Thursday Chat: Life Lessons from Movies

Where writers and readers can mix and mingle and share our stories

Acclaimed Substack author, L.E. Wilson (moviewise) states in an interview,  “I write “moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies” because great movies contain a lot of knowledge and wisdom that has been passed down to us through the generations. My hope is that these life lessons, or guides to life, will help people have better, happier lives.” moviewise is open to guest writers who want to talk about how their favorite movie revealed a life lesson.

This prompted an idea for a regular gathering of writers and readers.

I had been thinking about how to bring more voices together so his words prompted the idea for doing a joint post talking about movies which have delivered life lessons with grace and humor, which could also include readers sharing their own stories of impactful movies.

moviewise offered Back to the Future (1985) as an example and talked about it in terms of gratitude. “Gratitude isn’t the main theme in this movie, perseverance is, but when the main character, Marty McFly, is able to return home after facing many obstacles, the joy that he experiences I think is because he feels gratitude. It’s a lesson in not taking anything in your life for granted, because even the stuff that doesn’t seem great now may be something you might miss if it’s gone.”

Below is a clip where Marty is even happy to see Red, the guy sleeping on a park bench in the bad, seedy part of town and relieved when Dr Emmet Brown isn’t dead. 

"Andrew Heard wrote a Guest Post on “moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies” titled, “The Best Time-Travel Movies Of All Time!!” Click below to read it.

The Best Time-Travel Movie Of All Time!!

Gratitude Mojo Cafe: I loved the clip from Back to the Future, especially seeing Michael J. Fox at the peak of his career. Only a few months later his life changed forever when a neurologist he had visited after experiencing muscle pain diagnosed him with Parkinson's. He was 30 years old and has spent the past 31 years becoming an advocate for Parkinson’s research.

I had difficulty deciding between two movies, so here are clips from both:

City Slickers (1991): The One Thing. If you saw the movie, you probably remember the scene where Curly reveals the secret of life to Mitch. 

The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980): Coke Bottle scene. One of my all time favorites, the life lesson that hits me is when the coke bottle falls to earth “from the gods” and the people discover its many uses and everyone wants it and begin to fight over it. The narrator says “A thing they had never needed became a necessity.” Just about says it all.

Readers: Please join in and share your favorite movie life lesson.

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Also … if you want to see more gratitude mojo posts, click here: