SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024 - RANDOM THOUGHTS

 SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024 - RANDOM THOUGHTS

I noticed a while back that I’ve been blogging for twenty years. I made students blog about technology issues, and, of course, I had to blog, too. I was on WTIC (Hartford) several times as an expert on technology. (It was fun.)  

Lately, I know I’ve missed some days.  Last weekend, I was away from home - staying with a friend and waiting for the eclipse.  I can say, “I ran out of time” (but I had enough time to play some games on my phone.).  

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But while at my friend's house, we watched three movies. I don’t watch television much. I don’t have cable; I have an antenna-like device that gives me about 24 channels. And sometimes, I say, “There isn’t anything on I want to watch.” 

I go to one movie in the theater a year.  So, I don’t see many movies.

Last week, we watched

Frida Kahlo

The Devil Wears Prada

Mona Lisa Smile

Frida Kahlo was a documentary about the Mexican artist.  She was severely injured in an accident in her teens.  She loved and devoted herself to Diego Rivera - also a Mexican artist.  Diego was a womanizer and was unfaithful to Frida in their marriage.  The movie showed despair - at the body level (her pain from the accident and her pain from dealing with Diego).  

The Devil Wears Prada starred Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.  Anne is a recent college graduate looking for her first real job in New York City. She gets hired by Meryl Streep, the very driven, impossible woman boss of a major fashion magazine.  The movie moved from Anne as the idealized college graduate to a clone in the magazine boss’s reign of terror.  And, at the end, Anne throws her cell phone into a fountain - symbolizing that she is breaking the chain she had allowed to entangle her.  

Mona Lisa Smile stars Julie Roberts as an idealistic art professor at a conservative New England women's college.  She finds that her students are not looking for degrees or meaningful jobs but looking for their “MRS” degree, marriage, children, and loneliness while their husbands cheat on them.  (It is set in the 1950s - so I hope things have changed.).  She challenges her students to think for themselves and dig deeper inside themselves. 

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Yes, all three are movies about women adjusting to real life.  I used to ask students, “What do you want to be when you grow up.” That’s a loaded question - and generally without an answer.  (What will be, will be). I also assigned the students to write their obituary as an assignment to think about their life, accomplishments, and direction.

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Two more events from the weekend away.

We watched the Iowa versus South Carolina NCAA Women’s Division I championship game.  I mentioned before that (1) being from Iowa initially and (2) being impressed by Caitlin Clark - I wanted to watch the game.

I was amazed at the eclipse.  It was kind of a spiritual thing.  I’ve been impressed by the astronomer's estimate that there are over 8 trillion galaxies (8,000,000,000), and each galaxy can have millions of stars and each star could have moons and planets. 

That’s a GOD THING!!!  God (however you view God) is generally considered infinite - all-powerful, all knowing - and to create that many galaxies, stars, moons, and planets would take an infinite being.  

And, then to control those planets, moons, stars -- so that for us on the planet Earth - can see our moon (Moon) circle our planet and be in a place where it blocks the sun’s rays from getting to Earth.  (That’s kind rolling a perfect 300 game in bowling everytime!!)

Here we are - on the only planet that we know of that supports life - watching the celestial dance - with eclipse glasses!!! 

WOW

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Yes, Love Wins

Yes, God (however you perceive an infinite being) Wins

Yes, Love transforms us

Karen Anne White, © April 13, 2024