Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Princess and the King




This nagging cough has kept me home yet again. I've really becoming tired of this barking cough of mine. So I decided to curl up with a blanket and a good movie. One of my favorite movies is The King and I, with Yul Brynner. I have seen this movie so many times and each time I laugh and cry like it was my first. As I placed my steaming hot mug of green tea down on the small wooden side table Ice Princess plopped down next to me. "What are you watching?" she asked me. "Only one of my favorite movies," I answered, giving her a morning squeeze. "It is called The King and I, and is set back in the 1800's. It is about a king in Asia that wants to learn and change and about a woman who comes to help him." She snuggles in deep to let me know that she is ready to watch it with me. As the movie progresses she pauses it many times. We stop and discuss the meaning of the movie, the meaning of culture. How slavery was a part of many countries. We talked about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. We spoke of the oppression of woman and slavery. At one point she ran and got the globe in order to locate Siam. Only to find that it was no longer called Siam. Many times she declared that the king was like an unschooler because he taught himself, and he loved to learn. Then the shock of the ending arrived. And as my eyes filled with tears Ice Princess paused the movie yet again. "He's dying?!?" she asked desperately. "Yes, he is," I replied. She wanted to know why. It didn't make sense to her. And then she became angry. I tried to explain that the king wanted desperately to change but the pull of the people around him and his ancestors were we too much for him to rectify. He was so torn that he became ill and lost the desire to live. At my explanation so became even more angry. "If he wants to change he should just change!" She hollered at the television. I told her yes it seems very easy to you and me and even to the prince but he just couldn't even though he wants to. So the only way that he could see that change happening was to die and let his son make those changes. "Well, I think that he is an idiot!" She declared. So I agreed with her that to us change is so simple but, back then things were different. It was actually a wonderful day spent with Ice Princess. We discussed very thought provoking topics and learned about history and cuddled and laughed and cried. This two and a half hour movie took a better part of four hours, but it just flew by. I will never get tired of this movie, it truly is one of my favorites.

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I can't wait to see it again.

2 comments:

Darlene said...

Ok now I have to go rent it cause I am inspired I figure that if my twin loves it then I must watch. You have such a way with inspiration.
You are Well You are WEll You are WELL, is your body listening?
Loves,
Dharmez

Tara W. said...

This is such a cool example of unschooling, so natural and easy! I've never seen the whole movie all the way thru but I'll need to now LOL! Hope you are feeling well soon!

Growing Up Without Schooling