Throughout the course of life you will be asked endless versions of the question "What's your favorite...?" That question may end with food, movie, book, song, color, place to live, place to visit, relative, the possibilities are endless. Some will hold you to your answer until the end of time, and yet others will understand that as we journey through life, and experience new events, that the answers to these questions are dynamic and subject to change.
Personally, I find it difficult to answer some versions of this question. For instance, I find it difficult to answer the question "what's your favorite movie?" I love movies of all ilk (well not horror), and my favorite movie is generally dependent upon my mood at the time. Some days I may crave a comedy, others drama, or fantasy. However, I can generally narrow down my "favorite" to a handful of movies. These are movies that I will stop all I am doing to watch over and over even though I can probably re-enact them in full.
One of the movies that falls into this list is "Secondhand Lions." I came upon this movie years ago while flipping through channels on a cold, lazy Sunday afternoon. One of those days where going outside makes you cringe as you consider how painful the cold air is going to be. A day that is best spent buried under a blanket watching movies, or reading a book. This particular day it was an endless stream of movies for me.
Initially, the appeal of the movie was simply the comedic moments of Uncle Hub and Uncle Garth shooting at the traveling salesmen that came to try and relieve them of the fortune they were rumored to possess. The pure joy they seemed to receive as each salesman made their attempt to make a sale was pure gold for me.
However, as I continued to watch the movie I grew to appreciate the characters of Hub and Garth. At first, they seem simple, but upon a second look there is much depth to the two. Their ability to see a person's true intentions, and pass them over without a second thought shows that they are not just two simple, country bumpkins. The way that they take Walter in and care for him shows that they are more than the gruff exterior you see.
In many ways, the movie brings about memories of my youth when I would spend part of my summer vacation with my grandfather. No, my grandfather did not sit on his porch with a shotgun waiting for the moment he could ward of salesmen as they came around, and to my knowledge he did not have a secret stash of cash anywhere. But he was a wise man, a man of not so many words, but when he spoke there was wisdom to be had. He allowed me the freedom to explore the treasures that DID exist at his house: boxes of books (some old, some new), a multitude of antiques, various bits of furniture that he was in the process of building, a wood shop with so much sawdust that you wondered if there really was a floor. It was a place where a boys imagination could wander all day.
As an adult I look back and miss those days. I miss the time I was able to spend with a man that I feel like was one of the smartest/wisest people I know. I'm also grateful that I got to spend all that time with him. "Secondhand Lions" reminds me of him each time that I watch it. It makes me wonder what stories did he have to tell that I never got to hear, and thankful for his stories that I did get to hear. Then it makes me wonder what stories will I tell my daughter, what tales will I pass on to her kids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTJAARi8oYg
