This morning, I was changing channels searching for some news broadcasts when I chanced upon this movie, Message in a Bottle on Blink cinema. The first time I saw this film was through a beta tape that one of my former office mates lent me one weekend. You can just imagine how long ago it was. I think it was even the first book that I read of Nicholas Sparks. Three years ago, out of boredom from recuperating after my chemotherapy, I watched it again via a DVD which my daughter bought along with other love stories and wrote something about it here.
Nicholas Sparks is one of those writers who really makes me cry. I bought this book late 90′s I guess, read and reread it more than I care to admit. The first time it was shown, I was looking for all the beautiful quotes in the book. Kevin Costner is Garret Blake, a boat builder and a widower. Robin Wright Penn plays the role of Theresa Osborne, she was intrigued by the writer of the letter she found in a bottle while she was on vacation and spent her time looking for him. Paul Newman shines as Dodge Blake, Garret’s father. I guess it is his character that I love the most in the movie. It’s a love story alright and a tear-jerker at that but just like in the previous times that I’ve watched the movie, the ending was a bit of a disappointment. Beautiful stories do not end in tragedy, right? I remember a quote from the book and it best sums up the whole story, “If some lives form a perfect circle, other take shape in ways we cannot predict or always understand. Loss has been part of my journey. But it has also shown me what is precious. So has love for which I can only be grateful”.
At some point in your life, you could identify with this, a love lost, but it gives you lessons that you would carry through all your life. Some of us are of the belief that love is forever but it is not to be because like people, love is not perfect. And as if watching a tear-jerker movie is not enough, I reacquainted myself reading Love Story. A short read in two hours. Back in high school, my classmates and I used to sing this line while remembering Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw as Jennifer and Oliver in the movie adaptation. Come to think of it, I even wrote it in my journal:
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” How wrong Erich Segal was, because definitely, love is not about never seeing the need to say that you’re sorry. Love is about humility too, always willing enough to say you’re sorry because you’ve hurt someone and one should learn how to forgive and ask forgiveness. It’s funny how the years have changed one’s perspective towards something you thought was so beautiful and inspiring in your youth.
Dreams And Escapes 