The Death of Romance and Imagination...

This past weekend, I really enjoyed Fast Five - a fun, action packed, heist movie with a little bit of heart shoveled in for effect.

But in thinking of the shows currently on TV, nothing compares to the 1987 series, Beauty and The Beast. Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman captured the hearts of nearly every romantic in the country. Now, we like our crime dramas gritty and thick, where the good guys aren't always good and the bad guys aren't always bad - and the guys that really ARE good don't always "win". Now, we want realism.

It makes me wonder about what is happening on our modern day American culture. If our TV is any indication, we're turning more and more away from true fantasy and romance. It's as if we are 'escaping' into "realism". It's into the crime drama filled world of Law and Order SVU, or the bloody teenage drama of Vampire Diaries. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy Bones and House and other shows like that, but I'm saddened by the loss of imagination, even in those shows. The biggest part of creativity is how to make the crime more "real" or more heinous. And House? Well, it's how to break the rules.

Lately, I've been revisiting the world of Beauty and the Beast. Behind the 1980's hairdos and the shoulderpads is true heart. The world Below shows us all that is good about man-kind when left to the very basics of survival. When accumulating things and status don't matter. The bonds of love, brotherhood, and family helped people through any and all situations. While I learned most of my ideals about love and life from my family and my upbringing, shows like this definately reinforced it.

Idealistic? Maybe. But why not believe in the power of love? Why not believe that good will triumph over evil? Why not believe that words have more meaning and power than just something we say or write from time to time? Why not believe that there are more things to the world than what can be seen or touched or studied? Is it possible for 2 people to be so close, so connected, that they can feel each other's emotions? (Ask any twin and I think you'll find that to be inexplicably true.)

Maybe that's the difference I've always felt between me and those who are content to strive for life to just be "okay".

Maybe that's what makes me a dreamer.

But there is one thing that goes unspoken - like a secret breathed from children to artists, from pages to stages everywhere (though seemingly lacking on the screens of late).

 An uninspired life isn't one worth living.

Grab inspiration, dear readers, where ever you can find it.