12/8/25
Recently, Jeanine and I went to see a very light movie called ‘Jane Austen Ruined My Life’. The storyline is so thin that it was almost transparent. A young woman must choose between two possible suitors. Like that’s never happened before. Hmmph! A good friend who has always been there and the dashing rebel, an impossibly good-looking guy, she meets on a writer’s retreat.
Within all the froth and turmoil of this love triangle, there are some provoking lines and important lessons to be (re) learned.
Towards the end, the young lady reflects that she is quick to blame others for her own lack of a happy ending, when ultimately this is up to our own very selves, the person in the mirror.
In today’s world of the ‘quick click on the computer’, we look for instant relationships/partnerships. Someone who will fix everything instantly, from a leaky tap to a broken heart. Over the years, we learn that the most excellent of bonds are painfully constructed over a lifetime, and the people whom we enjoy most are also those who stretch us and challenge us to be the very best we can be. And while I squirm, this is what I see every time I look at the squashed guy on the cross. But I’ll let the gifted Beth Pattillo (script writer) have the last word.
“I could blame my lack of a happy ending on Edward all day long, but the truth was that my dissatisfaction with my life wasn't anybody's fault but mine. I'd been looking for a man to sweep me off my feet when I should have been looking for one who was willing to pick up the pieces. Not some fictional hero, but a real flesh-and-blood man. Someone who would love me for the long haul.”