Le renard et l'enfant

One nice thing about being sick, if you aren't too sick, is being able to lie in bed and watch movies.  Mr. Dashing and I watched a movie we rented a week or more ago (thank goodness for memberships!) called "The Fox & the Child."  It was recommended on A Fanciful Twist, Miss Vanessa Valencia's most inviting and delightful blog.  The movie was unbelievably beautiful and the ending, which I was a little apprehensive about, was not as much of a downer as I feared.

I have, as my sister Fig would say -- being not just an artist but also a scientist, very strong mirror neurons.  This means if someone is upset, I am too.  In day to day life I strive to not let other's feelings overwhelm me to the point that we are both in an awful mood and of no use at all.  (Yes, this does happen with Mr. Dashing and is not so unusual in that regard as I think we have all let our loved one's stress become our own with meltdown results on occasion.)  However when it comes to what is ostensibly entertainment I am the worst viewing companion.  I hide my eyes, plug my ears and sometimes exit the room when embarrassing scenes come on.  I cry over everything from news stories to the split second when the Beast dies before Belle's love breaks the spell.  Fig has read many a classic that I will not touch due to sad endings (but she fills me in on them all and we can have lovely chats about them nonetheless).

So, I watched ""The Fox & the Child" after delaying for some time due to a fear that the ending would be too sad for me.  It is a sad ending but not too sad an ending and does have a necessary moral that some things can never be possessed.  Thankfully, some things can be possessed like teacups and old books and to some extent cats.  My mother taught me at a young age, "Wild things are meant to be wild."  She would tell me this when I wanted to pick violets (they do wilt awfully quickly) and she would remind me that no one else could then enjoy them. It also came up when I kept toads in a shoe box behind the toilet where it was cool and just ever so slightly damp which the adorable creatures liked (she made me release them every night).  What can I say, I was a child full of contradictions.

One last point, I do wish I had been able to watch the movie in the original French.  Kate Winslet's dulcet tones were by no means a letdown but I love listening to French even if the training I received in it back in high school has all but left me.