Movie Review
AKEELAH AND THE
BEE
The film was about a girl who
feels alienated at school and her family seems to be so cold and unsupportive
of her. But Akeelah was a natural spelling rock star in the making; she is
sought by the principal to join the famous spelling bee contest in Washington
DC. Yes, she seems a neglected alien in school or in their house but let’s talk
about spelling and she owns the throne. But why is this girl so afraid to join,
and excel, and be exposed? At first she was very reluctant about joining such
contest. But finally she did. As she pursues the contest, there were many
things that she learned aside from spelling big words, and difficult at that.
As she proceeded to the competition, she also sojourned and learned many things
in life with her coach, a new-found friend and a competitor-turned-friend. The
following scenes or lines struck me the most as I take in one thing or two from
it:
“We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same.” The first sentence is superb. To
paraphrase it using my own language, it is a little something like this: God
give us a little portion of Himself for us to live and for us to love. This
“little portion” is something that we carry right from the moment we were born.
It can be in form of our abilities, intellect, traits and characters,
regardless whether it is in our genetic make-up or learned behaviors. And who
are we not to spread it to the world; this light within us needs to shine.
Others need it. Akeelah need to show others what she got. Joining the spelling
contest? Maybe not for her, as she had thought, but maybe others need to draw
inspiration from her as she competes.
“There’s only one person who
can push you to spell. It’s not your dad, not the spelling bee people, that
person is YOU”. We
might need others so we can have a source of strength to draw from but people
need to be reminded that the first person to give it is themselves. As adults
we have the responsibility to fill up the youngster’s reservoir of self-esteem so
when trying times come they just have to dig up from it.
How?
Akeelah fondly spell it L-O-V-E. When we fill them up with this
esteem-satiating love, we will expect that they can empower themselves with
positivity when the going gets tough without hopelessly depending to others.
“Our deepest fear is not that
we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Maybe there is some truth in
it. We are scared that we might find that we are capable of being and doing
something but we have denied it long before we knew about it. The greatest fear
one could ever have is realizing that he can do it but it’s already late to do
it. I bet Akeelah will spell this with R-E-G-R-E-T. Well, good thing she had
good coach to remind this to her.
In these three quotes from the
film, three important words emerged MEANING, LOVE and COURAGE. For us to become
who we want to be we must:
(1.) Acknowledge that we are part of God’s
grand design and everything in our lives are interconnected and have meaning.
Like what I said in the previous writings a person needs to find meaning in
everything.
(2.)
we need others to love us but we also need ourselves to love us in case others
don’t. A person has to be that somebody
to love and must find someone to love.
And
finally (3.) when things go astray find your strength from within and to the
things the eyes cannot see.
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