Can't we all just be nice to each other?

 It came out awhile ago, but we recently watched the movie Another Year.  Ok, B was asleep 8 minutes into it, and I made it about halfway through before I, too, was asleep.  But the next night I went back, armed with ice cream and lemon ginger tea this time, and rewatched the parts I'd missed.  I was glad I did.  The movie follows a couple, Tom and Gerri, through the course of a year--their day to day interactions with each other and with the people in their lives.  The movie is quiet and understated; for me it was a treat to watch main characters who are genuinely nice, even as they deal with dysfunctional people and grapple with the curveballs of life.  A nice change of pace from the craziness and screaming at each other that fills the news these days.

The character Gerri especially caught my eye.  She is not a standard beauty, but the kindness and dignity with which she treats people was rather edifying to watch.  She responds to others with great empathy.  With wisdom and deep compassion she seeks to encourage the well-being of others.

  Our culture is obsessed with image; impossibly beautiful people fill the media.  Another Year counters this by showing how when we reach out to help another person in need, a beauty is revealed that does not pass away.  "Beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news."  By the time the movie was over, I was thinking, "oh yeah, that's what inner beauty looks like."

P.S.:  K saw me jotting these ideas down and asked what I was writing.  When I told her I was writing about being beautiful on the inside, she said, "But that's in Cranberry Thanksgiving!"