Many thanks to all of
you who reached out with advice for and commiseration with the sciatica. The
quickest and easiest thing to do was a massage, which I did, and seems to have
helped quite a bit. I am still exploring options for some of the other ideas
you have so graciously shared.
I am also happy to
report that I have continued to get around well enough to see a couple of
movies.
The first was not one
I would ordinarily want to see, but thought I was in the mood for some lighter
fare, so we went to see “Book Club.” This star-studded tale of four women, played
by Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candace Bergen, who have
been reading and discussing books for over thirty years was, to put it mildly,
a huge disappointment. The silly story line and poorly written script did not
deserve the talents of these four terrific female actors who were joined by a
most able set of male actors, including Richard Dreyfuss, Craig T. Nelson, Don
Johnson, and Andy Garcia. The best I can say is that if you have nothing else
to do and are looking for a relatively mindless couple of hours, this may be
the movie for you. On the other hand, both your time and your money are almost
assuredly worth much more.
Today we went to see “A Kid Like Jake,” starring Claire Danes and Jim Parsons as Alex (a stay-at-home mom who had practiced law before her son was born) and Greg (a psychotherapist) Wheeler, parents of five-year-old Jake. Although the director of Jake’s preschool (played by Olivia Spencer), a friend of Alex and Greg, tries to make them aware that their son is different with descriptions like his enjoyment of “gender-expansive play,” they do not seem to take seriously his increasing insistence on seeing himself as a girl.
This is not necessarily a topic we had ever given much thought until quite recently, when we became aware that someone we know has a pre-school age child who appears to be gender non-conforming. Although the child’s mother has been speaking and writing about this experience, it is not my place to provide any of the details here except to say that I am not sure we would have gone to see this film if not for our awareness of that family.
The film gets off to a fine start and paints a warm portrayal of a loving couple who are devoted parents to their unusual little boy. Much of the film portrays their struggle with coming to terms with their child’s gender non-conformity. They only become fully accepting of his situation in the final minutes of the film, and somehow they move from nearly devastated to well-adjusted with their new reality within an unrealistically short period of time. I wish the film would have spent less time on some of the side-stories (for example, about one of Greg’s patients) and more on how the family was able to take that leap and appear to “live happily ever after” in the closing scene. Still, it is a moving story and worth seeing.
Have a great week!
Love,
Rebecca
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