Tonight I went with my momma to see The Help, which happens to be one of my favorite books of all time. I was convinced the movie could never live up to the book, since movies never are (I’m talking to you, Runaway Jury. And to you, Chronicles of Narnia. And How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Shambles!), but I have to admit, I was impressed with this one. Aside from the few deviations I’ll grant the writers, this movie captured the power of the book, and somehow the good writing, threw in some comic relief, and tied it with a bow. It was as close to book-movie perfection as I’ve ever seen.

It also made me think.

It was harder for me to actually watch the more difficult parts of the book unfold on screen than it was to actually read them and now I’m curious: how much substance do I gloss over when I read a book? Am I ignoring some of the more uncomfortable critiques in the books I read? I honestly don’t know.

And I loved that one of the more thought provoking lines for me from the book was reiterated in the movie: Write about what disturbs you. It’s easy for me, in my cookie-cutter-suburban-naïve-college-student-life to forget to be disturbed. To remember the injustices that are still present in the world. And to think of ways I can personally enact change. Must think more on this.

On a lighter note, I found out that my office is in possession of one of the more impressive stashes of hot chocolate that I have ever come across in my wide and varied travels. Why, oh why, did I not find this months ago? I’m in mourning for all of the good times I have lost from my oblivion! Am resolving to drink more hot chocolate in the next two days to compensate for time lost.

And yes. These pictures by Anne Naumann have absolutely nothing to do with this post at all. I had some sort of scheme going to talk about my trip to Michigan, but obviously rambling about the movie takes priority, so try your best admire these fantastic photographs (sans post connection) as we enter into the last couple weeks of summer! Time flies, it really does.