Mel and the New Normal

Justin and I watched a movie after work last night, and it was surprisingly inspiring. More on this later, but allow me to share with you the end of the movie. It may not mean a lot unless you watch the whole movie to understand the video, but the message should resonate with all parents out there, practicing Catholics or not. FYI, J and I are non-practicing Catholics, but we really enjoyed and understood the message of the movie. As a law-enforcement officer, I’ve seen firsthand the deep hurt and devastation that fatherlessness brings in a child’s life. Our prisons are full of men and women who lived recklessly after being abandoned by their fathers, wounded by the men who should have loved them the most. Many now follow the same pattern of irresponsibility that their fathers did.

God help me. I watched Breaking Dawn yesterday, and it was.... good. Really good, actually, compared to the previous movies. I have always liked the Twilight book series. I grew up reading Sweet Valley High, so yeah, Twilight was the perfect adult book for me. Over the years, I have read deep books, intelligent books, best-sellers. Thick books, thin books. Nelson Mandela's autobiography. Life of Pi. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've read them all. But Twilight has a special place in my heart for the tweener in me, no matter how dumb people think it is. (PS, I HATE Fifty Shades of Grey, I can only read 3 pages at a time before mentally vomiting. I really don't know why.) Despite loving the books, I hated the 1st movie with a passion! (Yet watched it several times, haha.) I didn't really enjoy the following movies, just watched it because I wanted to see how it was interpreted. However, I looked forward to seeing this last movie. It was the end of an era, for me a...