StART is an arts and performing arts centre for underprivileged children. By helping us out with this you will not merely be purchasing lumens. You will be brightening the world through the joy that beams from each child’s face each time they walk through our doors.

Some of us invest in shares. Some of us in land. Why not invest in futures? I’ve not been schooled in finance, but I know this. There is no currency in the world more valuable than a smile from a child.

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How do you counsel a person who has suicide on their mind? Many of us tell them to think twice about their actions, to think about all the hurt they would cause those they leave behind. Sometimes, that may be the worst thing to do. Those who take their life prematurely often want to teach the rest of us a lesson, to make us regret not giving them the attention, and love, and respect they deserved.

We all like to be missed. We like to know that a void is left in our absence. This urge to deprive the world of what we are worth… I believe it is in all of us. It is a method we sometimes employ to make known to others our value, in a “you don’t know what you have until you lose it” sort of way. In the case of this boy who died… he was worth a lot to many people, but he could have been worth more.

This question entered my mind the other day. What would I have told him were he to have shared his plans for suicide with me? I think I would have told him to think of his siblings, of his friends, of his family, and I would have reminded him that that are people who count on him and look up to him. And that by taking his own life he would let a lot of people down. And I would say to him that there is nothing heroic in suicide, unless he were taking his life to save that of another. And had he shared with me that he had not a friend in the world who cared for him, I would have told him that he did now, in the person talking to him.

I’ve learned never to pass judgment on others from where you are standing. Stand in their shoes. If you can do that, albeit for a passing moment, I believe you will find that not much separates us from those whose deeds we do not condone. People are sometimes robbed of their immediate reason for living, and find themselves in a place so dark and deep that it appears Godless. Sometimes the wall of pain that has formed around them makes it impossible for the words of others to get through, to bring healing. We save the ones we can. For the rest, we can only pray that God shows mercy on them, that he weighs their situation and takes their frame of mind into consideration. I don’t condone suicide. But I can see how some may get lost on this path. Each day, we should pray that God does not bring us to the test, that He delivers us from evil, and that should we one day be tested, that we have on us the full armour of God.

The food took forever to arrive but was well worth the wait. Though we over ordered, we were able to work our way through most of the seven dishes. I tell ya… nothing beats the variety of communal eating—there be no more pampered a palate than one treated to the array of dishes found at a Chinese family dinner.

I was stuffed by dinner’s end. Another morsel of food in me would have forced something else out from the other end.

There was some fish head curry left. Someone, I can’t remember who, was picking through it when she asked, “Who’d like to have the socket?”

A hand swooped in from across the table to claim the prize.

Being home sometimes disturbs me.

I wonder if anyone will get the picture.

In my blog article on Passion, I had written this line: Passion feels right, even though it feels wrong. After considering the weight of her actions, Rachel threw logic out the window and followed the voice within, allowed her passion to lead her. Morally, I have reservations on whether or not what she did was right.  That is a debate I’ll leave for another time.

For me, what set Imagine Me & You apart from other love stories (aside from the Lesbian factor), was that it was really well scripted, some bits rather intellectual. Also… just like Fuel, there was a reference to flowers, and the meaning behind them. Hahaha… they got me at Azaleas.

I thought the movie had several defining moments. These were my favourite:

Conversation about Rachel’s fave flower… the lily (Luce is Rachel’s inamorata)
Rachel : Alright. Well… umm… tell me about the lily.
Luce : You don’t want to know about the lily.
Rachel : It’s my favourite.
Luce : Ask me about the azalea.
Rachel : Oh, alright. What about the azalea?
Luce : The azalea means ‘may you achieve financial security’. See?
Rachel : [laughs] Lovely. Now, tell me about the lily.
Luce : The lily means… the lily means ‘I dare you to love me’.

Conversation at the very start of the movie where a little girl (H) poses this question
H: Heck, I’ve got a question.
Tessa : Not now.
Heck : What’s the question, H?
H : What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
Heck : [thinks for a few seconds, then replies] I haven’t got a bastard clue, I’m afraid.
Tessa : There you are, you see. Now we can let him get married in peace.
Luce : It never happens. If there’s a thing that can’t be stopped, it’s not possible for there to be something else which can’t be moved, and vice versa. They can’t both exist. You see, it’s a trick question is the answer.

I thought that was a very interesting question… met by a superb answer.

Conversation at the end of the movie between Rachel and her husband Heck, who despite loving Rachel to bits, was releasing her to pursue Luce

Heck: It’s not you leaving that’s going to kill me. It’s you loving someone more.
Rachel : No, you’re not walking way. Don’t… don’t walk away from me.
Heck : Yeah keep saying that. Pretend this is my choice.
Rachel : What do you MEAN?
Heck : Oh come on Rachel. We both know you’d have left me in the end.
Rachel : That’s not true.
Heck : YES IT IS!
Heck : [quieter]
Heck : Yes it is. I want you to be happy. More than anything else I wanted to be the cause of happiness in you. But if I’m not, then I can’t stand in the way, you see? Because what you’re feeling now, Rachel, is the unstoppable force. Which means that I’ve got to move.

Absolutely loved how they tied the young girl’s question about the unstoppable force at the beginning to the movie’s climax at the end. Brilliant.