by C.E.Robinson

The Ultimate Gift – Heart-to Heart Movie Scene

On Jason’s journey to answer the ultimate question, what is the relationship between wealth and happiness, one of his 12 tasks is to find a true friend. Desperate to find one and no luck with people he knows, he meets a young, spunky  girl named Emily in the park with her mother, Alexis. He convinces Emily to be his friend so he can fulfill the task.

Emily has leukemia. Soon after they meet, she’s in the hospital for treatment.

Jason visits her there, and asks, “What’s your dream?”

“I don’t know what I expected, but now it’s a perfect death. To be with people I love, and who love me.”

“Jason, what’s your dream?”

“I don’t know, for the longest time it was just to have fun.”

Emily smiles, “Guys are clueless. Even if you don’t have a dream, you gave me mine. That counts for something.”

I’d like to think that in the end, not like Emily’s end, we find out something important about ourselves. It’s similar to life’s ultimate gift, or the fulfilled answer to “what’s your dream.” It wouldn’t come from inherited wealth, but from the simple task of reading a book. Not the ever popular self-help kind, but from a good old fashioned value and virtue kind. I think we’ve gone too far away from that in today’s digital world of cell phones, iPads, social media, and spectacular futuristic screen and book fantasies; The Hunger Games, World War Z, the Twilight Zone, and The Giver. We’re plugged in, hooked up and stuck in a dystopian future, zombie take-over, vampire romance, and life without memories, color, and the word love. Not places to answer, “what’s your dream?”

I’d say it’s time for a 360 degree full circle change, sort of back to the future to remember how we were pleasantly affected by things like Disney movies, and storybook time. For a few minutes let’s just shut out the present world craziness and go back to a quiet, serene place in childhood. Close your eyes for a better look. Trust me; this will be a fun! Take a favorite book out of your bookcase and hold it in your hands. I bet it has a fancy cover and colorful pictures inside. Now, think hard, wasn’t there something memorable you learned from that book? Maybe there was a picture or part of the story that stayed in your mind, and gave you an unforgettable, good image or message. Not of grim world destruction, or a colorless life.

When I was a kid we had a rotary telephone, a radio, and books in a bookcase. That must sound ancient to you teenagers, twenty or thirty year olds, and even middle agers.  But, I can remember how important children’s literature was in my life and probably it was in yours too, especially around twelve to fourteen years old.

It’s possible we don’t look into the past at what we learned to explain what we do today, and why we do it. I believe all grown-ups were once hopeful, optimistic kids who believed in their “heart of heart” they could make their dreams come true, no matter what, with some assurance their fairy tale life would end with a castle and every one lived happily ever after.           

Some of what I dreamed about and what I accomplished along the way came from messages in movies and books. What I read as a growing up kid no doubt changed my thinking. I know I made a personal connection with impressionable characters and what those characters stood for.

I had two favorite books back then, My Book House books, a set of twelve books written in the 1930s, and The Little Prince. Hopeful optimism came from those 1930s Book House books even though critics said that the fairy tales in them often ended with a castle and everyone lived happily ever after, not the reality of every kid’s future.

In The Little Prince, the prince, a serious little blond boy, has adventures on neighboring asteroids near his own. His journeying brought him in contact for the first time with the strange narrow-minded world of grown-ups. The story showed me that too many people do not see what is really important in life.

The book I’m writing,  Happily Ever After, is a remember when back in time about a young girl’s bravery, courage, hope and optimism. You might recognize yourself there, and how you answered your own, “what’s your dream?” This young girl believed that in her heart of heart she could do anything, no matter what.  In her growing up years of hope and heartbreak, she kept a starry eye on her dream of what she wanted to be in this world, and when she was seventeen-years-old her dream came true.