Become What You Are

Remember the movie ‘La Boum’? I must have watched it 20 times. Back then I thought I wanted to be Sophie Marceau, now I know I wanted to be WITH Sophie Marceau.

After watching, L’âge de Raison, I still do.

I mean, really ….. 

The movie tells the story of Margaret, a successful and very skillful business woman, who channels the characters of strong feminine figures to draw strength from.

At the day of her 40^th birthday she receives a surprise visit from an elderly notary, who insists on calling her ‘Marguerite’. He delivers her a package containing letters written by her when she was 7 years old.

The first letter says:     

             “Dear me,

             At the time of reading, it is your birthday.

             So I wrote this to help you remember the promises

             I made today, at the age of reason.

             Right, let’s start with what matters most:

             What have you become?”.

From that point forward, she goes on a journey, both in time and in place, remembering and re embracing the childhood she spent so many years running away from to the point of erasing it completely.

She makes peace with the past and the present and becomes an adult with a child’s eyes.

Watching the movie, felt like drinking a sweet and tangy cocktail. With its bright colors and fast (yet calm) pace, I got an instant warm buzz that kept me smiling long after I left the movie theatre.  

As referenced in the movie, Pablo Picasso used to say that his mother told him: “If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope”.

Instead, he said, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

Become what you are. The age of reason is now.

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