I watched a movie with my daughter tonight. It’s a favorite of hers, and a very old story. It was first known as Taming of the Shrew, and then Kiss Me Kate and for the more recent generation, Ten Things I Hate About You.
Julia Stiles plays “Kat”. I like Julia Stiles, she’s just cute in a very frank and fresh way. The actor playing opposite her was adorable too. He had a winning smile and a charming accent. I gave myself over to the story set in high school, enjoying familiar music (more my time than my daughter’s), knowing where the plot was going and not expecting any surprises.
Until the end. I watched the credits at the beginning, so I knew. I knew going in. But I forgot. And I let myself be totally charmed by his smile and accent. And then the final credits rolled…the part of Patrick was played by Heath Ledger.
And it just hit me. Here was a movie with this adorable young man in it. A young man who will remain young because he died at age 28.
You may be thinking, uh yeah Robin, we know he died. Maybe it hit me hard tonight because of some other things that happened today.
Earlier today I was told about a woman who hid in a bathroom with many other women for 93 days, 93 days waiting for the world to do something about the insanity that was taking place in her country- Rwanda.
And before we watched the movie, my daughter and I had gone shopping. Picked up a few things at Kohls. They were sitting on the coffee table while we watched the movie.
The movie with a kid named Heath who had the most amazing smile. A smile that God designed.
So I’m wondering…how do all these things fit together? Shopping and movies and high school and music and a death far too young and deaths far too many and terrible.
You know Nero wasn’t fiddling when Rome burned. And the world isn’t burning right now, at least, not my neighborhood. But people are dying, far away and just down my street. And I wonder…
How much am I just fiddling around?