Julie & Julia

We just returned from seeing “Julie & Julia” – time well-spent! The screen play was delightful – intertwining lives of two women, from different generations, who never met; I want to read more about Julia Child, her husband, Paul and the McCarthy era, and (maybe) even how to cook French food. It’s also clearly time for a field trip to the Smithsonian to see Julia’s kitchen. The actors were flat-out super.

Good stuff!

I loved it because it was about two separate women, and the men who loved them; women who followed their dreams and did well. Following their dreams was hard work for each woman - long work – all amidst other responsibilities – and neither woman's work was whole-heartedly accepted the first time around. But they kept at it, making their dreams come true:

* to learn (something difficult, French cooking)
* to create (something difficult – French food ) and
* to communicate (something difficult – how to learn and how to do).

Another theme I loved was how Julie and Julia’s husbands inspired and supported them, establishing a new proverb: Behind every great woman there is (often) a great man. It’s refreshing seeing marriages portrayed as vital relationships mutually supportive, delightful – able to weather storms – low self-esteem, financial squeezes, infertility, job uncertainty and persecution. The Childs made it – and the Powells seem off to a good start.