The Bucket List

I have been coming right home from work this week and resting as I am still recovering from surgery, and finally now that the cooler weather is here and fall is on the way, I am using my netflix subscription. So last night after doing some much needed laundry, I sat down with "The Bucket List", this movie stars two of my favorite actors, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and is about two cancer patients given 6 months to a year to live. Now it got horrible reviews, however I am not one to go by reviews and I tend to rent it and see how it makes me as the viewer feel. So there I am, all comfy in my jammies, heating pad on my ear and ready to dig in to this feature. I would have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, however if you are not a fan of Jack then you tend to not like allot of his movies. For me though, he has such a way of delivering lines and I definitely found myself laughing and yes, crying since I am a pathetic sap.

There is one point in the movie where they are in Egypt looking over at a pyramid and Morgan Freemans Character goes into one of his.. "did you know" moments. It struck me because he said the following:

“You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. ‘Have you found joy in your life?’ 'Has your life brought joy to others?’”

He asked Jack's character these questions and I found myself for a while after the movie thinking about this. I think it is a question we should all ask ourselves. Sometimes we are so selfish, it is a me society. We walk around this world and want to feel good, be happy, make more money etc. I think sometimes we forget to give back to the world and the people in it. I know I have found joy in my life, there are memories I have from my past that somehow go even beyond that feeling, and then there are the tiny moments of joy in my day that I hold on tight to. When I get to the second part of the question it gets tougher for me to answer. Has my life, my existence here brought joy to others, I hope the answer is yes, and there are times that I know the answer is yes. It is kind of a humbling question. If I say yes, am I being presumptuous, am I assuming that I am bringing people joy. I think the best way for me to answer it is that I make a conscious effort to be aware of my world and the people around me, to try and bring joy and smiles to those I come in contact with everyday. I think that is the most honest answer. I want to hope that at the end of my life I have made someone smile on a bad day, or even caused them to giggle at something I have said. I also hope that I truly feel in my heart that joy that we all should feel.

If you have not seen this movie, I would say rent it. It made my soul feel good, gave me a good cry that I probably needed and reminded me of some things that I tend to forget.

Life is such a precious gift.