Friday, January 7, 2011

All You Need Is Love

I watched the movie “Up in the Air” with George Clooney recently. The main character was an expert on simplifying life by disassociating from relationships. His day job was firing employees from companies that were downsizing. The character lived an, understandably, solitary life.

Throughout the movie there were cameos of employees being “let go” and the myriad of reactions to such life changing news. The story didn’t grab me; actually I was more irritated by the lead female’s cavalier manner, until the end.

**Spoiler Alert** Our hero finally found love, which lead him to re-establish relationships with his family, then he was spurned, returning him to his simple, solitary existence and forcing him to reevaluate his life philosophy.

The ending made the story for me but the most interesting twist was the return cameos of those he had fired sharing what would help them survive; their wives, children, friends, parents; essentially, their relationships.

We were created to have relationship. The Bible is often mistaken to be a book of "the how and the when”, it's not, it is a book about "the who and the why”. It is a book meant to teach us how to relate to God and how to relate to our fellow man.

The first four commandments, of the Ten Commandments, are how we are to relate to God. The next six commandments are how we are to relate to each other. Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment is replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40 

I despaired for what the hero was missing with his solitary life, and more so when he discovered the joy in relationships, only to be cruelly pushed back to solitary.  The relationship lesson was made all the more poignant in the words of those he dispassionately dispatched from their working relationships.

 You will get no argument that relationships are difficult. I outlined my thoughts here, “The god of Selfishness”.  

See the movie and let me know what you think.

10 comments:

  1. I'd wondered about the movie, thanks for sharing. Don't know if I'll get to see it but I agree with you about relationships. The Bible shares much about wise counsel and even friendship. It's one facet of us reflecting Jesus to others, and serving him.
    Blessings,
    Karen

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  2. Thanks Loren, I tend to stay in ruts but forced my hand on the layout change. It seems fresh.

    Karen, relationships seem to be such a difficult task. Thank God for His forgiveness and grace.

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  3. The difficulty is that we are basically all self centered, but need love. And so we have to conquer our self centeredness, and reach out and care for others more than ourselves. Only then can we find love.
    Suzanne

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  4. Hi Sally-just wanted to drop in and say thanks for the follow. And while here, I learned a little something something. :-)

    Can't discuss the movie since I haven't seen it. But will say that I agree-relationships are tough-but often worth the challenges.

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  5. Hi and thanks for the visit. I closed my blog memoir where I had my stories of my childhood during WWII. I don't know if I want to participate in the project yet; I need more information as to the goals and purposes of the project.

    The British Government,btw, has collected first person narratives from soldiers and personnel. Their info is easily accessible online.

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  6. Hey Cathy, thanks for stopping by.


    Rosaria, I'll check into those narratives. Thanks for the tip.

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  7. We rented the movie awhile ago as my husband sat on both sides of that table and I had heard the people let go were real (many of them).
    I thought the ending was sad, and left me feeling down.
    Life can get lonely when we have no one in it. It surprises me here where I live how that is taken for granted--unlike where I'm from.

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  8. Terri, I thought it was a downer as well because we had to watch the main character learn that relationships are what help us survive the bad times. It was a poignant message and made me appreciate my relationships.

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