The Help.

sigh. 

Loved the book.  Loved the movie.  That so seldom happens, but this movie was such a great picture of the book and did not disappoint!  This one's going on the Christmas list for sure!

I got to see The Help last night with Callie and her Mom.  It was so much fun to hear the theater erupt in laughter.  But then it ended and we just sat there.  It's just one of those moments that almost leaves you speechless.  Is this, was this really real?  It was.

And while I love the characters and the stories.  It makes my heart sad to know how badly people were/are treated ... not just "the help" and not just in the 60's, but here and now as well.

The story was obviously about the relationships between the black "help" and the white families they worked for.  And it broke my heart to see people who lived as family then be treated so poorly ... all for the sake of appearance and expectation and fear and prejudice.  But it also broke my heart to see a whole generation of women care more about social appearances than their own children.  And I am reminded that women just are not good to other women.  Killed me to see the bridge club "hide" from Celia because Hilly, queen bee, was jealous of her and poisoned a whole room of women against her.  Actually, this queen bee poisoned people against many others because of her jealousy, fears, insecurity, superiority, etc.  I wish I could say that this only plays out in the movies, but I've seen it over and over in girls' relationships.  Happens way too often!

Pretty sure none of this is new.  And I'm pretty sure that none of this has stopped.  Laws may be different, but the way we treat each other is still, to often, graceless, selfish, and wrong.

I still contend that the best way to impact our world is to start loving others in the wildly extravagant ways that Christ loves us.  We fall so short of this so often! 

One of the most beautiful pictures of this from The Help is the way in which Aibileen cares for Mae Mobley, knowing her mama doesn't think she's pretty and knowing she spends no time with her own child.  Loving the sweet heart of that baby girl, Aibileen shows her kindness and patience and she affirms her every day with this mantra:

Who, in our lives, needs to be affirmed with such words?  Who can I love well this week?  Where do I need to lay aside jealousies, prejudices?  How does my own insecurity keep me from loving and affirming others?  How can I love well?  extravagantly?  even those not easy to love?