The King's Speech

Okay. If you haven't yet seen this movie, you need to.

If you need a babysitter so you can go, call me. I'll come watch your kids.

I'd offer to pay for you to go--I thought it was THAT great--but I am a poor teacher, and alas, my meager salary won't allow me to be so generous.

It's the best thing I've seen Colin Firth do, and I'm not so picky when it comes to Colin Firth. :o)

It is the story of King George VI of England, as he takes the throne after his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated in the 1930s to marry a divorced American. England is on the brink of war with Germany, and "Bertie," as he is called by his family, has some demons to fight to do the job that has been thrust upon him.

I'll bet we see it nominated for some Academy Awards next year.

The movie was poignant and funny, and I am fascinated by that time period in history.

I cried at the end because it was so moving, but also because I wanted nothing more than to be able to sit at the white counter in my grandmother's kitchen on these incredibly heavy wrought-iron bar stools that she had, with a cup of coffee in a glass mug (her favorite way to drink coffee was in a glass mug) and ask her to share her memories of that time with me. And I can't.

Time is marching on, and the number of people who can give first-person accounts of that period of history are becoming fewer and fewer.

I wonder...will my children be as fascinated with the 60s and 70s as I am with the 30s, 40s, and 50s? Will my children, as adults, long to sit at my mom's or my dad's table in their kitchens and ask them to share what it was like to live during the civil rights movement? What went through their minds when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon? Or how it felt to see school mates and friends drafted to fight in a war many weren't sure we should be fighting?

I think they will. And I hope they do.

Maybe I should dig out Apollo 13 and we should watch it this week, just to get the ball rolling.