It takes courage to “Buy a Zoo”

l loved the movie We Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon (okay, I love Matt Damon, too!). This New York Times reviewer is not quite as enthusiastic [NYTimes online review] but doesn’t heavily bash it, either.

My favorite quote is what Matt Damon’s character, Benjamin, tells his son, You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.

That quote makes me wonder what great things might happen if we took that literally. It takes less than twenty seconds to say “I love you” or “No, I won’t do that.”  I’ll be looking for those situations that compel  me to use my twenty seconds. Please share with us what happened when you were “insanely courageous.”

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The Hereafter: Matt Damon’s Portrayal vs My Perception

Matt Damon as George in the movie, Hereafter, is a reluctant mediator between living people and their deceased family members. George is not a hoaxer; he doesn’t want to have contact with deceased people but it’s his “gift” and others seek him out because they desperately want the messages he conveys. The movie seems to be trying to say that there is a hereafter, an afterlife.

I do not question whether there is; I believe in heaven.  What I want to know is what our loved ones who have crossed over are doing. Can they still reach out to us, even intervene in our lives. I have expressed my belief (or is it my hope) in a scene in my manuscript, Pieces of You.  I would love responses from others who either disagree or have a different perception of life in the afterlife. Here’s a little bit of mine:

 “So what you’re saying, my angelic friend, is that my foreknowledge is what she needs to make enlightened requests! So let me live and carry this knowledge with me as I return to a conscious state. Maybe my question should be—without being disrespectful—is why do I need to join you?”

“Well Kirk, a human with a resurrected body can commune with the uncountable others in this spiritual realm, but you cannot know what’s in the minds of other living human beings. You never could discern what someone else was thinking (even though once or twice you thought you had a glimpse), and you  never will. That is not part of the human condition. We, who were always in the spiritual dimension, can. What we are not capable of is fully understanding human emotion since that has never been our experience; therefore, in partnership with you, we can with certainty direct activities that will fulfill your requests–and hers.”