You have to believe that life is more than the sum of its parts,"

Tonight I watched a movie called "The United States of Leland." It stars Ryan Gosling as Leland, a 16 year old boy who murdered a special needs boy named Ryan. Leland is very sweet, lovable, and yet troubled. He takes in the emotions of the people around him, and has started to lose faith in the possibility of love and happiness.

The movie was great. In spite of how sad it was, and how much I wanted Leland to somehow be innocent, the acting, the story, the filming, the writing; everything was done well. It was a remarkable, original story. I'm honestly shocked by how much I loved Leland by the end of the movie. It reminded me of when I saw "In Cold Blood" and also saw the good in the criminal. However, this case was much different than "In Cold Blood" because Leland didn't brutally murder anyone. He wasn't looking to hurt anyone. 

The movie really got me thinking about mistakes. I've heard a million times how everyone makes them, but to be honest whenever I make a big one, I feel like I'm the only person in the world who ever has. I feel as if I could have prevented myself from doing wrong. It's almost like I want to believe I'm the only one, maybe to minimize the amount of evil I'm aware exists in the world.

I found out recently that an old couple who lived down the street from me as a child, a couple I was fond of, were unhappy together. Separately they are both nice people, but apparently they don't love each other. The husband once brought home the women he was cheating with. I'm always relieved when I meet couples who are still happy together, even after being married for 50 years. It's refreshing, and sadly an uncommon occurrence.

I'll end my post for today with a passage from the movie. I really recommend seeing it.

Good night.

- NC

"The worst part is knowing that there is goodness in people. Mostly it stays deep down and buried. Maybe we don't have God because we're scared of the bad stuff. Maybe we're really scared of the good stuff. Because if there's no God, well, that means it's inside of us and we could be good all the time if we wanted. So when we do bad things, it'd be because we want to or because we have to. Or maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us what the good stuff is in the first place."- The United States of Leland