A wonderful way to look at life
Sometimes you don’t realize just how much you have learned until someone points it out. That’s exactly what Gerontologist Di Patterson does.
There is a saying that some people grow wise with age, others just grow old. Di Patterson challenges this notion and, in a most enjoyable and entertaining way, suggests that we all have gained wisdom. She proves it by highlighting a range of life’s lessons from the movies.
Her sheer enthusiasm for films is infectious. Her unique view of movies as vehicles for everyday wisdom is refreshing and enjoyable.
Each of the book’s ten sections starts out with a “Tip” that is the focus of the films that follow. Each tip is both useful and something that serves as a reminder that no matter what your age or life experience, it is important to remember—and practice—principles like:
• Love yourself enough to take care of yourself.
• Laugh!
• Exercise and keep those feet in motion.
• Feed yourself well.
• Be kind to yourself and get your rest.
Twenty-two films that delightfully illustrate these keys to a happier life are briefly outlined, and Di’s description shows how the point is validated.
The result of this innovative approach to looking at things is that we realize we know all this from traveling the path of our life. As that awareness sinks in, we can accept that we are truly AgeWise. And we begin to recognize there are many other things we have learned that we might not have identified as wisdom until Di deftly points them out. She shows that we have a wealth of experience from which to draw.
LIFE, CAMERA, ACTION! is a small book that packs a very big punch for those who look at their lives—at any age—and are well pleased with what they see.
Di Patterson is a noted Gerontologist, featured speaker at national and local aging events, popular workshop leader, and a prolific writer and author. She is the founder of Success in Aging TV®, an innovative website dedicated to inspiring, educating, and providing resources to people who want to enjoy and flourish as they move through the aging process. She has received numerous awards for her work and writing, and is a pioneer in utilizing technology for promoting success in aging. Among other volunteer and advisory positions, she is co-founder and president of The Let’s Group®: Consulting and Consortium of Professional Gerontologists, an advisory board member of the National Association for Professional Gerontologists (NAPG), and an ambassador for the Orange County Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Di is an avid gardener and an enthusiastic movie buff. She and her husband, Paul, live in Orange County, California, and enjoy their six now-adult children, numerous grandchildren, and countless friends.
LIFE,
CAMERA,
ACTION!
LIFE,
CAMERA,
ACTION!
Everything you need to know about living well you can learn from the movies
Di Patterson, MSG
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2011 by Di Patterson
Gero Ink
Publishing
Gero,
Inc.
13337
South Street, #420
Cerritos,
CA 90703
www.dipatterson.com
First Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.
Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistency herein.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943163
Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication
Patterson, Di.
Life, camera, action! : everything you need to know about living well you can learn from the movies / Di Patterson. -- 1st ed. -- Cerritos, Calif. : Gero Ink, c2011.
p. ; cm.
E-book ISBN: 978-0-9847179-0-3
1. Older people--Life skills guides. 2. Motion pictures--Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Life skills. 4. Self-realization. 5. Success. 6. Happiness. 7. Health. I. Title.
HQ1061
.P38 2011 2011943163
305.26--dc23
1201
Book Consultant: Ellen Reid
Cover and Book Design: Patricia Bacall
Author Photo: David Studarus
To Dad, for believing in me from the day I was born: his birthday;
To Paul, Colin, and Kate, for giving me movies for every occasion;
To Husband, for watching countless movies while I wrote this little book!
My Thanks
As with every work an author pens, this book was written as supportive people stood around and cheered me on!
My great thanks go to those closest to me: my family! My husband, Paul; my offspring: Paul (+Tara), Colin, and Kate; my Dad: Richard Alexander; and my siblings: Cathleen, Louise, Tom, Jim and Mary, with their spouses (my other siblings, thanks to Mother, Gloria Wells Stannard Alexander; who in her lifetime treated us with equal respect): Vern, Karen, Leanna, and Steve; and all my wonderful nieces and nephews. These families are Bennetts, Alexanders, Badhams, and Barnetts. Great relative shout-outs go to the Stannards, Fricks, Keenans, and Burkes. Thanks to all the Pattersons who cheered me on as well. These families are Wisners, Browns, Pattersons, and Ludwigs.
Friends and colleagues whose encouragement I appreciate (in alphabetical order): Earl, Flint, Hill, Joseph of Mark Joseph Media Group, Marinello, Oliver, Rupple, Salis, Sauceda, Sogolow, Stonehill, Talt, Todd, and Yaros. Team acknowledgments include The Let’s Group, Alumni at Biola and CSUF, fellow Gerontologists at NAPG, CCGG, and GSA, and my friends at American Senior TV. Honorable mention goes to the Drs. Ted, David, and Brandon Cho, Audrey Soto, and Diane Tran and team.
My BookShepherd, Ellen Reid, and my webmaster, Ronnie Gonzales, were invaluable! My creative pre-publishing team: Laren Bright, Pamela Guerrieri, and Patricia Bacall were all terrific to work with. To these five, I extend my gratefulness for their talents.
Those who know me know that the greatest credit for my enthusiasm and creativity lands squarely in my faith. For this gift, amongst all of the above gifts, I am the most thankful!
TIP ONE: Love yourself enough to take good care of yourself
TIP TWO: Get good information about everything
TIP FOUR: Exercise and keep those feet in motion
TIP SIX: Be kind to yourself and get your rest
TIP NINE: De-clutter your space
A NOTE TO THE READER
I have two great passions in life: gardening and movies.
