Give Thanks...For The Differences Between Us

 Years ago, my good friend Bob and I had lunch together. It's something we've done many times. I enjoy our culinary get-togethers (and not just because he usually pays...). It's because I'm spending time with a person who has known me through most of the major milestones in my life...as a teenager, a co-worker (several times...), a university student, a newlywed, a new and old father. 

On one particular outing as we jibbered and jabbered, he asked if I has seen the film, Slumbdog Millionaire. I hadn't. Bob went on to tell me how impressed he was with the film. 

This past week I finally watched it.

I can see why it generated so much buzz at the time.

The film is one that remains with you--I can understand why my friend brought it up. It's one you think about, ponder. Of course, there's the obvious storyline with the game show, India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? As the game proceeds, so does the narrative. We learn about two brothers, Jamal and Salim. We learn of their life growing up in India and how they became the men they ultimately turned out to be.

Needless to say, the brothers's lives were horrendous. 

In the film, I watched these children be exploited, used, abused. I thought of my childhood, only a few years earlier. Nothing in my life came close to the hardships they endured. I know it's a fictional story, but I believe the conditions seen in the film existed and were perhaps worse than what we saw. Children are resilient, but we all have our limits.

Even though my childhood was nothing like those in the film, we experience the pains, the joys, the good, and the bad. I am grateful for the differences...they make us who we are and who we will ultimately become.