The Other Sister

I watched one of my favorite movies tonight, The Other Sister. I think it's a great movie and it usually always leaves me with something different to think about. Tonight I sit here and think about the part when Carla (the mentally disabled sister/daughter...the "other" sister) gets upset with her mother because she wants to move to Florida with her boyfriend, Danny, who also happens to be mentally disabled. The mother is saying that Carla's eyes are closed, that Carla can do better, and that she doesn't think that Danny can take care of her because he can hardly take care of himself. Carla passionately replies with a few key one liners...

"We can take care of each other!"


"I know how to do one thing mother, I can love!"


"I can't do better because I'm not better!"

Now, in context these one liners are very powerful statements and I guess they still can be even as I'm typing them here. But these three stood out to me this time. The first, probably because I think that more often than not, we underestimate the power of living in community. Taking care of each other. Or maybe we don't underestimate it, we just neglect it because we're independent and think we can take care of ourselves. I have to say that I side more with the independent side, thinking that I don't need anyone and I can do it all on my own because that's what I've always done. That's what I've always had to do.

The second statement really jumped out at me. Carla, who doesn't know a lot of things, knows how to love. Sometimes (most times) I feel like I don't. Like there's always something stopping me, holding me back from loving. Maybe it's me. But to know what it's like to love, sounds so...I don't even know how to put it. It sounds fulfilling, great, joyful, whole, etc. and it sounds like something I really want to experience at some point in my life. Maybe I'm trying to figure out how to get to that place, the place where I can love deeply and more fully than I've ever known or been shown.

The third, I think this one really hit/smacked me, more than resonated with me. I'm not really sure what I think of it yet. Can we ask or require of others what we ourselves are not? In the mean time, are we settling if we don't expect more out of others...or more importantly, ourselves?

Unfortunately I don't own this movie, but I do highly recommend it if you get a chance to rent it. Well worth the buck or two.