Chix Flix

I am one of those guys that is not a big fan of going to a “Chick Flick” with my gal. I might have an ulterior motive when I do go, but I would never say that out loud (at least not with my gal around). But given the opportunity to have a root canal without anesthesia or watch a Chick Flick, I will choose Option A. It has to do with a trauma I experienced as a small child, but that is a whole other story.

Over the past 30 years, I have seen two Chick Flicks that were absolutely worth the effort. I would ask that you not tell any of my friends this confession. The first was the movie Chocolat, and it was a wonderful story about the human experience, love, grace, forgiveness, redemption, and cautions about being judgmental. If you have not seen that one, do yourself a favor and rent it (or for you forward thinking tech-heads, download it from Apple i-tunes or have it delivered by Netflix). But that movie has nothing to do with my comments this month. However, I recently attended the movie, Miss Potter, with my gal and I anticipated nothing but a miserable experience. I had promised I would take her and I had every intention of honoring that promise and I did. We went to the theatre, bought tickets, took my medication, sat in my seat and fastened my seatbelt for the ride.

The movie, Miss Potter is the true story of the children’s book author, Beatrix Potter, set around the turn of the 20th century in England. You may know her for her famous character Peter Rabbit. Not to bore you with too many details, but she is a single women, still living at home with her affluent “society” parents at age 32, and she has a passion for writing and illustrating children’s books in a time when women did not get their books published. She traipses around London, trying to convince the old, stodgy publishing houses to print one of her books and one firm agrees to print a small run of them to appease her. Leap forward in time and Miss Beatrix Potter becomes one of the best selling children’s book authors of all time. Her wonderful publications literally fly off the shelves.

Anyway, what she is able to do with her fortune is buy a beautiful farm in the Lake District, which she names Hill Top. She keeps it alive as a working farm and helps to protect the area from “new development” by the city folks. She continues to acquire farm after farm (from struggling and retiring farmers) much to the chagrin of the developers – she essentially outbids them and they don’t like it one damn bit – and helps the farmers to stay gainfully employed. She later sets up a conservation trust and creates an arrangement that will protect the area for farming for generations and helps to stave off overdevelopment. The movie is a great story about life, love, and dealing with hardship, following your dreams, believing in yourself, and giving back. I was inspired and dead wrong in my outlook on what to expect from this film. Get your hands on it and watch it if you get a chance. She was a visionary and champion of conservation long before others had even thought about the idea.

Fast forward the clock to a recent story involving one of our club members, Dr. George Bohigan and his recent deal with the state of Missouri and his family property. The details of this story have been covered elsewhere, but just know this – we just picked up some new water with wild rainbow trout in it…and that is a good thing. George didn’t have to do this, but he did and we appreciate it.

Another champion of conservation, Teddy Roosevelt led the cause that created much of our protected national parks system here in the United States. We have so many beautiful places protected by these initiatives that we get enjoy for generations. It took vision, courage, and tenacity to get these things done.

Thanks Teddy. Thanks Beatrix. Thanks George. It is people like you that make the world a little better place for the rest of us because of your extra effort, generosity, and willingness to share. We should all be thinking out of the box like that…me included. You think about that. TL