Sunday, August 9, 2009

Kim, Julie & Julia - What's the Point?

From the moment I saw the advertisement for the movie Julie and Julia I was fascinated and captivated. I saw the movie with my girlfriend Friday night. As the movie started I said, "Ok I'll pretend I am Julia Childs and you pretend you are Julie Powell." Sorry to say, but my friends and family will have to listen to me exclaiming, "Bone Appetite" for a few weeks to come. Its my goofball way of reminding myself that I am special.

Julia Childs? A master chef, an author, an artist, a woman, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a collaborator. Julie Powell? A New Yorker, a woman, a wife, a writer, a blogger, a cook, an author. Kim Lampe? A mother, a wife, a woman, a blogger, a friend, a collaborator, a dreamer, a lost soul, found over and over again, a hissing pussy cat, a seriously deep thinking goofball.

Julia got a book deal and her own television show. Julie finished her project, got a book deal and had a movie made about her journey to finding herself. Kim.... (is currently detained by that mom thing. Hang on, I'll be back in......?) Kim took out the garbage, gave some instructions to her daughter on the proper way of decluttering your room, of which does not include scattering your stuff into 3 other rooms including her brother's and parent's bedrooms. Kim looked at piles of dishes in her sink and piles of clothes, washed and not, feeling a bit self critical of her absent housekeeping skills of late, chased her son upstairs, put the left overs in the frig and put on her slippers because her feet were freezing.

Here's my point....

Even though there are books, movies and blogs about people, you never really see everything that entails someone's life. They give you a snippet here and a snippet there. It can make you feel as if they have something "special". Something you don't have.

Now I know what I am about to say is usually reserved for that "special" moment with that somebody who bore you from their loin, but here it goes, "You are special." Why not be committed to sharing that special with the whole world? Keeping it to yourself will surely drive you to insanity. Sharing her specialness is the only way Julia Childs could have shared Julia Childs with the world (you couldn't make up that stuff). Committing to finishing all 500 some recipes in Julia Childs french cookbook in 365 days and blogging about it is how Julie Powell committed to finding her temporarily lost specialness.

Kim Lampe knows she is sharing her specialness with the world when she is laughing, smiling or listening very attentively to somebody else. She's coming to know that when she feels lost she is on the right path. She has yet not to find her better self after a good wonder.

I didn't go to Julie and Julia to steal their special. I went to be inspired to believe that I could find my special with their help. Julia was committed to writing a cookbook on french cooking. It took her over 8 years to write and it was rejected before being published. Julie was committed to finishing her own personal project, with no motive of a book or a movie.

Be committed to your own specialness and respect other's as well. We're in this together ladies! Julie, Julia, Kim, Terry, Jan, Jill, Britni, Terry, Rosi, Karla, Kirsten....

* Kim needed some inspiration to write this post, so she put on the apron you see in the photo above. It took her back that moment when she was being herself (laughing, smiling). Writing about herself in the third person gives her that feeling that she has a published book and a movie about my, I mean her, life. HA!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Movies inspire me too and they feed my soul. Like Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile, her bohemian d renaissance style and way ahead of her time. Taking on the issues of the day in my mother’s era. You remind me that the focus should be a listening one. I feel I am good at it, but need to brush up on it again. You are great Kim!
Margo

M.E. Greene said...

What a great post. :) I read the book Julie & Julia last year and loved it, and never thought in a million years it would become a movie. But I'm certainly glad it did! Yes, you are correct. You are special and I am special. And since we're all pretty dang special, I think we ought to celebrate. Cake, anyone?

Anonymous said...

What power we have-when we believe in what we are doing!!!! Keep up the good work-you make it fun and addictive in a very good way....
Quilting Bag Lady from Iowa