Curious Case

Last night, against his will, I dragged James out to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. James doesn't typically like to go out to movies, the primary reason being the ridiculous expense. I somehow managed to convince him to go, despite my own reluctance at a 3 hour movie (this is not right, no movie should have to be over 2 hours). I loved the movie, although I will say that I generally tend to love Brad Pitt movies that are amazingly slow moving- my favorite movie is A River Runs Through It, not too action-packed.

The end was interesting and I was struck by the similarities between the very young and the very old. It seems that we are not so different at the beginning of our lives as we are from the end. Benjamin, who ages backwards, slowly turned into a child, developed Alzheimers, and forgot how to do things such as bathe and walk.

I work with disabled children and have often been asked how I am able to do it, as it seems so sad. I guess I don't see it that way- I love the imagination required to work with kids and also appreciate the opportunity to truly make a difference in a child's life. On the other hand, I think it would be amazingly difficult to work with the elderly, for the same reason- it seems so sad. For some reason aging seems immensely scary to me and I can only imagine my body and mind failing, I debate which would be worse. After this movie I wondered whether it the differences between the beginning and end of life are really so different.

As I can't seem to tie this post into something relatively logical and coherent, or to wrap up my thoughts into a conclusion, I will just end before I get in too deep. I guess it's just something more to think about.