A Divine Conversation

Ed is a typical man.
He has a normal life,
he goes through the motions, day after day.
He wakes up, goes to work, goes home, goes to sleep.
His current existence consists of routines;
everyday Ed walks to and from work,
he goes the same route at the same pace and stops at the same coffee shop.
This has been his routine for five years.
Ed continues his routine even on weekends,
stopping to get his coffee.
Every morning, after he comes out of the coffee shop,
he gives his left over change to a homeless man despite the mans sign;
on an old piece of cardboard it reads,
"Don't want your money, just want your time."
Time is one thing Ed doesn't have.
His job forces him to dedicate his life to it,
a small sacrifice for wealth, women, and fame.
He hasn't always been like this, he changed.
On one particular day, Ed's life completely changed.... again.
He was on his usual routine,
everything started normal like it usually does.
He left his building and started to walk,
he stopped at his coffee shop, bought his coffee and came back out.
He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled the leftover change out,
Ed usually places the money in the mans beer stained hat,
however,
today the man reached his open hand out,
About to drop it in his hand, the man had quickly grasped on to Ed's hand.
He pulled Ed close and said to him, "all I want is your time".
Ed kept the money in his hand and started to walk away.
For the first time in five years Ed had stepped outside of his routine,
about a hundred feet down the sidewalk, Ed stopped.
He walked back to the man and sat beside him.
The man was like a little kid in a candy store with a smile from ear to ear.
With a big of sigh of confusion, Ed looked to him and said,
"alright you have my time"
The man stretched his hand out, "Hi, I'm Mike"
"I'm Ed".
"Tell me about yourself Ed"
"Why would I tell you anything about myself? that doesn't make any sense"
"Neither does you giving me your time, but you did"
After a long pause,
"Well, I work down the street, not married, don't have kids, and I enjoy being alone"
"Why did you sit down Ed?"
"I really don't know, just felt like I should"
"Well I am glad you did"
"Ya sure whatever, well I should get to work"
Ed stood up and was about to start walking;
"Have you ever been in love Ed?"
Clearly angered, Ed responded, "WHAT?", but also intrigued as he sat back down.
"Oh that must be a sensitive subject for you"
"What kind of a question is that, I don't even know you"
"Well are you gonna answer it or not?"
"Alright, I'll answer it if you answer one of my questions"
"Fair enough"
"Why don't you get a job, for the past five years that I've lived here, you just sit here with that sign"
"I have a job and I am doing it right now"
"Oh ya, your job is that you're a homeless person?"
"Ya, something like that"
"Oh please, what were you addicted to drugs? alcohol? lost everything? what was it?"
"Okay, you want the truth Ed... I'm an angel!"
"Alright, drugs it is."
"Okay I answered the question, your turn"
"Whoa, you still haven't actually told me why you are here"
"I just did"
"Pffff, but fine, yes, I have been in love"
"What happened?"
"Why do you assume something happened?"
"Because you don't seem to live a life of a man in love"
Ed immediately grabbed the collar of Mike's jacket and pulled him close,
"I have NEVER stopped loving her"
"Who?"
"My wife, I will always love her!"
"You aren't wearing a ring."
"Because I'm not married anymore, she died."
"How did she die?"
"Car accident, a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and they both died"
"Is that why you are like this?"
"Like what?"
"Angry"
"You know other people they just ask how I am doing with it and apologise, but your different"
"Well I'm not like other people"
"Ya, that's probably why I am still sitting here"
"Can I ask you something?"
"I think that it is my turn to ask a question"
"Alright, go ahead."
"Why did you say you're an angel?"
"Because I am, that was a stupid question"
"If you are an angel why are you dressed like a homeless person?"
"Because descending from the heavens in white with wings seems to attract a lot of attention"
"Okay, but why a homeless person, I mean why not a doctor or a minister?"
"Because a homeless person allows me to sit here and observe people and complete my mission, purpose"
"Your mission?"
"Yes, I have a purpose for being here"
"And what is it?"
"Its you"
"Of course it is, then what is your purpose with me?"
"Its my turn for a question"
"Fine"
"Why do you always give me change?"
"Because its something my wife would have done, it would have made her happy"
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Are you happy?"
"Why would I be happy, my wife is dead!"
"Well maybe she is in a better place, wouldn't that make you happy?"
"Yes, if I believed there was a better place"
"Why don't you?"
"Because there is so much evil"
"There is some good in the world"
"Oh ya, like what?"
"People like your wife... people like you"
"I'll never be like my wife"
"You might, if you ever allow yourself to be happy again"
"I can't"
"Why?"
"Because it is my fault that she is dead"
"Why do you say that?"
"Because we got into a fight and she got angry and drove away, and I never saw her again"
A tear slowly appeared in the corner of Ed's eye, it grew and touched his skin and fell down his face.
"Trust me Ed, you are not the reason she died"
"You don't know that"
"Yes, I do"
Ed quickly turned from sad to angry.
"Mike don't try that angel crap with my wife"
Neither one of them said anything for a very long time,
they both sat there in silence.
Ed's face grew more and more wet while Mike sat there thinking.
Mike knew this was his chance and had to act.
"If you had the chance to talk to your wife before she died what would you have said?"
Ed's tears were no longer subtle, he began to cry.
"I would tell her that I love her and that I will always love her"
Mike had a very gentle and innocent smile on his face,
he leaned in really close to Ed,
his mouth was an inch from Ed's ear.
He began to whisper very softly;
"She loves you Ed, she never stopped loving you and she wants you to be happy"
"who?"
"Jane....... your wife!"
Ed's face went pale,
Mike stood up.
"You can be a good person Ed, if not for yourself than for her!"
Mike walked away and Ed never saw him again.
To this day Ed doesn't know if Mike was an angel,
but he does know that he has never been the same.
The next day Ed didn't follow one of his routines;
he slept in, made his own coffee and didn't go to work.
Ed walked down the same street as always,
he walked to the coffee shop and stopped in front of it,
he sat down in Mikes place and lifted up his sign;
"Don't want your money, just want your time!"

