of a grand responsibility for the destiny of all my students just gets in the way of being calm, focused, and effective. So these larger-than-life heroes aren't necessarily the best focus at the moment.

At the same time, there's a positive interpretation... I struggle at the same time to be my "best self," not (as I've said previously) to hide behind this fluttery irresponsibility, craziness, etc. -- not to automatically react with submissiveness and "rolling over and showing my tummy," in dog language, whenever I have to deal with an aggressive person. I admit to liking that quote about "our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure..." (wrongly but appealingly attributed to Nelson Mandela, who, when he said it, was actually quoting Marianne Williamson, a more embarrassing source for a putative revolutionary.....) blah blah blah! boy am I self-absorbed at times. And there are much more interesting things to talk about--my class on "how to teach about africa," for one thing.

Carol asked for an update on my life and I keep meaning to post one. It would probably be more interesting than what seems to have been a string of overly narcissistic meditations on trite movie themes. If anyone is reading this, I promise to try to be more entertaining and informative, and hopefully to post a life update soon.