As an avid gardener, I’ve cultivated and enjoyed all sorts of herbs and flowers, from fresh basil to peppery nasturtium. These herbs have wonderfully seasoned my culinary creations. Not only have I enjoyed my gardening experiences, but I’ve also drawn from them much understanding about life and the importance of living wisely.
But I have also learned a great deal from my other favorite pastime: watching great movies.
When we watch a movie, we often don’t see it as the writers, producers, or director intended us to. We might miss the important life lessons because our experiences have led us to an understanding that is different than the one the makers of the movie had in mind.
However, as we mature, we begin to view and understand more of what we failed to appreciate at an earlier age: those wonderful messages in the great movies that have stood the test of time and told much truth through unique characters and unforgettable stories.
I’ve created this book to share with you some of the lessons I discovered in the movies. These great stories and engaging characters often mirrored my own search on my path to become my authentic self, in pursuit of wisdom, love, and truth.
It is my hope that my upcoming book, Doing OLD Really Well, will provide you with the encouragement that can help you become wiser and healthier at any age.
I am convinced that if Success in Aging® principles are proactively added to your life, you will become well seasoned—boldly embracing right attitudes, right thinking, and right actions. You also will have the chance to be truly well flavored, enhanced, and preserved ... not only for yourself but for those you love and care about. I believe that being the best YOU at any age is simply to be AgeWise.
Love yourself enough to take good care of yourself.
LIFE LESSONS FROM THE MOVIES
The
Priceless Treasure of Knowing Your Real Self
—Runaway
Bride
The
Immeasurable Worth of True Love
—The
Notebook
The
Invaluable Habit of Generosity
—A
Christmas Carol
The
Incalculable Value of True Friendship
—Shadowlands
L I F E L E S S O N
The Priceless Treasure of Knowing Your Real Self
Movie: Runaway Bride (1999)
The first time l saw the film Runaway Bride—which stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere—I loved it. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw much of myself in the lead character, Maggie Carpenter.
Like Maggie, I had struggled early on to figure out who I was and who was Mr. Right. Seeing this film always brings to mind what a priceless treasure it is to know and to be your real self. Only in doing so can you truly love yourself.
I’ve also thought about how youth often comes with a high price, including ignorance of who we are. In youth, we don’t know what qualities we should look for in another person so we can build a solid relationship that honors us and the other person.
Maggie Carpenter doesn’t truly know, or therefore love, herself. As a consequence, she picks the wrong guys, and she knows it. She always runs away at the altar right before she is about to say “I DO!”
She tries to please others as a way of coping and gaining whatever love she can, even if it means compromising who she is and what she wants.
Maggie has grown up in a home where she lived in survival-and-rescue mode with an alcoholic father and a dying mother. But it’s not until journalist and newspaper columnist Ike Graham writes an unflattering diatribe about her that she begins to see her true self.
Ike boldly crashes Maggie’s world after his publisher fires him for not getting his facts straight about the “Runaway Bride.” He is given a second chance to get the story right and regain his reputation, but he must write a new story based on “the real Maggie Carpenter.”
Ike learns about the real Maggie as she prepares for her fourth wedding attempt, and he unabashedly tells her that she doesn’t even know herself well enough to know what kind of eggs she likes. Ike interviews all of Maggie’s former grooms—each of whom had different favorite egg dishes— and finds that Maggie’s choice of eggs always matched their preference while she dated them.
When Ike confronts Maggie with her failure to know herself, they fall in love and both begin to deal with themselves more honestly. Maggie discovers that knowing herself is far better than pretending, pleasing, and performing to gain love.
Ike and Maggie finally get married—and she doesn’t run away, to the delight of all their family and friends. They marry on a beautiful hilltop without fanfare and hoopla, only sincerity and simplicity, having both learned—through much heartache and anguish—that they must be true to who they are.
By watching Runaway Bride many times over the years, I am impressed with an important life lesson: truly loving yourself first begins with knowing and respecting who you are.
When you do so, you are being truly AgeWise.
L I F E L E S S O N
The Immeasurable Worth of True Love
Movie: The Notebook (2004)
The Notebook, one of my favorite films, is based on Nicholas Spark’s novel and stars James Garner and Gena Rowlands as older adults who have been deeply in love since their youth.
The film is a wonderful picture of the immeasurable worth of true love and delivers the message that love is unquenchable and will prevail against all odds.
The Notebook begins in a nursing home as an elderly man tenderly reads a love story to an elderly woman from a journal. The woman is captivated by what she is hearing, although she doesn’t understand that the young woman in the story is herself—Allie Hamilton Calhoun—and the young man is her husband—the man reading the story—Noah.
Their young love begins as a whirlwind summer romance. Both Noah and Allie make strong declarations of devotion and commitment, even though they come from different worlds. But although Allie is willing to give up college to spend her life with Noah, her desires are not respected by her parents. Her mother insists that she go to school and give up her dreams of a life with her first love.
Noah promises to write Allie every day and he faithfully does, yet his letters are never received. Allie’s mother intercepts them, and every day when Allie checks her mailbox, her heart breaks when she doesn’t hear from Noah.
Noah is bewildered and hurt that his beloved Allie does not respond. He goes off to war in hopes of forgetting her, yet he cannot. Many years go by before they see each other again.
When Noah and Allie meet next, they discover that the love they once had for each other is still very real. Their love has proven unquenchable, despite significant time passing. The flame of their passion is reignited, and Noah and Allie vow to spend their lives together until death.