"Seize The Day"

Just do it, come on get up out of your chair and just go do it! This isn't life or death, its not like this
will be my last chance to go for it, I mean I'll see her again some other time, right? Wrong... well you
might see her again, but... you might not. So now I have to make a decision, grow a pair and just go
talk to her or continue to sit here pretending to drink this horrible coffee, which tastes like crap by the
way, and possibly miss my one and only chance. Snap out of it man, this isn't the movies, its not like
you will leave here today and learn tomorrow that she got hit by a car and died, I mean that kind of
stuff doesn't happen in real life, right? Frig I watch too many movies. And now I am sitting here
talking to myself, its happened, I have finally gone nuts. Okay seriously, you have been here for
almost a half an hour... but real life isn't like the movies, a guy can't just come into a coffee shop see a
beautiful girl and randomly go talk to her and then they strike up a conversation, real life isn't actually like that, right? What are you afraid of? I don't know, what if she thinks I'm a nut job and tells me to go away? Then you turn around pay for your crappy coffee and leave and your life goes on. But what if life doesn't go on, what if this is like destiny or fate or something and she is the one and this is my only chance? Well if that's the case than your gonna miss your one and only chance at the "one" because your a wimp. Okay now I am just reading way too much into this, shes a normal girl, I am a normal guy, so we can have a normal conversation. Wait, what if she is the nut job, what if we hit it off and she ends up being a runaway criminal? Wow I think too much, its not that complicated, just seize the opportunity, Carpe Diem "seize the day", make use of opportunities and live life to the fullest, right? Although, the main character in Dead Poets Society followed Carpe Diem and ended up killing himself... I need to get out more, or I could just try watching more documentaries. Crap, I lost track of time I have to go. What are you doing? You sat here thinking of every reason not to go talk to her and convinced yourself not to, now you have from here to the door to convince yourself to do it. I can't do it, I have places to be I don't have time for this. I could be spending my time better than contemplating whether or not to talk to a girl. Than stop wasting time and do it. I can't. What if she is the one and you've missed your only chance? What if she isn't? Than you missed the chance to have a good conversation with a beautiful stranger!
Screw it........... "Hi, I'm Leighton"...

A Comforter, A Best Friend, A stranger, A Saviour...

I sit in the dark day after day gathering dust with the hopes of being revealed to the light... maybe even a desperate face now and then. The drawer is slowly opened, a hand reaches inside and it rests on top of me for a little while, the man closes his eyes with his hand just resting there, then he takes his hand off and closes the drawer. The hopes of being opened after so long is ripped away.

