MEGA POST

So I have all sorts of thoughts brewing in my head right now. So let me hope I get them all out quickly before they disappear.

First clump:
This may seem obvious to some, but I just see things working well when you aren't trying to force things that aren't just gonna happen. This isn't always the case, but with some things, I see it to be true. For example, a woman desires to be pursued, but not by creepos. She wants the guy that is willing to lay a lot down for her and desires to lay it down. So even if a guy lays down something for her, but doesn't desire it, it can end in badness. For example, if a guy is just forcing something because he feels he has to, it can be bad, but what if he doesn't even realize he's doing it? You know when you get compliments that strie you because you didn't even think about that you were doing the thing or that it was a big deal? That's what I'm talking about. I love when I can do things for people that I don't realize I'm doing. So that seems a slight bit scatterbrained, but it also seems good, at least in my head.

Clump two:
WARNING: SPOILER FOR THE MOVIE, "THE LAST KISS"
Wow, never have I wrestled with a movie so much during it and enjoyed it come the end. It is in my opinion a very heart wrenching film that makes me sad. It makes people out as victims, victimizers, cheaters, charlatains, and immature people that can't get their act together. One review I saw for the film suggested that it was nothing more than a film glorifying teen angst. I see where they come from, but I see more. So what horrible crap goes down?

The main character has a girlfriend of 3 years that he gets pregnant, and then fools around on.
She then hates him forever and sees her perfect situation fall apart.
The college girl ten years his junior that he cheats with seems to be a girl searching for something that will fix her and make her feel whole and desirable again even at the expense of pain for others.
A friend of the lead is sleeping with every girl that will sleep with him and he lives this cycle and fears the idea of commitment more than all things.
A girl he hooks up with is a freak by all standards of the word, but she still desires to have him meet her parents because she likes him.
Another friend of the lead is held up by his old relationship with an ex-girlfriend and can't get past her. He wants to get out of everything he's in and try something new. On top of the struggle from that, his dad dies during the film
The last of the four main male characters is married with a child, and he can't handle his wife and her snappiness because of the stress with the child and he up and leaves her because it's easier to run.
The main character's girlfriend's mother is having a marriage crisis feeling undesired and she leaves him. She had been unfaithful years ago and he hadn't found out on top of that.
In a scene early in the movie, the four main men and a friend of their's are watching two strippers. There is also nudity is other parts of the movie and people drop more F-bombs than we dropped regular bombs on Berlin.

So I ask myself, why would I like this movie. Horrendous stuff happens, people are hurt, and the situations just aren't pretty. On top of that, it's a perfect breeding ground for making a man stumble physically. Well thankfully, I managed to get my eyes off the screen for te scenes that weren't exactly helpful to me and my thoughts. But at the core of this movie, I see pain and brokeness. Now, that can be called teen angst and it can be said that these people need to grow up. Well they are grown up, they just have a wound that cuts deep into them. They can't pinpoint it, and obviously the movie doesn't pinpoint it either, but it's there. These people have all been hurt somehow. You want to dislike some of the characters (especially that slutty college girl), but they all seem to have stuff, baggage, that makes them act the way they do. They are embracing their emotions and they are getting burnt by them. It hurts and they don't know how to deal, so it always ends in escape. Whether that escape is sleep, alcohol, or anything else, it just has to numb the pain. My heart ached watching this movie as the people faught through their different situations.
Then the movie tries to make itself have a happy ending. It tries to mend the different situations. The people try to fix their problems. Some of it is done well, some of it isn't, but I do see people seeking redemption, seeking something that will help them deal...something that isn't necessarily numbing. So the married man goes home to his wife and says that he won't live with her, but he'll take care of the kid. The man who loses his father goes on a road trip searching for something with his friend afraid of commitment. The parents get back together and want to work through their issues. The main character then goes and sleeps with the college girl because it's passionate, it's wild, and it's something he's not scared of. He THEN realizes the mistake he knew he was making, even though he knew where it was going from the beginning. He apologizes to his girlfriend and he tells her the truth, as ugly as it is, and then he must chase her and she must forgive him. The movie ends in a powerful scene with the lead sitting on the porch of his girlfriend's home waiting for days for her to let him in and talk. So it ends with him being let in. Bandages are all in place. People have fixed their stuff, and it's all good for now. But I still felt like I wanted to hurt for everything. Nothing was completely fixed, but they wanted to try. (NOTE, at this point I feel like I have thoughts to get out, but I'm rambling to put them together. Please be patient) It just appears to me to be a movie that doesn't even mean to spur these thoughts to me, but I see a movie that shows how messed up we are, tries every solution, thinks it lands on a good one, but there is still crap to deal with. So, basically I'm saying, the human state is messed up. It hurts, it sucks, but thanks be to God that there is something that will help us through it. It won't take away the pain, or make things easy, but it will help. An analogy from the Fall Retreat: When you touch the burner on the stove when it's hot, you pull your hand away. Yet the way to take away the pain would be to numb the wound. We would stick our hand on the stove and let the nerves be killed so we couldn't feel a thing. Instead we rip our hand off and deal with the pain in the best way possible and let it hurt us. The pain is an indicator of the wound itself. Maybe we should use the pain to find the injury and then work towards healing the injury.

One more thought....JUUUUUUUIIIIIIICCCCEEEEE!

A win for Illinois football. Not just a win, but a road win. Not just a road win, but a Division 1A win. Not just a D1-A win, but a Big Ten win. How incredible. The first since my freshman year!


Comment back and finish this for me folks! I-L-L