Thursday, September 28, 2006

New Year's Resolution

I think I just found my New Year's Resolution. Before you start thinking, "How Type-A can she get?" I'm not trying to be super-organized or fix myself. At least not with this impulse. September has always seemed like more of a new year to me than January. More people start more new things and more cycles of activity commence in September than ever do in January. Maybe I won't even bother with a New Year's resolution when January rolls around.

If you know me you also know that I like New Year's resolutions that add something rather than take something away. I am not into denial and deprivation. I prefer enhancement.

Yesterday I watched another movie from the foreign movies section of our local video store. I enjoyed it so much I think I'm going to try to work my way through those movies and any others that I come across. That's my resolution. Watch more foreign movies. They're mostly rentable in packs of 3 for $9 for a whole week, so it'll probably be in binges. Heck, I might even go to the theatre to see some.

Yesterday I watched Osama. It's a movie made in Afghanistan about a family living during the time that the Taliban were in power. In the story, a young girl who is made to dress as a boy so that she may go outside the home to support her mother and grandmother after her father and uncle die. The movie was filmed in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime. The actors are local people who the director found there and asked to be part of the project. As I watched it, the stark landscape and constant menace of the Taliban made me keep thinking I was watching science fiction. But I knew it was a true story, that represented the reality of the lives of the Afghani people in Kabul during the time of the Taliban. I kept thinking that it is impossible that in one world, life can be so different for people. We are all the same, but our lives are not.

I watched the movie at 5:30 in the morning. I think that I can find a day here and a day there to do this. Seeing the work of film-makers from different places in our world will help wake up my mind and heart to new worlds.

question: are you doing something new this September?

mompoet - happy new year!

2 comments:

Lazy Daisy said...

Oh wow, we are so on the same page. September is always a time of reflection, looking into getting into a tighter schedule and focus on what I want to accomplish before year's end.

mompoet said...

Yeah Daisy, in some ways it's like the night before the exam. Let's figure out what we need to do before year's end and just do it. All the best on your autumn accomplishments.
mp