Life is But a Dream.

Watched "The Family Stone."

It's a good family movie.

Was struck by how happy vastly different and somewhat dysfunctional the Stones were, and yet how happy and complete they were at their family gatherings. Yet at one of their Christmas gatherings, we learn that Mother Stone, who really helps pull the family together, is terminally ill.

The movie ends with a future Christmas gathering, where Mom has passed, but her family still gathers as they always have.

You see that life, long as it sometimes seems, is but a passing dream. Something that comes and goes, like the whooshing in and out of a long breath. So real when it is happening, but no more than a fading memory as soon as it's passed. That people are born and die, and when they die, what's left of them is merely fading memories held close by those that loved them. But we also see that although people die, they don't die, because who they were reflects in the places they'd been, and the things they'd done, and in each of those whose lives they'd touched.

So the moral of the story is that

Life... is shorter than we think.

That we should enjoy each moment of this precious gift.

That we should unabashedly live, and learn, and love.

That we should cherish those who happen to cross our paths.

Give to those around us.

Try to make it a better place for our having been here.

And never forget that life, this wondrous life...

Is but a passing dream.

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