February 4th: Movie #Crush
 |
| Image from Raw Science |
Over Martin Luther King weekend, our family went to watch Hidden Figures. My son is an old soul. He is 11 years old but this is not his first time around the block. His favorite TV shows consist of CBS News, Sunday Morning and Cooking shows. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of 'kid' in him too, but he does enjoy reading the newspaper and talking about the weather, that's just the old soul in him.
When he saw there was going to be a movie centering around civil rights... He was all about it. We brought my 3rd-grade daughter too. Sawyer loved it! My husband loved it. I loved it. Throughout the movies, Matisse kept asking questions, kept squirming... I thought, 'Oh, I guess she was a little too young for this one.' But then she started asking questions. The days and weeks to follow she would randomly ask questions like, "Why was it that the blacks had to have a different bathroom?" or "The woman on the bus said just because it's the way it is, it doesn't make it right. What did she mean mom?"
This taught me a valuable lesson. My son is a deep thinking, a responsible person, a kind kid. Matisse is NEW soul all the way, she is free, seems to not care about what others think about her, or really... think much deeper than the surface most of the time. But showing her this movie, this movie I thought was over her head made her think. Made her question... she continued to revisit it in her mind. She may not care what others think about her, but she sure as heck cares about others. This movie gave me another chance to see that and appreciate her and the person she is becoming.
My husband and I learned a lot too. We live in a bubble. We surround ourselves with excepting and caring people. We celebrate differences and try to learn about others. When we watch movies like this, we realize, it was hard... but WAS is the key word. We think because it's not 'that bad' now it's good... but it's not everywhere. It was amazing to read a the end of the movie that one of the women in 'reality' was promoted to supervisor in 1979... that's the year I was born. That doesn't seem that long ago that what was so unjust to my eyes in this movie, is so recent, so now. I should understand the world better, but I don't. I continue to ask questions like my daughter. I continue to learn. Movies like Hidden Figures helps me do so.
Fabulous movie! I was an elementary school kid during those first space flights, and very interested in space travel. I remember Alan Shepard's and John Glenn's flights so vividly, and for many years I aspired to be an astronaut. So it absolutely blows my mind that I never heard of or learned anything about these incredible women until now, doubly because of their gender and race. So glad you brought your kids and discussed it all with them. They will be so much wiser for having had those discussions!
ReplyDelete