 Welcome back to Life Lessons in Film. Hi. Hi. Today we're going to be making sense of life through five quotes from movies that we love. I picked three this time that were seminal films from my youth that had a lasting impact on me. So I'm going to start off with a classic line from Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring, when they're in The Minds of Moria and Frodo's Feeling Down about Gollum and things in general and he's saying to Gandalf, I wish none of this had happened and Gandalf responds with, So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. And that is an important thought. It's just, it's just a lot of juicy wisdom there. You don't really have control over where you're born into, your circumstances, how life happens around you. All you can do is give a certain amount of time on this earth. And the only thing you have control over is what are you going to do with that? It's up to you, what you make of your life. There's no use dwelling on things you wish that you had or things that you don't have. You know, he has a bigger beard. So, so I mean, I couldn't have been chosen. Then you start focusing on maybe vilifying that person because they have a bigger beard than you do. Instead of just kind of focusing on, you know what, he may have a bigger beard and that's great for him, but I have really supple, Yes, supple cheek skin. And then you could maybe become like a skin model. Sometimes you see pictures where you only need to see the bottom half of someone's face, but it'd be tougher if you have the beard cut off. If you have the beard, yeah. So it's actually detriment happiness in some situations. Don't be like thinking about, well, if I had ABC, it would be easier. If it's not easier for you, okay, that's fine. It's not easier. Accept it. It's not going to get any easier if you're complaining about it. Just handle it. Use the resources you have. That's it. Move on with your life. To me, my one is from Inside Out. Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong are on the train of thought. They're trying to make their way back to headquarters. And then Joy bumps into the facts and opinion box and they're all over the floor and she's trying to put them back in. And she's like, oh no. These facts and opinions look so similar. How will I tell the difference? Hey, there's the train. These facts and opinions look so similar. Don't worry about it. Happens all the time. That is a shock. Yes. Whoever wrote that script. That's good. That stings right at the heart of how the world is right now. It feels like such a dumpster fire. Just because facts and opinions just seem the same. There's so many people or just to everyone at different times. Sometimes you can be more discerning. I know for me. Other times I can be more discerning. And then if you're tired, other times you're just like, you want to treat your opinions as facts. It's just more comforting. It's easier. It's more enjoyable. So it's not even something that only some people do. I think we all fall into it. It's a very tempting thing to just mix them all up and just interact that way. A lot of things that we discuss are opinion. Most of the truths are based on our point of view. And that's okay. Just because it's an opinion does not invalidate it. But I find it problematic and unfortunate and it removes the opportunity for learning and openness where people start being dogmatic about their opinion and deciding their opinion matters more than someone else's to the degree that if you don't agree with that opinion, there's something wrong with you. We have to ostracize you. Therefore you do not belong to this group anymore. People also don't want to believe that truths are so subjective. And is there even any kind of thing based on that? Exactly. They are 100% subjective. Like depending on where you are. I think that's why people's problems with religion because a lot of people need to believe that their religion is the truth and not just accept that. It's all basically the same wisdom. It doesn't really matter which one you follow. As long as you're getting the benefit from the teachings, then you'll live a good life. But because a lot of people feel they need to be right and to teach the other people that they're wrong, that's when you come into conflict. What you think is a hard truth, tomorrow may be completely different. For me personally, I like being that malleable in terms of my thought process and my views. Mixed one only agenda, episode one of Harry Potter. The scene where Harry is obsessed at looking at the mirror of Erised Dumbledore notices that he's just spending all day looking at it. Dumbledore trying to help Harry break out of this fixation says to him, Happiest man on earth would look into the mirror and see only himself exactly as he is. If you are completely content with exactly your reality, nothing else will show up. What I take from that is, first of all, you know, the whole thing about the mirror driving people crazy because they see the thing that they think would make them happy, but it's an illusion. They never actually can have it. It's showing you all these external things or things you wished had been different in your life that you can't do anything about. And it's about accepting your reality and finding a way to find happiness with however you are. Yeah, 100%. Oh my God. I just thought about the hours I spent trying to figure out which vase I'm going to put in the entrance. There's already a vase, by the way, on our castle table. And I liked it. And then I hated it. And then I decided I'm overhauling the whole thing. It has caused me severe distress. If you were in front of the mirror, there would just be a room full of vases. There would be vases, potentially candles that I would never light because they're at the entrance and I don't really spend just literally for the aesthetic. That has caused me so much grief. Just way too much time online. Be happy that you have an entrance. That you have a vase. It may not be the best vase, but it's there. It's cute. It's your vase. And it's my vase. And I have a story behind that vase. That's actually really fun. Yeah. Yet I am focusing every single day. I'm trapped. I'm trapped. I always say, I feel like things would be fine if I just figured out what vase. And I'd say, and it'd be the next thing that we have to fix. Exactly. All right. Maudi. This is the scene where Maudi goes back to the ant that she lived with before moving out. The ant has been seeing Maudi on TV. She's become this artist now. She says to her, I watched you on the TV and it dawned on me. Why am I whipping out the British accent? Good to see you, Ida. Thank you. What do you think? You're the only one in