Julie and Julia - Happy People and a Happy Ending - Boring? NO!!

Posted by Lyn Rasmussen Oct 29, 2009

We went to see 'Julie and Julia' the other day - what a fabulous movie. Well, we loved it anyway. It was marvellous to see people living life to the full - enjoying food and alcohol, cheerfully chain-smoking and living to a ripe old age. Fatty foods were fried in copious amounts of butter, cream was added to 'thin' the mix, sloshings of wine slopped into the stew - what a way to live.

I often wonder whether we're completely misguided in our current quest for good health through trimming away natural fat, searching for emotional wellbeing by trolling backwards to pick at past injuries to our psyche, and fitness through fierce exercise regimes. I've known elderly people like Julia Child, people who beat their eggs and butter by hand, walked to the store or into town daily, worked in their gardens and enjoyed a gin or two every night. By today's standards their kitchens were abysmal but their meals were usually delicious. their welcomes always warm and it was fun to be in their company. If they had any angst, nobody except their closest companions knew about it.

I came out of 'Julie and Julia' feeling uplifted - happy people doing happy things, loving and being kind to each other, seeking fulfilment through working at their passion and having an ebullient appreciation of life. No gratuitous sex, no violence. Okay, I know Julie had her fair share of angst, but that's just what I'm talking about in relation to the modern psyche - is it really necessary?.Not negating the hardships all of us go through from time to time and acknowledging that some hardships must be almost unbearable, for the most part can't we just get on with life?