When Life Throws You Lemons....Make Cranberry Juice by Shari Bookstaff

 

NOTE:  This tour post was supposed to be posted last Thursday...For some reason Blogger has been giving me grief about this post.  Which has been making me cranky all weekend. :( Synopsis: When my kids were learning to walk, I remember walking behind them, ready to catch them if they stumbled backward. I never dreamed that thirteen years later my kids would be walking behind me, ready to catch me if I stumble backward. I was 42 years old when I was diagnosed with a benign, operable brain tumor in July 2006. Doctors predicted a short hospital stay followed by a speedy recovery. Complications arose, giving me lifelong obstacles that I never could have prepared for. A divorced mother of two beautiful, talented, wonderful children, I had high hopes for a bright and happy future. I tried online dating, which got me a few cups of coffee, but no real dates. A couple of dating disasters later, my dating karma was beginning to change when my brain tumor was diagnosed. My life since that fateful day has been focused on regaining basic human functions: breathing, swallowing, walking, etc. I am working again, and trying to be a good mother to my two beautiful, talented, wonderful children. Putting a positive spin on life’s disasters doesn’t always work, but looking for, and accepting, positive things in spite of life’s disasters works. Instead of making lemonade out of lemons, I add life’s sweet sugar and cranberries to my lemons. This makes life much more palatable. Review: What I really liked about this book was how open and honest the author was.  This could NOT have been a very easy time in her families lives and she was, in my opinion, an open book.  The good, the bad and the ugly make it into this book as well as a score of other emotions.   I really liked the concept that Shari shares with the readers - that you really can't always put a positive spin on some disasters.  Sometimes you need to take those lemons (sour) and find the sweetness (cranberries) in them throw a little extra sugar on them in the hopes that it makes the bumpy road your on a teeny bit more "enjoyable," or really sweet lemonade.  In Shari's case the lemon was a majorly traumatic brain injury following surgery on a benign brain tumor.  An injury that had Shari pretty much relearning everything that she's been able to do up to that point in her 42 years on this Earth.  There were a LOT of baby steps ahead for Shari (sorry for the What About Bob?! reference) and she found all the cranberries....That had to of been some pretty SWEET lemonade?! RATING: 4/5

Second Hand Lions review

Second Hand Lions stars, Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, Haley Joel Osment, and Kyra Sedgwick.


The absolute last place Walter (Haley Joel Osment) wants to be is on his great uncles' farm in rural Texas, where he is dumped off by his mother Mae (Kyra Sedgwick), in the middle of nowhere living with two crazy old men, a pack of dogs and a pig. With only the promise that she'll come back for him. Walter has been lied to enough times that he's not quiet sure what to believe in anymore.



Walter's eccentric and gruff great uncles, Hub and Garth McCaan (Robert Duvall and Michael Caine) who had been missing for 40 YEARS are rumored to have been bank robbers, mafia hit men and/or war criminals in their wild and wooly younger days. No one seems to know the truth, although the brothers do seem to have an endless supply of cash on hand. During Walter's stay he begins to see a "new" side to his great uncles when he stumbles upon a trunk with an old photograph of a very beautiful woman hidden away in the attic (known as the "Tower" in the movie) and asks his uncle Garth who she is.

Through the stories spun against the backdrop of the dusty Texas night, an amazing story comes to life through Walter's vivid and very colorful imaginings - a tale set in a very long ago exotic, very mysterious place where the men rode on powerful stallions and fought with HUGE swords. Complete with beautiful princesses mixed up with evil sheiks and where two very unlikely heros lived an adventure that only most people can dream of.

Whether the story is true or not, the uncle's tales become a "doorway" of sorts for Walter, to "experience" their many adventures. Little by little they also give Walter something true to believe in - a "world" where honor and valor mean more than money and power. A place, real or not, belonging only to him. While telling their stories to Walter, Hub and Garth begin to see their lives with a whole new set of eyes. Giving it a whole new meaning.

Over one unpredictable Central Texas summer in the early 1960’s, everything in the lives of this new family of strangers is about to change forever.

Highlights for me: The lion, and the "flashback" scenes to the uncle's younger days.
My absolute favorite "line" in the movie: "Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good. That honour, courage and virtue mean everything; that power and money ... money and power mean nothing. That good always triumphs over evil. And I want you to remember this.... that love....true love never dies! Remember that boy ... remember that. Doesn't matter if it is true or not, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in...... got that ?"

