Movies that influence…
The movies that are selected at our house are probably not from the top 10 list of movies! It is a bit of a tradition in our house to watch a few movies on the TV than usual over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I was fortunate enough to have been selected by a darling husband that is not a huge sports fan. There are few football/baseball/basketball games that this soap business owner has to suffer through! (Not to say that we don’t watch our share of formula one or bicycle racing! That’s another blog post or so…)
Two movies that we watched over the holiday stand out for me. They are total opposites in terms of almost everything yet the threads of similarity reflect a lesson that has inspired me of late. The two movies are:
I am Legend and Shackleton.
The common thread that is evident in both of these movies is endurance and discipline in the face of stress, isolation, and exhaustion. If I think back on those sports that we do watch on tv, they reflect this same too! Not sure I noticed that before! In each movie, the details of things done everyday were emphasized. In the movie Shackleton, it was the heating of snow to create a warm drink that was delivered to each member of the expedition upon waking up in their tent. Did I mention that the name of their ship was called endurance?
In the movie “I am Legend” it was making it back to “home base” and closing the windows and doors before sunset. These examples of things that are done everyday in each movie were pivotal upon survival. There were other disciplines that were done each day that had longer term effects such as exercise, eating rituals, etc.
There was a scene in the Shackleton movie that was significant when members of the expedition wanted to leave a life boat behind because of the damage it had already sustained would compromise it’s sea worthiness. The leader was very insistent that not happen and a good thing too as that very boat was used to save many of the members as shelter from the weather and cold. The cost of not dragging that life boat with them would have been fatal to half the team. These are really good life and business lessons that I plan to put to use. Somehow my outlook on the new year’s resolutions of 2009 is a bit different than in previous years.
We are all a bit unsettled with the economic challenges that we face but if we take this thread of discipline and endurance, we will weather through this and anything that might cross the path of our journey. Join me on the path will ya? I’m off to make another batch of all natural handmade soap!
Happy Washing!
~Regina