thunderugly

I watched King of Hearts for the first time in 30 years and it brought back so much of the spirit of the sixties, the upside down values that called insanity reason and vice versa. But the thing that struck me most was the sweet innocent beauty of Genevieve Bujold. Oh my, it makes you want to cry. This year, she will be 66 years old. In Away from Her, Julie Christie played an Alzheimer's victim in her sixties, a beautiful older woman with moments of insight and clarity who was not so slowly fading away. Then soon after I watched McCabe and Mrs. Miller and parts of Dr. Zhivago and saw a different Julie Christie, young and brilliant and beautiful, and comparing the two made tears come to my eyes. I am 55 years old, with very few options or opportunities ahead of me. When I spend time with people in their thirties or with my son who is 18 I have that same feeling of loss as I remember the me who was once young and hopeful with choices and opportunities and wonders ahead of him. But it occurs to me that the young Julie Christie, the Genevieve Bujold and Alan Bates of King of Hearts, the Lauren Bacall of To Have and Have Not, and so many others are still alive to me through their performances on DVD. All of our lives are available in an even richer and more permanent way to God. The young me still lives in the memory of God, still has all the value and meaning he possessed 30 years ago. He has never gone away and never will as long as the memory of God endures.