"Lift not the painted veil which those who live/ Call life"
Well, unfortunately, we did not enjoy a white Christmas, but that's okay, because I was too busy hanging out inside my room to look outside anyway. I was much too enthralled with my most amazing present: a vinyl record player!!! I'd been pining for one ever since I first saw them for sale at Second and Charles, and my wonderful mother made my dream come true. It is lovely. Olive-green, compact, portable, and iPod compatible!! I got a ton more totally cool presents, but that record player is definitely my all time favorite.
As great as my Christmas has been, that's not actually what I wanted to talk about today, so I'll close the current subject by simply saying that I sincerely wish everyone has had a terrific holiday filled with love and happiness. But now, moving right along:
So a few days ago I recommended the movie The Painted Veil, but I hadn't actually seen the movie in a while, so I was just going off of memory for my recommendation. After writing that post, I had been thinking a lot about the movie, so I decided to watch it again on Monday. Wow. I had pretty much forgotten how brilliant the movie was. Okay, obviously I didn't really forget, because if I had, I wouldn't have recommended it, but I do think I should have watched it again before mentioning it in my blog, so here I am again. (SPOILER ALERT, BIG TIME).
The Painted Veil is one of those movies that makes you go "this is it, this is what true love is". (Now dudes, don't leave me just yet, this film is not strictly a chick flick: I've read plenty of reviews written by men who have said they enjoyed it a lot). What I mean is that true love is when two people lean on each other and mend their flaws because of the other's love. Kitty was a spoiled brat who only married Walter Fane to prove her mother wrong. She had an affair with a married man and felt no remorse. But she changed because of love.
Walter Fane is the embodiment of love: even when he couldn't stand Kitty, he still loved her. Verb loved her. Not emotion love, but action love. He stuck with her even though he could have filed for divorce right on the spot, and on good grounds. Even when Kitty told him she was pregnant with a child who was almost certainly not his, he told her that it didn't matter to him who the true father was. He knew she was spoiled and selfish, but I think he also knew that somewhere inside of her was the capacity to change, and through his patience and steady love, she did change.
As for Kitty, like I said, she was totally spoiled and thought that Walter was dull and strange, but the more time she spent with him, the more time she spent looking at all the things he did with his life, she saw that he was kind and selfless and wonderful. So wala! they fell in love. Not so fast though, because almost immediately after they aknowledged their true love for each other, Walter dies of cholera. Yep. And you will bawl, I promise.
Every time I watch this movie I think to myself that I want to find someone who will love me as unconditionally as Walter loves Kitty, and that I, personally, could change my inner evils so thoroughly, like Kitty does, because of the person I love. Like I said briefly before, love is an action, not an emotion. The reason my parents have been together for twenty five years is because they chose to continue loving (verb) each other for all these years, not necessarily because the flame of love (noun) has been super strong for so long. Certainly my 'rents have had their tough times, but they loved (verb) each other all the while. Loving someone is a choice you make, not something you feel and then stop feeling. The reason so many people get divorces is because after the initial fog of love (noun) wore off, they didn't keep loving (verb) each other. That probably sounds really confusing, but that's what I believe. Love seems so complicated, but I don't think it really is. You pick a person you think fits you well, and then you make a decision to love (verb) them, and you don't let anything get in the way of that action.
Anyway, hopefully you've found some interesting insight in this post. Oh! I have a funny video I want to include that my Dad showed me today. It has nothing to do with the topic at all, but I think you'll like it. Just to remind you that going "paperless" isn't all it's cracked up to be.
P.S. The title of today's blog is the lines that inspired the title of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, which the movie (The Painted Veil) was based on. Totally on my evergrowing list of books to read! -VaughnDL
As great as my Christmas has been, that's not actually what I wanted to talk about today, so I'll close the current subject by simply saying that I sincerely wish everyone has had a terrific holiday filled with love and happiness. But now, moving right along:
So a few days ago I recommended the movie The Painted Veil, but I hadn't actually seen the movie in a while, so I was just going off of memory for my recommendation. After writing that post, I had been thinking a lot about the movie, so I decided to watch it again on Monday. Wow. I had pretty much forgotten how brilliant the movie was. Okay, obviously I didn't really forget, because if I had, I wouldn't have recommended it, but I do think I should have watched it again before mentioning it in my blog, so here I am again. (SPOILER ALERT, BIG TIME).
The Painted Veil is one of those movies that makes you go "this is it, this is what true love is". (Now dudes, don't leave me just yet, this film is not strictly a chick flick: I've read plenty of reviews written by men who have said they enjoyed it a lot). What I mean is that true love is when two people lean on each other and mend their flaws because of the other's love. Kitty was a spoiled brat who only married Walter Fane to prove her mother wrong. She had an affair with a married man and felt no remorse. But she changed because of love.
Walter Fane is the embodiment of love: even when he couldn't stand Kitty, he still loved her. Verb loved her. Not emotion love, but action love. He stuck with her even though he could have filed for divorce right on the spot, and on good grounds. Even when Kitty told him she was pregnant with a child who was almost certainly not his, he told her that it didn't matter to him who the true father was. He knew she was spoiled and selfish, but I think he also knew that somewhere inside of her was the capacity to change, and through his patience and steady love, she did change.
As for Kitty, like I said, she was totally spoiled and thought that Walter was dull and strange, but the more time she spent with him, the more time she spent looking at all the things he did with his life, she saw that he was kind and selfless and wonderful. So wala! they fell in love. Not so fast though, because almost immediately after they aknowledged their true love for each other, Walter dies of cholera. Yep. And you will bawl, I promise.
Every time I watch this movie I think to myself that I want to find someone who will love me as unconditionally as Walter loves Kitty, and that I, personally, could change my inner evils so thoroughly, like Kitty does, because of the person I love. Like I said briefly before, love is an action, not an emotion. The reason my parents have been together for twenty five years is because they chose to continue loving (verb) each other for all these years, not necessarily because the flame of love (noun) has been super strong for so long. Certainly my 'rents have had their tough times, but they loved (verb) each other all the while. Loving someone is a choice you make, not something you feel and then stop feeling. The reason so many people get divorces is because after the initial fog of love (noun) wore off, they didn't keep loving (verb) each other. That probably sounds really confusing, but that's what I believe. Love seems so complicated, but I don't think it really is. You pick a person you think fits you well, and then you make a decision to love (verb) them, and you don't let anything get in the way of that action.
Anyway, hopefully you've found some interesting insight in this post. Oh! I have a funny video I want to include that my Dad showed me today. It has nothing to do with the topic at all, but I think you'll like it. Just to remind you that going "paperless" isn't all it's cracked up to be.
P.S. The title of today's blog is the lines that inspired the title of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, which the movie (The Painted Veil) was based on. Totally on my evergrowing list of books to read! -VaughnDL
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