Letting in the moonbeams!

I enjoy old movies and watching for the life lessons they often reveal. Recently, I watched Moonstruck with Cher and Nicholas Cage. The story is about Italian families living in New York City. It is a cute romance about an older brother who is going to marry Cher. The older brother wants his younger brother to come to his wedding. The two brothers have not been speaking to one another for five years. Cher is sent to visit with the younger brother and to invite him to the wedding.

Cher learns why the younger brother is angry at her fiancé. Five years previous, the younger brother lost his fingers in a bread machine and then his own fiancé left him. So what does this loss have to do with the older brother? It happened while he was working on an order of bread for his older brother. So he blames his brother for the bad things that happened in his life.

This is what makes this movie so ridiculously funny. Resentments have a way of pushing out all the daily good that comes to our lives. And the reasons we give for holding onto them are usually just as funny. Unwilling to buy in to his pity pot party, Cher poses a question it gets to the crux of the issue. She asks, “are you the only one that has ever shed a tear?” She cuts to the quick by pointing out that life is suffering and we all suffer. The younger brother has no monopoly on suffering.

What comes to light is that Cher was once married and had lost a husband to a bus accident. Eventually the younger brother realizes that he is not the Lone Ranger. Accepting this reality about life as suffering, helps us to reach out to everyone around. As the younger brother let’s go of his old resentment, he discovers a new passion for life, living, & love. All of which culminates in a zany final scene with the family around the breakfast table.

It reminds me of a story that was once told about a mother who lost a child in death. She carries the dead child to the Buddha and asked him to restore the child to life. The Buddha at first refuses however the mother continues to insist in her grief she must have her child back. Finally the Buddha agrees to restore the child to life on one condition; that she go to the village and obtain a cup of herbs from a house that has not been touched by death. Willingly the mother rushes in to town, going door to door, asking for a cup of herbs, and then inquiring if their family had been touched by death. She is unable to find a single family in the entire village that has not been touched by some tragedy.

She finds herself returning to the Buddha with her measuring cup empty, unable to find anyone who could fill her Cup. She was unable to find anyone that had not also shed a tear. Everyone’s pain is the same. We are not unique. We are not separate. And we can share this reality about life.

So today, we have an opportunity to share joy in the joy of others. Extend compassion for the sorrow of others. And offer tender loving kindness for everyone we meet.