Beastly...

Last night I watched the movie Beastly (cheesy teeny-bopper chick flick), and it was a modern re-telling spin of Beauty and the Beast. It was cute, and had interesting points, some very comical points which were only caught if you paid attention to mannerisms and one liners. I definitely enjoyed it, and was satisfied with how they re-told the story, but added their own spin...

However, the ending (like all chick flicks) had a quick, too rushed resolution which left you feeling slightly off.. Yet even still, a couple things I appreciated about the film..

The entire thing was about how beauty really comes from the inside, and has nothing to do with the outside. It pointed out how we change ourselves to be attractive to someone else, even if that includes being "really mean" to keep someone's attention... We sometimes try to buy their affection, and other times we try to persuade them that we are actually more intellectual and interesting than we know how to be... But, when push comes to shove, the thing that draws people to us is.. us. Who we are on the inside, those moments we can't control, and the glimpse we have no idea we have let slip out of our perfectly disguised picture of who we are, the moments when we act out of a selflessness for the other person, the love we show that is unconditional and without strings... those are the things that draw people to us, and what draws us to other people. It is not about the portrayal of perfect or having it all together, it is about love and acceptance regardless. True love is so much more powerful than we give it credit for... No one is actually looking for perfect regardless of what they think they want.

So, while this movie was totally cheesey, and entertaining for a mid-week couch and movie night, I appreciated the odd reminder from an obscure source that we are meant to be more than our outward appearance, we are meant to be more inside... And, because it is what I do, here's a little reminder...

" If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
- 1 Corinthians 13