GOOD NIGHT BENJAMIN

I love movies and I love books. Maybe sometimes with an unhealthy passion....but I try to think not. To me a great movie or a great book has a great story; a story I get lost in; a story that I don't want to end....a movie that I want to go on. The book will be so well written that I can smell the rain, I can feel the breeze, my heart breaks with a character's heartbreak or I laugh out loud from the bottom of my toes......perhaps that is because I want so badly to write. I have so many stories in my mind aching to get out.........not just stories, but stories I would like made into movies........smile, if you must....as I am smiling too....at the thought that someday that could happen. I am easily drawn into a book or movie that is written and/or acted well, unconditionally and completely....I cry without shame (sometimes to the dismay of those sitting next to me) and sometimes I laugh way too loud. But that's me. It's means my emotions have been touched and I think that is a wonderful thing.

I write this today because I have just returned from seeing just such a movie....I am still reeling over the splendid story it was and how well it was written, acted and told. It was a jewel. I just got back from seeing "The Curious Story of Benjamin Button". Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji Henson and Julia Ormond truly outdid themselves in this movie........oh my gosh! The make-up was unbelievable....truly exquisite and exceptional. John said I cried through the whole movie...I didn't. And the times (even after the movie, when we were driving out of the parking lot of the theater) when I did cry.....it was not all because of sadness.....Part of me cried because it was such a beautiful love story, part of me cried for how it made me think about some of the things the story taught........how it's never to late to begin again.....or live happily ever after........or how in the end--we must all..."just let go".

But I cried too for the aching inside of me to write a story like that.......to write something that will touch someone elses emotions so deeply that they will lose themselves in my story, laugh and cry openly and never want my story to end...I ache to the core to do that....

.........and so perhaps, I shall.

I just finished reading a marvelous book too....."Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. Wow! It was phenominal....she did her homework. Her descriptions, flow of words, and twists in the storyline just pulled me right into each setting and conversation. She is the kind of writer that lends the reading of her book to learning for a "would be writer" as myself.

Well back to my real world....more writing will have to wait.