Elizabethtown Road Trip

I watched the movie, ELIZABETHTOWN, tonight with a few friends. The first thing I will say is, if you want an amazing soundtrack, I imagine this one's a winner. I really liked the movie as an integrated whole. My favorite partof the movie is how the significance of road trips is worked into the story line. A road trip is given by one friend to another. She didn't go with him on the road trip, per se, but she made his road trip happen. She made it meaningful with a handmade map, interactive no less, where every moment of the trip had purpose with thoughts to ponder, places to visit, people to meet, and songs burnt on CDs for each turn in the road. It reminded me of the discussion I had with a couple of friends about the idea of PILGRIMAGE. What would it look like to go on a pilgrimage? What would an actual spiritual pilgrimage look like today for a community of Christians? To me, it would look alot like the road trip in this movie. Drew, the main character, rediscovers and discovers life on this trip. He was both alone, and accompanied by his friend. Hmmmm...you'll have to watch it to understand what I mean. I wish I had one of those handmade road maps. What an amazing gift!

The movie also scored bonus points with me when Drew's friend included OKC (my humble childhood abode) into the important places to stop. On his road trip, Drew went by the round barn located in Arcadia, Oklahoma...just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from my house.

As Drew continued on the road trip, he began to reorganize his view of failure, disappointment, death, dreams deferred, and survival in life. One such moment occurs as he approached the Survivor Tree located at the Oklahoma City National Memorial for the bombing victims of April 19, 1995.When I visited the memorial the first time, I was most struck by this tree myself. It is a 100-year-old American elm that was the sole surviving tree across the street from the destroyed building. This amazing tree holds a story, stands as a living witness, and continues to grow with the message of resilience and hope. You should take a road trip there if you haven't already.

The final message of the movie, spoken by a renewed Drew, is "No true fiasco ever began as a quest for mere adequacy. The motto of the British Special Air Service is, 'Those who risk, win.'* A single green vine shoot is able to grow through cement. The Pacific Northwestern salmon beats itself bloody on its quest to travel hundreds of miles upstream. Against the current...with a single purpose...life."
*Side note...the movie got it wrong evidently. The official motto of the SAS is actually "Who Dares Wins." Crazy Americans translating English wrong!
**Double side note...if you have never checked out the links on the sidebar of this blog, please do. The one called ROUND AMERICA is about a couple's road trip across America.