our family who ended up happy. Well, yeah, I did. So Maudi has physical challenges. She doesn't necessarily seem to have anything by way of an education or career prospects. And they just have this idea that you are just someone who needs to be taken care of. That's it. The brother is like, I'm going to give the ant a stipend. Take care of you because you can't take care of yourself. They have no faith in this in her whatsoever. It's so hard to have a family, people that are supposed to love you and motivate you and encourage you and believe in you no matter what, knock you down every single day. It's so hard to bring yourself out of that and find success. And the thing I like about her as well is that she doesn't actually go out and find success in that way of like, I'm going to make it. I'm going to show them that I can do it. Success in that superficial materialist way. She's just like, I want to live for myself. I just want independence. This being taken care of, this being looked at as someone who has absolutely no hope, I'm not really liking that. I'm going to go out there and get on the struggle bus and figure things out on my own. I'm quite happy to do that. Without that support, she did it on her own. So no matter your circumstances, who you have in your life, at the end of the day, it is always just up to you. There's no, my family didn't give me that. There's no, my family hated me and that traumatized me. Yeah. It's true that your family screwed you over. Marty was screwed over in so many ways. The worst brother ever. And yet she managed to work things out and find her own happiness. You are completely responsible for where you are in your life right now. No matter who did what to you, no matter your circumstances, where you are right now, if you're unhappy, you are entirely responsible. As an adult, you have the agency and you have the responsibility if you want out of it to make it happen. Going back to the mirror of Erised in the Harry Potter, people could say, oh, well, yeah, she became a renowned artist, but her whole life, she just lived in like a two room shack in the middle of nowhere. A lot of people struggle to either identify the thing that would really be their passion, or if they know what it is, they don't pursue it because it might mean that they live in a small house, but then in the end, then those that do, a lot of times, they're willing to sacrifice, say, maybe a come for your home to be happy. That's what the aunt doesn't understand and that's what a lot of people, I think, miss. Then they resent the fact that other people were willing to carve their own path, which is just something that they couldn't understand. How would you even figure that out? The brother goes to Marty's place and says, you still live in this tiny house. You should let me help you manage your finances instead of your husband clearly isn't doing a good job. He's the kind of person who doesn't understand that people find happiness in different ways and it's okay. For him, I don't understand why you wouldn't capitalize on this thing. Because money is the root of all happiness and not being an artist, not being able to paint. People look at her and think, oh, poor her. Meanwhile, she's always been doing the same that gives her happiness. She's always had that peace. Because of some conventional people don't understand how can you be happy? You're doing things differently than other people. You're not following the rules. The last one for me is from the first Star Wars, episode one. Anakin has been freed from slavery. He wishes to become a Jedi, so Qui-Gon is going to take him back to train him and they're having a conversation about committing to this life path and Qui-Gon says to Anakin, Training to become a Jedi is not an easy challenge and even if you succeed, it's a hard life. They all kind of relate back to the previous one to the Marty thing of any kind of path that you dedicate yourself to that is not the conventional one. You're dreaming of all the amazing things you've heard that Jedi's lives are, but it's not all adventure. It takes a lot of discipline. It's very hard. There's a lot of compromise, a lot of sacrifice that other people couldn't do or are willing to do. It reminds me of the artist's life, for example, or any kind of life again that is not a normally well-treaded path. So there's not really any rubric on how to go about living this life. So even if you do end up making a living, say, off your art or off your passion, it's still going to be tough. When I take from that is there's nothing that comes easy. You could have the dream to be a bookkeeper. Let's say you're getting hired as a bookkeeper. You're working for someone. Maybe you're not working from home. So then you have to get up, get dressed, and then take an Uber, bus, drive there to the job, and then the other employees suck. But you love being a bookkeeper. This is your dream. You finally got your dream job, but you still have to deal with all of these other discomforts. Your dream is always worth fighting for, but don't be thinking that it comes easy or you don't have to put in the work. A lot of times people will be looking at these movie stars and they just think, oh my gosh, I wish I were a musician. I wish people loved me like that. I was rich like that. It's just this fantasy, this ideal, what kind of lifestyle that is, but you don't see the waking up at four in the morning, sleeping for one hour every single day for months on end or not seeing your family or you can't go to a grocery store without someone wanting an autograph. And if you don't, you are at the devil in the carnage because you just wanted to eat and not spend the day signing autographs. Just let me live. And it can represent anyone who has this naive dream of anything without realizing what the actual reality of having it happen and living it actually means. Make sure that you're dreaming of things and you want it because you actually want it. Not because you think if it's a dream that it's going to come easy. Yeah, it's romanticized to be a well-known writer, but the actual writers that are well-known know how much you have to just bleed and you just stare at a blank page and you're just in pain. I suppose you'll know whether or not it really is your dream or the thing that you really want to if you can't handle the bleeding. Or you can handle the bleeding better than not attempting. Yeah. That's five quotes from movies we loved. What do you guys think? Are there other quotes from those movies that you also enjoy? Are there other quotes from other movies that you enjoy? Let us know down below and share your thoughts and our thoughts until next time. Thanks for watching. It's a wrap.