Amy’s Adventures

Disney is a cult! Yes, I said, it. Disney is a cult! Sorry, Sue and Tyler, I loved your Disney wedding, but after five days living on the grounds of the “happiest place on earth,” I felt I was being wooed into believing that nothing bad ever happens in the world,  and if I stayed there long enough,  I too could find Prince Charming while riding Space Mountain.

Call me a realist, but life is not a “happily ever after,” as Mr. Disney wants us all to believe.  Cinderella and Snow White are just fantasies: A ploy to  warp little girls minds into believing that Prince Charming will come and sweep them away.  My rant on Disney could go on for hours, but I found that photos do a much better job in dispelling the happily ever myth that Disney has forced upon little girls for over 50 years.

Possibly, Disney should consider using these photos as a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie. WARNING: The movie you are about to see WILL NOT  happen to you. Instead, you will be forced into a life of reality!  (A note of thanks to Eilis for the photos. )

Cinderella

Snow White

Belle (Beauty and the Beast)

The Little Mermaid

Finally, the Oscars are here!  And yes, I must admit that instead of listening to today’s homily, I drifted to think about my favorite movies and the lines in them that “spoke” to me. Here’s my top 10:

10. Mommie Dearest - “No wire hangers.”

9. A Few Good Men - “He eats breakfast three hundred yards away from four thousand Cubans who are trained to kill him and no one’s going to tell him how to run his unit, least of all the Harvard mouth in his faggoty white uniform.”

8. Bridget Jones’s Diary - “The only thing worse than smug married couple; lots of smug married couples.”

7. When Harry Met Sally - “All I’m saying is that somewhere out there is the man you are supposed to marry. And if you don’t get him first, somebody else will, and you’ll have to spend the rest of your life knowing that somebody else is married to your husband.”

5. A Beautiful Mind - “Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.”

4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s - “  You could always tell what kind of a person a man thinks you are by the earrings he gives you. I must say, the mind reels.”

3. Gone With the Wind - “No, I don’t think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how. ”

2. Dr. Zhivago - “Tonya! Can you play the balalaika?  Can she play? She’s an artist! Who taught you? Nobody taught her! Ah…then it’s a gift.”

1. The Sound of Music - “Where the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.”

New Year’s Day is typically reserved for football fans or those who need inspiration to lose weight from a marathon of The Biggest Loser. But today, I found my inspiration from the Rocky saga. Even though I had seen them all at one point or another, somehow watching them all back to back brought a new perspective.

1. You may be down, but you’re never out.
2. There’s always someone that believes in you even when you don’t believe in yourself. “Yo Adrian!”
3. You’ve gotta have heart to win the fight and the crowd.
4. Don’t forget where you’ve come from and who helped you along the way.
5. Sometimes the enemy is within you.
6. What’s new and shiny is not always the best way
7.Go out on top.
8. There is a top and a bottom–you’ll be at both at some point in your life, sometimes even twice.
9. Sometimes you need to walk away.
10. You can reinvent yourself as many times as you need.

So on the 1st day of the decade, I’ve found that some of the best lessons come from three decades ago. I wonder what this decade will teach us 30 years from now?