I just finished watching the movie, "5 Flights Up" starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. It is a rather low key movie about a senior couple, and their struggle with whether or not to sell their 40 year old apartment in Brooklyn NY. and move to a place with an elevator. Of course it is about much more, and this 93 minute drama has drawn me in more than once. In truth, Thursday I watched it for the 4th time, using a notebook to take down some of the gems that were shared by either Alex or Ruth, the characters in the movie. I always enjoy Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman, but besides that this little "sleeper" movie seems to keep speaking to me. Thus the notebook.
More than one of their conversations gave me pause. Like Alex telling his wife she had to stop worrying! Her reply....."I like worrying, it keeps me calm." (giggle) There are more than a few of us that believe that lie.....worrying makes us feel like we have some control over what is happening or could happen and therefore it may bring with it a false sense of calm. Just maybe.
Another conversation towards the end of the movie ended with Alex saying "We are like everyone else today. Getting worked up over nothing. Why are we moving? What are we chasing? Haven't we built a good life?" They had built a good life together, comfortable in their community and surrounded by friends. They were connected to their people, their tribe.
And Ruth responding, "I don't care if we live in Brooklyn or in Moscow. I just want what is best for you....for us." Sometimes our families and friends think they know what is best for us.....sometimes we ourselves think we know what is best and then something shifts and our vision becomes clear and we see what we need to see....and we know that we know that we know.
Alex narrated the movie at times, and he concluded his narration by sharing that the adventure in the selling-buying process brought them right back to their beginning, full circle.......... The situation "Reminded us of who we are, what we have." There are seasons in our lives that do exactly that. Remind us who we are and what we have. I would add that those times also remind us Whose we are, where we rest.
We are blessed to have God guiding us. I did not see any evidence of that in this movie....nor any time spent praying about what was best. May be that they felt God would close doors if they made the wrong decision or maybe they did not believe God played any part in their lives at all. That was left a mystery.
I expect that the characters in the movie were ages around 75 for Ruth and 80 for Alex, although again, that was left to us to decide. What was not a mystery is the difficulty in managing changes in life as we age and the decisions that eventually come because of that aging. Still, how blessed to be able to even be seniors and in the midst of what it entails. "I don't care if we live in Brooklyn or Moscow, I just want what is best for you....for us." That says it all, doesn't it.
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