We are getting to the end of the line here folks! There have been so many wonderful places that I have visited that I don't think that I would have ever seen before. However, Let's talk about a classic film that I would like to think that almost everyone has seen before It's A Wonderful Life. Specifically, we are going to talk about Lillian Randolph who plays Annie.
Lillian Randolph was born December 14, 1898 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Now there is not very much on how long she was here in Knoxville before her family moved up north to Ohio and Michigan. Ms. Randolph didn't do too many movies, but she also started her acting career later in life. The first movie she was in she was almost 40. She did do lots of radio and tv in her career and she helped many up and coming African-American actors while she was living in Hollywood. One of which to note is Lena Horne. Her most well known roles where that of Birdie in the Radio Show turned TV Show The Great Gildersleeve and Daisy on The Billie Burke Radio show. Her role of Annie is one that will go down in history. It's A Wonderful Life is an all time classic film that get re-watched every year by millions. It's one of those rare movie that get passed on from one Generation to the next and it's still just as fun to watch it as it was the first time experiencing it.
I am not going to spend too much time on this movie. I know that it's going to come up at least one more time on here in the future. Also, I know that I have talked about it before. It's A Wonderful Life is the story of a man who longs for a different life and then finds that everything that really matters is right under his nose the whole time.
Now, watching this movie was a bit of slap in the face this time around. I really like to think that most of the time I live in the present. I don't like to spend too much time in the past because you can't change the choices that you have made. You can only manage the consequences of your past actions. I try not to think too much of the future because it can go one of two ways. You can either get so focused on the things that you have planned coming up that you don't live in the moment that you are in, or you day dream about what your life should have been, or why you aren't where you thought you should be and just end up sad. The later is what George Bailey finds himself doing in this movie. It's also where I have started to find myself in this season in life. Walking around acting happy and going through the motions of life but really upset that it's not where I wanted to be at. You think too much of what should have been you start thinking about all the wrongs in your past. Weather they have been done to you or you did yourself, you think about how if you could change something you would be where you want to be.
I have learned enough about life so far to know that being stuck in places like this in your mind wastes so much of you being in the present. If life was always to look like how we wanted it to be, how we dreamed it could be, we would find it way more dull that what it is. Part of the beauty of life lies in maneuvering in it's consequences. I know that there are a number of things that are going to be happening in my life over the next few years that I can't believe would ever happen to me. Things that I have never told anyone where dreams of mine, or hopes I dare never to hope are actually going to be happening. They would not have happened if life turned out how I thought it should have been. They would not only ever remained unnamed dreams, lying only the deepest depths of my heart, if I never dared to step off the path I thought I was meant to walk. I know that it sounds like that I gave up on dreams on that original path. I never really thought of what life would be like if the biggest dream in my life was never met. However, I haven't given up on it. It's still very much a possibility that I pray still happens. However, My currently reality, the life right now, is so much better than I could have dreamed of. It's a life that I would have never considered if I let myself stay on the "safe" path. The path that went from one point to another in a straight line.
The thing about straight lines is that it's the shortest distance between two points. That's why you are supposed to zig zag when you are being chased, because it makes you harder to get caught. If I had walked the straight line, if I had followed the pretty path, would my unspoken dreams have died? Would they have ever been known by anyone other than me and God? I have learned that just because I zig and zag off the path that I was originally on doesn't mean that I won't cross that path again. It doesn't mean that the pretty path is no longer there. The original dreams are still on that path but I had to cross some other paths to get the most out of life before walking down that path again. I have walked next to that path a few times since stepping off of it. Considering to walk it again. Thinking that I could have what I wanted all of these years but knowing it would not be as fulfilling as I know I wanted it to be. The two to three times that I have placed a foot on that path it has always been met a stumbling block. Recently have just been me wanting to get back on that path and run as fast as I can to the shortest way to the finish line of that dream. The stumbling blocks have made me zig and zag on the path until I find myself jumping off the path again. I have also learned that the original path is never out of sight. I have explored more being off that path, and looking around of the other parts of life instead of just the end goal. You gather more experience and wisdom exploring what's around the path and staying on it.
Exploring around the path also allows you to travel along other's paths easier as well. You get to help other on good paths, or help them off of bad ones. The ones that are lost and only with you exploring for a little bit walk away with stores of your time together. Some people you find that your paths are parallel to yours and you spend much of your time together. You get to learn what you missed on their path to you so far and see what is coming and get the chance to go with them. The life is wonderful in all parts in and around your path. We like to think that the destination in life is the dreams you accomplished, the people you meet, or the money you made. In reality the destination of life is not a dream... it's death. The only thing we will leave behind in the life is a legacy. It's going to be the stories that other people on their own paths will tell of you. The legacy of life is made wondering off the path that is placed before you. The path that you only deemed to end when you are finally "happy" "fulfilled" "accomplished" or "enough". Is that way people who are on the "pretty" path and only ever on that path seem to be unhappy?
George Bailey was forced to zig and zag off the path. He wanted to travel and see the world. He was so focused on meeting the dream on the pretty path that longing to get back on the path so much that he missed what was around him. He missed out of all of the joy and wonder being off the path he set before himself that he almost missed out on the rest of his life. he learned to finally feel free from the path and just look around at where he is at. To see where daring to walk off the path brought him to.
I apologize that was a tangent that I didn't think that I was going to go on. Let's get back around to the crazy paths I had to take in Knoxville this month.
Avery Russell House
This really terrible picture is that of the Avery Russell House. it was used during the Civil War as a hospital. It was also around this area where most of the Battle of Campbell Station was fought.
Farragut Museum and Admiral Farragut Statue
This is the museum for the country of Farragut. The statue is that of the man for whom the county is named.
Not a very long list I will say for Discovering Knoxville. However, Knoxville is a very big and history little city. We only have one more section of Knoxville to see next time! That not true there is always more to learn but for the purpose of this book there is only one more section left.
No comments:
Post a Comment