What I learnt from Woman in Gold

No spoilers, Helen Mirren is fabulous, truly excellent and Daniel Bruhl is totally wasted, with his nothing character...

One thing that came up, is that 'people forget, especially the young'. Even those children of the victims know little or think little of it all. This can be a bad thing, but it can also be a good thing. When looking for happiness or contentment, one doesn't need to be caught up in the past. It is, however, important to learn from the past. Don't pretend it didn't happen, and just don't let it happen again.



 Image Source:Wikimedia Commons, Attribution: Gage Skidmore

The meaning of restitution comes up, and it's not about money, it means to return something to it's original state. This is easier said than done, and we can't ever really go back and make things the way they were, because the damage is done inside us whether the framework seems to have returned to normal. It's a fine line we tread each day with careless actions.

In the thick of the Nazi occupation, one captured Jew says to his fleeing daughter 'your job is to learn to be happy again'. The fact is, nothing is so insurmountable that we can't learn to be happy again. We don't forget it, we can't change the past and restore it to how it was, but we can learn to be happy again. It requires us to change, us to manage our thoughts and feelings, and how we view things. The character lost all her friends and family, saw horrible, unimaginable things, and her whole world fall apart, and yet manages to put her life together and be content with her lot, for many, many years.

I guess what I learnt, was that while your world may have seismic shifts - divorce, death, serious health issues, your dire feelings will eventually change. It may take a few years, but you will eventually come out of the tunnel and be happy again. There is the loss, there can never be restitution on that, but there is a new way of life awaiting. We can learn to be happy again.

What I learnt most of all, is sometimes I'm struck deeply by ideas but when it comes to expressing them in writing, I fail. I've looked at this post a few times since I wrote it, and it's not what I want to say, but I don't know how to correct it. So this #MummyMondays you are dumped with an unsatisfactory post, and for that I'm sorry (but I need to put it to rest, so here it is).