There is a very powerful, moving and disturbing movie premiering: Precious, adapted from the novel “Push” by Sapphire. The book is not an easy read, written from the point of view of Precious, an illiterate young woman abused by her parents, pregnant with her second child fathered by her father, (both her children are conceived from being raped by her father). This young woman struggles to just get up in the morning and lives life in survival mode; she finds support and love in a teacher and social worker who try to help her gain self respect and self love.
All her life Precious has heard that she is no good, stupid, a waste of flesh. She is filled with rage and self loathing. She dreams of a life where she is in control and powerful. She dreams the dream of all young struggling people; make me a star with hundreds of adoring followers who will throw money at my feet. Life for Precious will never be easy, but her life is still “precious.” There are thousands of young women just like Precious, invisible to us who live lives she/they can only imagine and frankly is jealous of. These young women are caught in a circle of poverty, poor education, little resources and lacking any positive supportive circle. These young women have created a hard outer shell to protect themselves from life’s slings and arrows but that also means they have barracked themselves behind those same walls. There are those humble souls who will fight for the Precious’ of this world: like the social worker, maternity ward nurse, and teacher of the movie and book; all who try to guide Precious out of her fantasy life of Rap and RB stardom to something more realistic and satisfying. These, her saints, are humble because they know not to push any agenda on Precious but to guide her were she is right then, its a delicate balancing act of seeing where she could be going and trying to lead her to a better place; and a thankless job because they know she may not be lead onto a better path. Precious may not “hear” their words as they hope, but only as her life situation will interrupt them.
There is no warm fuzzy happy ending for Precious. We don’t see her going off into the sunset with the handsome light skinned young man with good hair who saves her and the Grammy under her arm; that is the stuff of Hollywood, real life always has other plans. The book is a very harsh and realistic view of life for those who are invisible to us, it is write with great compassion and respect for the characters that live with in; can we say the same? Hopefully the movie will be as honest.
The boys howl as Precious falls….
Week’s Theme: Saints
What are your thoughts on this? If you feel so called I would love to know your thoughts…leave a comment, email me or twitter it. My email is spirituallivesofwomen@gmail.com