The Searchers

The Searchers Movie Poster

I am a HUGE fan of John Wayne and John Ford movies. First, I’d like to say if you haven’t seen this movie, The Searchers, I highly recommend it. You get the chance to see John Wayne play his most complex character yet…. Ethan Edwards. Though I must warn you that there are a LOT of complex racial and sexual issues dealt with in the content of this movie.


The Searchers Trailer

“In ”The Searchers” I think Ford was trying, imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide; the comic relief may be an unconscious attempt to soften the message. Many members of the original audience probably missed his purpose; Ethan’s racism was invisible to them, because they bought into his view of Indians. Eight years later, in ”Cheyenne Autumn,” his last film, Ford was more clear. But in the flawed vision of ”The Searchers” we can see Ford, Wayne and the Western itself, awkwardly learning that a man who hates Indians can no longer be an uncomplicated hero.” Robert Epert

John Wayne as Ethan Edwards

Ethan Edwards is an ex-Confederate soldier who never really surrendered after the end of the war between the states. For a couple of years he just wondered around the country, he may have even been an outlaw, nobody really seems to know. Then he decides to head for his brothers ranch in Texas. Ethan has a HUGE problem with indians and his adopted nephew Martin Pauley is 1/8 Cherokee, which causes some problems along the way. Then comes the massacre at his brothers ranch, where his brother’s family is slaughtered and his two nieces are taken captive (one of which is later killed also.) Which brings us to the 5 year quest to find his youngest niece that was captured by the Comanche’s who massacred his family. At first it was a mission to rescue her and bring her home but as time wore on it became more a mission to find her and kill her because “Livin’ with Comanche’s ain’t being alive.”

One of the most famous scenes from the movie….this photo really doesn’t do it justice though…you’ll have to see the movie to truly appreciate why it’s so famous.

“Ethan Edwards, fierce, alone, a defeated soldier with no role in peacetime, is one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created (they worked together on 14 films). Did they know how vile Ethan’s attitudes were? I would argue that they did, because Wayne was in his personal life notably free of racial prejudice, and because Ford made films with more sympathetic views of Indians. This is not the instinctive, oblivious racism of Griffith’s ”Birth of a Nation.” Countless Westerns have had racism as the unspoken premise; this one consciously focuses on it. I think it took a certain amount of courage to cast Wayne as a character whose heroism was tainted. Ethan’s redemption is intended to be shown in that dramatic shot of reunion with Debbie, where he takes her in his broad hands, lifts her up to the sky, drops her down into his arms, and says, ”Let’s go home, Debbie.” The shot is famous and beloved, but small counterbalance to his views throughout the film–and indeed, there is no indication be thinks any differently about Indians.” Robert Epert

If you listen and watch closely you will also see that John Ford was a VERY crafty man. Though there are A LOT of racial and sexual issues dealt with in the content of this movie, there are also A LOT of “religious” and “faith symbols” used in this movie as well. I don’t want to say too much but in the end this is a story of redemption against almost “impossible” odds.

The shot at the end of the movie

Cast
John Wayne: Ethan Edwards
Jeffrey Hunter: Martin Pawley
Vera Miles: Laurie Jorgensen
Ward Bond: Capt. Rev. Samuel Clayton
Natalie Wood: Debbie Edwards
John Qualen: Lars Jorgensen
Olive Carey: Mrs. Jorgensen
Henry Brandon: Chief Scar
Ken Curtis: Charlie McCorry
Harry Carey Jr.: Brad Jorgensen
Antonio Moreno: Emilio Figueroa
Hank Worden: Mose Harper
Lana Wood: Debbie as a Child
Walter Coy: Aaron Edwards
Dorothy Jordan: Martha Edwards
Pippa Scott: Lucy Edwards
Robert Leyden: Ben
Patrick Wayne: Lt. Greenhill
Beulah Archuletta: Look
Jack Pennick: Sergeant
Peter Mamakos: Futterman
William Steele: Nesby
Cliff Lyons: Col. Greenhill
Chuck Roberson: Man at Wedding
Ruth Clifford: Deranged Woman at Fort
Mae Marsh: Woman at Fort
Dan Borzage: Accordionist at Funeral
Away Luna: Comanche
Billy Yellow: Comanche
Bob Many Mules: Comanche
Exactly Sonnie Betsuie: Comanche
Feather Hat Jr.: Comanche
Harry Black Horse: Comanche
Jack Tin Horn: Comanche
Many Mules Son: Comanche
Shooting Star: Comanche
Pete Grey Eyes: Comanche
Pipe Line Begishe: Comanche
Smile White Sheep: Comanche