So yesterday I stumble upon a movie at target that i have not seen in a while but remember it to be an amazing film
"hey its on sale for $10 so why not"
This movie is called "Apocalypto" it is a remarkable film. Set in the days of the Mayan civilization,
The cast is largely indigenous non pro actors speaking the prevailing surviving dialect of the Mesoamericans,
"Yes i had to look that up " The move has a lot of subtitles but after the first 10 min you hardly notice.
So why am I blogging about this movie, I am no film critic nor is this movie even remotely new.
For those of you who have not seen this movie, it is very realistic and a bit bloody and Gorey
because it it very true to the time period an lifestyle that the Maya lived.
Now I really did not remember the movie to be as realistic as it was ( I guess the whole of the movie impressed me so much
that I did not focus on the blood and guts)
But anyway I watched the first 35 min or so of this film before
I went to bed and I was just as intrigued as I was the first time I saw this film, but something was different this time.
It's like when you look at an old photo you have seen hundreds of times later in your life and you start to see the background cars and people and at how much things have change and yet you never really noticed till now, type of feeling.
The main character is a young man named Jaguar paw, and he has a pregnant wife and son and lives in a small village that his father is the chief of. ( just giving you the basics don't want to ruin the film for you )
The father and son have a moment where the father tells his son Jaguar paw
"Fear. Deep rotting fear, Fear is a sickness. It will crawl into the soul of anyone who engages it. It has tainted your peace already. I did not raise you to see you live with fear. Strike it from your heart. Do not bring it into our village."
I thought that is so true fear is a sickness and it must be treated.
I continue to watch further and the young man after having this conversation with his father, performs a unselfish brave act to save his family.
He as a father would do anything even if it was to loose his life to save his family and that rung bells in my head and heart that it nearly brought me to tears.
Even in thier non educational tribe socity and the simple lifestyle, there is an unspoken weight of responsibility that fathers have and that i feel I'm developing, of protecting your family at any cost.
WOW 30 mins in and tearing up, this has never happened to me before. ( what the heck is going on ,its just a movie that i have seen before)
And that's when it hit me like a brick it wasn't the movie that change it was the person watching that has changed.
Me, I ,blue has changed and by a lil boy who hasn't even been born yet, is the reason why.
How can a lil person who is only about 2 and half pounds completely dominate the mind , body, heart and soul of a 235 pound man....
But with all these changes in my thoughts and actions I must say that , I'm proud that I am changing no better yet evolving for my son even if i did not realize it.
CHECK OUT AN OLD FILM THAT YOU HAVE ENJOYED AND HAVEN'T SEEN IN A WHILE
AND SEE IF YOU FEEL THE SAME WAY YOU DID WHEN YOU SAW IT THE FIRST TIME.
( GOOD EMOTIONAL EXERCISE )
so in closing, I recommend this movie 2 thumbs up
A father is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring.
Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!
~Lydia M. ChildSo as time passes and I come ever that much closer to becoming a father, I am starting to think more about my own father and our father son relationship.
you ever noticed how boys want to be just like their dad's when they are young, nothing like their father's when they are teens, and then become just like their father's for better and worse when they become adults?
This could not be more evident than in the relationship between my father and I. From my evolution of childhood through adult, the predictable life stages that occurred in my life that kept us apart and the challenges that keep us close vary as my view of him over the years, I have viewed and related to my father in many different ways in different stages in my life.
See as children, sons idolize their dads and think they can do anything. This is most often demonstrated by a son’s imitation of his father’s behavior by walking like him, talking like him or wearing his clothes or shoes. At this age, a son wants so much to please his father and receive his approval and acceptance. As for me I idolized my father from afar, my parents divorced when I was very young ( too young for me to remember ) So I would create pictures and depictions of my father from bits of stories that fell from dinner table conversations that I was too young to hear mixed with vivid glimpses of old photos and tales of his manhood,courage and psychical strength. My father was a god to me as a child and I would anxiously await his arrival when he would bless me with his seldom found presents. weather if it was because of his personal life, his jail sentence or his drug addiction my fathers touch or voice was rarely seen, heard or felt in my early childhood.
As a teen, I experienced a period of discord in which conflict was the central theme of my life. I often rejected the expectations, values and directions that my father had embraced and I took on more non-traditional philosophies, placing me regularly at odds with him. He had seen the error in his ways, in not only his life but in my life and was attempting to be the father that I needed and deserved but at this time in my life I didn't want a father.
Resentment or even the fear of depending on the man who was my absent "fallen god like" father was great, but he buried his head and continued to try and better
himself as a man and a father. He educated him self, he separated himself from his former life,he found respect for himself as a man. and even as a rebellious, resentful and emotionally scared teen that I was at the time, I couldn't help but take note of his growth. My father was becoming the dad I wanted, right before my eyes (yes it took years but he never quit ) He continued to build that father son relationship that we were so very much lacking.
As a young adult, My father took me in to his home, when mom couldn't handle me anymore and in this short year that I lived with my father from the age of 16 to 17
( the most time we spent together in my life ) He taught me many things about being and becoming a man strength, honesty , Faith, humility and The most important thing that my dad showed me was that only a real man can be a father.
See all men fall and make mistakes but only a man can rise, My father fell but he rose from the ashes of his mistakes and atoned for every sin and lie he told for every second lost of my childhood, he took responsibility for his actions and withstood the pain of facing his past shortcomings as a man face to face till only then, to move forward as a father.
and now I am to be a father to a son.
To successfully pass through these stages of idolizing, discord, evolving, acceptance and becoming a legacy, is an “ideal” goal for every Son to a father.
Let me become your legacy Dad, for my son and I will pick up what you have begun
and hold it high for the world to see, This legacy was not made of riches and soft times but forged from the bottoms of uncertainty, mistrust and scrutiny of naysayers to rise to the highest points of trust,respect, love and prosperity.
Thank You
Rev. Dr. Bruce C Rivera PH.D. aka my DAD
