Here’s My Short/Non-Spoilery TFIOS Review with Bonus Tangent-That-Isn’t-Really-A-Tangent

We went to “The Night Before Our Stars” last night, a special event with a simulcast of the movie and some adorable interviews (Can I admit I don’t know who Alton Brown is? Is that something I should hide? I haven’t even googled him yet to find out, but I had no idea who he was.) and some great music. My quick non-spoiler review: I LOVED IT. I tend to analyze movies from books while I watch them, remembering what was left out, what was put in…thinking about the choice of actors and music and everything. I can’t help it, I just do. Well, last night, with the first scene in the doctor’s office where Shailene Woodley basically became Hazel Grace in my heart forever? I stopped thinking about the book. I mean, I knew what was coming but I was soooo absorbed into the movie that it was the MOVIE that I was there to see…and the movie was epic and beautiful and heartwrenching and simply perfect in every way. I adored it. I have one teeny tiny complaint about one line that was left out but – you know – it was a VERY long movie. There were scenes I was afraid they’d cut for time, and the did not. They cut the stuff I expected. I cried, oh man did I cry. Hell – Shailene Woodley was crying in the post-movie shenanigans and I started crying THEN. It was basically the giant gorgeous sobfest I hoped it would be.

Now…on to another thing…that will be connected to TFiOS full circle in the end…IF YOU ARE PATIENT.

(You will have to be REALLY patient, this is going to seem like a HUGE tangent.)

ANYWAY…

My old posts here on this blog rarely get comments anymore. Sometimes one will become spam target for whatever reason and I’ll turn off the comments on that entry, but mostly no entries every get comments and when they do – they’re spam. I did write one funny entry once about how Sugar Free cough drops have a laxative effect (there’s a warning on the bag! read it!) and periodically some poor soul who has googled “sugar free cough drops laxative” will show up at my blog with a comment like, “OH MY GOD. I AM MISERABLE.” Heee. But that’s about the only entry that randomly gets non-spam comments.

BUT! A week or so ago (May 28th if the date is to be trusted) someone came to my entry defending people who sometimes forget to send Thank You cards. Actually – I guess it was more of a criticism of people who hold on to the list of people who didn’t thank them in some sort of mental Burn Book FOREVER. Anyway – someone left an aggressive comment basically saying that people who get angry about NOT getting Thank You cards are awful people. It was kinda funny because the comment came out of the blue but it was SO FORCEFUL.

So, I have NO idea what happened to make that entry pop up as “active” again but THREE MORE people have randomly popped by to comment. And the last two people are angry “How dare you forget to send Thank You cards!” type of people. AND IT IS CRACKING ME UP. This old entry is suddenly getting traction and I’m assuming it’s because someone linked to it in some sort of forum about etiquette or something. I have no idea. I did a quick look at my stats, nothing jumped out at me, but I hate looking at my stats so I decided to just wonder and imagine that somewhere there’s a threaded comment section under a link to my entry where someone says, “CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GIRL IS EXCUSING SUCH RUDENESS?” I think that would actually make me proud. Because, in a weird way they’re kinda adding “proof” – examples of the kind of people that motivated me to write the entry to begin with. People who say things like, “Maybe I won’t give a gift next time!”

Anyway…I woke up this morning and had that comment in my email and it made me laugh. It made me happy that I’m the kind of person that let’s go of things so easily so that I can still love the people in my life even if they don’t thank me for gifts. It made me happy that most of the people I surround myself with are the kind of people who would rather dump love and awesome into the world instead of negativity and bitterness. But most of all, it made me happy that I saw a beautiful movie last night that reminded me about the true importance of life. And yes, I still yell at my kids about their dirty socks, and I still mumble over my coffee about annoying Facebook game invites, but overall? Life is simultaneously bigger and smaller than all of that. Life is bigger in that – to the people we encounter daily – our attitude can make or break someone’s day. One small gesture from me can have a big impact on the life of someone near me. But life is smaller than that because – in a million years? None of it matters. And I find both concepts very beautiful and motivating. I will continue to try to create more ripples of awesome in my pond of life, than ripples of suck. Because that’s what I want to spread out from my little tiny pebble that get’s thrown into the water. I want the ripples to be those of life and love and kindness and joy, even if – eventually – all ripples fade.

I’m going to go make some more coffee now. Hug yourself today, I think you’re pretty awesome.