A man and woman come into the room, the same man and woman as always. They go along with their weekly routine, only this time was different because the man left, but the woman stayed behind. She was quite young, very beautiful, long wavy brunette hair, gorgeous blue eyes. Then out of no where she suddenly started to cry. She placed her hands over her face and continued to cry, it must have been twenty minutes that she sat there with tears streaming down her face. She pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket, she searched for a pen and finally opened the drawer, I suddenly became spotlighted by the glare of the sun coming from the window. She reached into the drawer with the intention of grabbing a pen, but pulled her hand out with me in her small but tight grip, her small hand with those fake purple fingernails were desperately grasping my exterior. She sat me on her lap and just stared as the tears began to stop. After sitting there for a few minutes, all within a split second she yanked me up to her chest and tightly wrapped her arms around me and the tears started to pour, it felt like she was holding on for her life. She gently tossed me on the bed, walked over to the night table and grabbed the money that the man left, counted it, placed it in her purse and walked out.

The usual maid walked into the room, she was about to begin her cleaning when she saw that I was left on the bed. She walked over to the bed and leaned across gently lifting me off of the bed, she held me in the air and wiped the dust off of me. This woman treated me like a precious jewel, as if I was a rare and fragile masterpiece, she walked me over to the drawer, opened it up and very gently, with as much care as one person can give something, placed me back in my corner and locked me back into the isolated darkness.

This room hadn't been used in a very long time when one late and rainy night a middle-aged man walked inside. He looked depressed, lonely, angry, sad, lost...broken. He had two large bags with him, he slowly walked around the room a little bit, he stopped at the end of the bed and leaned over gathering something from his bag standing up with a large bottle of whiskey. He opened up the bottle and swallowed as much as he could before coughing, he continued this until the bottle was nearly empty, his body went limp and fell onto the bed dropping the bottle on the floor. Hours later he awoke and slowly sat up, he quickly brought his hand to his temple realising any movement shook his pounding migraine. He saw the nearly empty bottle laying on the ground, he stared it down as if he was going to attack it, or perhaps the other way around.  In one swift motion he quickly picked the bottle up and hurled it at the wall with as much force as his body could handle. The bottle hit the wall and shattered into a million pieces splattering the last little bit of whiskey on the white sheets. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and opened it up pulling a picture out of it letting the wallet fall to the ground as if it no longer had meaning, he sat on the bed and stared at the picture of his lost family. His beautiful wife wearing that purple dress that he loves so much, she had one of their adorable daughters in each arm, smiling at their cheating daddy taking the picture. Similar to the woman he suddenly began to cry, but not like a usual cry, this man was sobbing because he finally realised he had lost the three gems God had placed in his life. Still crying he stood up and ripped his suit jacket off, took his tie off and threw them on the ground still holding the picture with the same grip the woman had on me. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, he looked back at his life and was disgusted with himself. He opened his eyes and looked around the room, he began to take his anger out on everything in his sight. Everything in this room he began to destroy, the television, the lamp, the mirror, the walls, the bed, the night table. He ripped the lamp that was sitting on the night table and chucked it across the room, then he lifted the night table beside the bed and followed it behind the lamp. He ran over to what was left of it and began stomping on it, he pulled the drawer out and tossed it across the room. I was revealed to the light flying across the room and tumbled on the floor. He walked over to me, standing right over top of me he fell to his knees. He picked me up, he opened my cover and began to read the first page, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"...

Why I Love Movies...

Why do I love movies? It is a question that, surprisingly, I have never been asked or asked myself. I love movies probably more than any materialistic thing. For as long as I can remember I have loved movies and could sit and watch one after another. From adventurous movies to comedies to thrillers, even the odd chick-flick, I love them all. And no matter what movie it is, whether its a good film or not, they all put a smile on my face because they take me away for those couple of hours.

I guess you could say that movies are my escape, the stories in particular. For those couple of hours I experience something that I most likely will never experience in my lifetime. I become someone that one can only dream of. In the movies; for that short period of time I become these fantastic characters like superman, Forrest Gump, John Coffey, Braveheart, Marty Mcfly, Maximus Decimus Meridius, Luke Skywalker, Rocky Balboa... I become these heroes and amazing characters that go on amazing adventures. A movie like the Gladiator or Braveheart where it takes you back into the past through some of the most amazing historical events. For that short period of time I get to imagine myself as some the worlds greatest heroes; whether it's as Braveheart shouting out "FREEDOM" before he takes his last breath, or as Maximus fighting that final battle to avenge the death of his family. For some people a movie is simply just entertainment, but for me movies give me a whole different aspect of life and the world. A movie can take an event and make it come to life and allows someone to understand it and feel it and experience it. The best example of this that I can think of is The Passion of the Christ. An event such as this one that many people perhaps don't understand or don't realise what exactly happened makes it come to life. And for anyone who has seen this movie will agree that you certainly experience it and cringe and can't help but look away at such brutality, it brings such an incomprehensible action to life. Another good example that perhaps more people can relate to is Schindler's List. This movie takes an event that shook humanity and gives people in this time a very small idea of the human cruelty that occurred. However it is also movies like this that gives one hope. Schindler's List is often criticised for making light of the Holocaust and all of it's atrocities, but I watch this movie and that is not at all the feeling that I get. Perhaps this is because I did not experience such a thing at first hand, but when I watch this film my heart absolutely breaks watching some of the ways these people were treated and what they went through, however I think the intention of this movie is to give humanity hope. Because through possibly the most horrific event in history we see the evil and inhumane acts that humanity is capable of, but we also see that through this darkness people can rise up and this gives us a little bit of hope... at least it did for me. Because even though this world is really screwed up, there are still good people in this world! Another movie that could also give one hope, although completely different and incomparable, is Forrest Gump. How can this movie be in the same category as Schindler's List? A man with all odds against him rose up and became a hero, a legend, a millionaire, a champion, an icon, a husband, a father... I don't know about you, but I get all warm and fuzzy inside every time I watch it because it is the best example of an underdog story. This gives me hope because it shows that one can go against the odds and become whoever they want to be and may make all of their dreams come true.

And then there are movies that just simply put a smile on my face and sometimes (most of the time)that's all it takes to turn a bad day into a good one. These movies are usually not the ones that will win Oscars, but they are the ones that end with uplifting and happily ever after endings or just leave you a little happier than when it started. Movies that come to mind with these aspects in mind are ones like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Goonies, Hook, Jurassic Park, and my personal favourite, Lord of the Rings. All of these movies I would consider classics because they are one-of-a-kind films that are possibly simple ideas, but powerful. An archaeologist searching for priceless treasure while avoiding capture by Nazis, it doesn't seem like too much of an abstract idea, but it will forever go down in history as a great film because they always left you feeling like you had just ventured on an amazing journey and you cannot help but have a smile on your face when it ends completely as expected with the girl in one hand and the treasure in the other. How about a movie about the adventure of a bunch outcast kids searching for lost treasure, it probably doesn't get much simpler than that, yet I would consider The Goonies to be in my top ten. That's because it is a fantastic film filled with adventure, booby traps, goofy humour, and an unforgettable happy ending. And then there is the Lord of the Rings which is anything but simple. The Lord of the Rings is a very complex and amazing story, one in which I could talk about forever so I will simply say that this movie/story could be in every category that I have talked about, it speaks of the truths of evil in humanity, it gives the aspect of hope as we see the hobbits rise up to the task of saving the world, and overall it is an amazing adventure filled with out-of-this-world creatures and not just a happy ending, but the happy ending.

I don't really have a specific category for these next films, but they are my absolute favourite movies of all time and therefore have to be in this blog so I will just give you my thoughts. The Shawshank Redemption is clearly not a surprise that it would be one of my all time favourites because it is widely known as one of the best. However, these are just the reasons that I love this movie. The Shawshank Redemption is the story of a wrongly accused man spending his time in jail alongside his elderly best friend. It's actually quite simple why I love this movie because it has every thing that a great film needs: a likeable main character; Andy is an innocent and intelligent man who pursues his freedom in any way necessary, A kind and loving best friend; Red is an old man that's been in prison for most of his life and is all he knows, an evil antagonist; the warden is a greedy man after his own selfish desires, a prison break; realising his freedom cannot be earned and that it must be taken, Andy devises a plan to break out of prison, and an unforgettable ending; not long after Andy has broken out of jail and long fled the United States, Red is released from prison and follows Andy's note and arrives on a tropical island where he sees Andy fixing an old boat in the distance, the film ends with two with smiles on their faces from ear to ear. The Green Mile is like no other film, it's another one that I could go on and on about because there is so much content and value in this masterpiece. To avoid rambling on about this movie all I will say is that this movie makes you see life in a new way... respect life in a new way and yes I know it is just a movie, but The Green Mile is not just another movie. I have seen this movie many times and every time I see the ending of when the innocent giant or possibly angel that is John Coffey take his final breath I get shivers down my back and any movie that can do that must be special.

As you can see by the length of this blog that I can talk forever about movies. Movies are what comfort me, when I have a bad day, I watch a movie and I escape this world for a short while and I come back happier than ever. That is why I love movies.