How does any kind of change happen in our world?
What does it take for our hearts to melt, transform, open-wide-with-compassion-and-questions?
How are subtle but profound invitations extended?
What really inspires us to leap, to take risks, to create and accept happiness?
How do relationships alter our perceptions and infuse our capacity for knowing the "other"?
What does any of this lead to?
I'm giving everyone this assignment: Go SEE THE MOVIE, "THE VISITOR"!
My world has been rocked this evening by the potent lessons and inspiring tale of this film. I want to talk with each and every person who ventures out to see this flick. It's an important piece of work, post-9/11, and present day history-in-the-making-times.
If you've never known someone navigating green card status, or working intently to remain in the United States as an "illegal immigrant" - this flick will be an eye opener. A beautifully, powerfully, unsentimentally depicted story of a Syrian man, his mother, a Senagalese woman, and a New England economics professor.
It really does rock!
Love, Looking forward to responses,
Melissa
1 comment:
Hi Melissa,
Brendan and I went to see it a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. A real "what if" moment. What if we followed our best instincts instead of our worst, what if we made a leap of faith and eschewed scepticism, what if we abandoned sterotypes and gave people a chance. What if we were the "visitor" how would we want to be percieved and treated. What if instead of calling ourselves Americans we remembered we all descendants of immigrants.
This will not make a big splash, nor get the same acclaim as a Michael Moore movie or have the sobering impact of "An Inconvenient Truth" nevertheless, it makes a quiet and necessary point during this darkest period in our national history. However, like many minority opinions it appeals to the "choir" and not the congregation at large. Let's hope we are turning a corner in our thinking and we will go back to being a country of immigrants who succeed in making a better world because of our differences.
Regards,
Marie Teehan
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
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