(I wrote this entry a decade ago when I first got ill. A life friend, Pat Weber wrote a comment on the post/movie this past April. It was a profound witness of the human condition.)
I had the chance to see this little masterpiece a short time ago. You and I have to live to the end and never stop dreaming.
"Jamal: Opens the letter
Forrester: Dear Jamal, Someone I once knew wrote that we walk away from our dreams afraid that we may fail or worse yet, afraid we may succeed. You need to know that while I knew so very early that you would realize your dreams, I never imagined I would once again realize my own. Seasons change young man, and while I may have waited until the winter of my life, to see the things I've seen this past year, there is no doubt I would have waited too long, had it not been for you."
We used this movie in the Humanities course that I taught in for many years. Always had tears in my eyes when it concluded. It was part of a unit we created focusing on the value of older folks and we gave them the book Tuesdays with Morrie as an opener. For many of our “at risk” kids, it was the first book they’d read and liked in high school. We concluded the unit with our students inviting a grandparent or neighbor to visit our classes (3-sections with a combined 100-plus kids) and offer their best advice. Bud, (of Bud and Norms Barbershop on Johnson Street in Bay City) was one of those folks (he’d moved to Traverse City years before). His advice was to ,”buy real estate”. Lots of the older gentlemen were almost deaf, mostly from their being in the war. It was such a profound experience and very enlightening for the classes.
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