Time To Get Busy

     Now I don’t know if Pathmark of Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania still has that little video section in the corner of its store like it did fifteen years ago.  But I do know that my best friend and I sure made a lot of use of it back in the day.  I bet we watched about eighty percent of their collection.

      Before DVDs became the standard, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of VHS titles in a small part of the store, where we went every other day to fetch our two movies for the fantastic daily deal of “buy-one-get-one-free.”  We watched a movie a night back then (something I only wish I had the time to do now.)    

     It’s probably since shut down, but I owe seeing some of my favorite movies to that little operation run by a twenty-something red-head who kind of looked like the girl in Urban Legend.

     Anyway, it was an unspoken rule of our little apartment that, when you went shopping, you returned the movies we had just watched and came back with two more.

     One afternoon, my friend came home from Pathmark with two movies in hand.  One I don’t remember what it was, but the other, I will never forget:  The Shawshank Redemption.

     “What are you doing getting a jail movie?”  I demanded to know.  “I don’t do jail movies.”

      As a general rule, it’s true.  Yes, I’ve seen The Green Mile, and, yes, I watched both versions of The Longest Yard.  But, as much as I love all kinds of movies…well, a Brubaker girl I’m not.

     Anyway, we agreed that, since a whole $1.98 was spent on renting it, we might as well give it a try.  If it got gruesome, violent, and graphic, we would just turn it off, rewind it, and put it back in the case for the redhead to file back on Pathmark’s shelves the next day.

     Though Shawshank was nominated, it’s funny that Forrest Gump was the Oscar winner that year because Tom Hanks was right:  You never know what you’re gonna get.

     The movie I was pretty sure I would have to turn my eyes from turned out to be one of the most engaging films ever made ~ and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.  Sure, it had some uncomfortable scenes, but everything else about the film overpowered that fact.

     (If you are one of the few who has not seen this film and you might want to see it, it is probably best to stop reading today’s blog, go watch it, and come back when you are done.)

     I realize that sometimes movies reflect reality and sometimes they don’t, but the reality is the seemingly ordinary character of Andy Dufresne embodied a spirit that would not be dominated in anyway by his circumstances ~ and this mettle is hardly limited to the world of fiction.  We are surrounded by people who achieve great things, even impossible things, just because they have belief in themselves and hope for a better day.

     Not only from Helen Keller to Walt Disney to Oprah Winfrey to Steve Jobs.  All you have to do is look around and you will see someone you personally know who lost that weight, got that job, earned that degree, gave up an addiction, reached that goal.

     Rest assured, there came a time in each of these people's lives where they almost gave up.

    In fact, at some point in the film, the viewers ~ along with Andy’s cellmates ~ are quite convinced that the falsely-accused accountant, after twenty years behind bars, has finally given up.

    And just when it seems that hope is lost…

    Well, who can forget the scene when the warden angrily throws rocks at Morgan Freeman, only to miss and hit Rita Hayworth…who reveals that Andy Dufresne was a man who knew how to make use of his time.

     So, today, just over a week after we came out of the New Year’s starting blocks determined to stick to our resolutions for 2012 no matter what, let’s remember that it’s all about time and what we decide to do with it.    

     We can make excuses for why we don’t and won’t be able to reach that goal, or we can keep picking at it, day in and day out, until it becomes reality.  And a less-perfect-start on the first day of the year doesn't mean we can't take any day of the year and do what we have to do.

     It doesn’t matter what it is ~ losing weight, quitting smoking, getting a degree ~ the choice is this: 

     In the words of Andy Dufresne, we either “get busy living or get busy dying.”

       Have a wonderful Tuesday.