Rosetta Stone and Cast Away Theme & Ending

My Rosetta Stone for Spanish (Spain) arrived on Saturday. I've been in love with it ever since. It makes me feel as if I'm using my time off for work for something more productive than just sitting around. Beyond documentaries, my brain gets little education during the summer. I've got my first live session during night for my first unit which I completed this evening.

For those of your unaware of the Rosetta Stone setup, each level is composed of 4 units. Each unit has about 4 lessons (that I'm aware of). Within each lesson, you get many mini-lessons, including a core lesson, pronunciation assistance, grammar instruction, prior level practice sessions, reading practice, speaking practice, listening practice, and writing lesson. It took me about 11 hours of active engagement to complete the entire first unit of level one. I stopped and played a few of their language games, and I went back and redid some of the lessons to make a better score.

The language program is completely immersed which means they never give you the English translation of the material. You have to learn what the words mean on your own. They associate everything with pictures, so you're not left totally in the dark regarding what the words mean. I was anxious to see if the material was actually teaching mean comprehension of the language, and when I was presented with three short stories at the end of my lesson, I was shocked that I could actually read and understand what the stories were saying.

I love this program! I'm definitely going to get another language to learn once I finish with all five levels of Spanish. 

I haven't been to the gym in a few days since I got my program though, but I'll probably go tomorrow once I finish baby sitting in the morning. Someone is going to pick up the kids early tomorrow, so I'll only have to work until 1030.

I haven't been sleeping well the past week. My sleeping cycle is entirely messed up. My body refuses to sleep at night for some reason. I'm always up to ungodly hours (as you notice with my 2:10 A.M. writing of this entry). I took three tylenol PM a couple of hours ago, but that has had little effect on getting me to sleep. I just don't get tired until after 6 AM. I even tried to avoid sleeping during the day to see if I could switch it back to sleeping at night, but I still was unable to go to sleep. Crazy.

Last night, I practiced on Rosetta stone for about 6 hours, watched Conspiracy Theory (love Julia Roberts), watched a documentary on dreaming, and then watched Cast Away with Tom Hanks. I've been watching that movie every night when I get into bed. Sometimes, I just listen to it, but I've noticed something about that movie. An enlightenment of sorts. 

When I first saw Cast Away (years ago), I was disappointed with the way that things ended. I loved the movie, but hated how it ended. I never understood why they didn't just tie things up and give Chuck Noland some getter resolution. I was disappointed he didn't end up with his girlfriend also. After watching the movie for the second and third time, I still had the same conclusion. I always wanted to end the movie where she calls for him leaving her drive way and they run to kiss and embrace each other in the rain. It doesn't end then. Instead, it ends with him on at an intersection in the middle of no where, looking back down the road of the lady whose package he had kept safe on the island for four years.

The romantic in me concluded that he decided to drive back down that road and court this woman, but who knows if that would actually happen.

On my millionth time to watch Cast Away, I noticed something super significant about the opening scene that does not get resolved until the very end of the movie. The woman whose package is picked up by FedEx to be taken to Russia (where we first see Tom's character Chuck Noland) has a very important part of the movie. If you didn't notice (and I didn't, honestly, the first handful of times I watched the movie), the package is being sent to her husband who is in Russia. They both have the name Peterson. When the man opens the door to receive the package, his Russian lover describes how pretty the image is and asks who it's from. He says, "My wife." The package that was sent was not the same that Tom had on the island, but instead, as noted earlier, she had another package for delivery on Thursday. This is the package that ends up with Tom.

We don't see the woman again until Tom delivers the package to the empty ranch house at the end of the movie. When he first drives up to the ranch, the camera can be seen spanning around the ranch grounds. If you notice the ranch logo/sign, it has changed. In the beginning of the movie, when the FedEx truck arrives to pick up the first package that was sent to her husband, you can clearly see the ranch gate says" Dave.....Bettina. With the angel wings in the center that become a central image of the whole movie. When Chuck Noland arrives at the end of the movie to return the package, the portion of the gate that held the name Dave has been destroyed and removed. 

It's clear that the marriage has ended. I suppose Bettina found out about the affair in Russia (possibly others and ended things.

How is this important? Because it shows how Tom's struggle on the island as a "Cast Away" is not synonymous to be cast away on a deserted island in the middle of the Atlantic, but can also be in the real world. Cast away from a marriage perhaps, or the delusion that love conquers all? Who knows. 

The intersection/crossroads also plays into the theme of the movie. Chuck as been through hell. He's been on a deserted island for four years, his girlfriend has since married and had a daughter, and now the things he once valued (time, fine foods, tools) now seem so insignificant and easy to him. He's at a crossroads in his own life now. He's not quite sure what's going to happen to him next, but he knows that his life will forever be changed.

The movie serves to teach us all a lesson, and it taught me a great, much needed lesson last night. As Chuck says to his dear friend/colleague at the end, "You never know what the horizon will bring tomorrow"/ Even though Chuck wanted to kill himself and give up hope, he kept breathing. Eventually. it leads you to believe that his only hope lies in his return to his girlfriend, but I think he realizes at the end, that it's not his hope for his love for her, but rather a hope that life continues and that he will survive the problems that keep going, and that sometimes. as much as things may have been our centralized focus and love in life, we merely have to take another road for whatever reason. The road is still there, and you don't forget it, but at some point, you have to get out of the crossroads of life and decide to move forward.

Chuck had to let the love of his life go. It prompted me thinking that I need to let mine go as well. I've been so angry/hurt for years over John, and I really just need to move on. The horizon/tide will never bring him back into my life, so I really just need to find my happiness in new things. I've been dating plenty before and held relationships, but somehow, he's always been on my mind. 

Last night, after my enlightenment on all things Cast Away, I realized that I need to forgive him and move forward. No hate. No anger. Move forward. Without letting ALL of him go, I'm never going to end up happy. In a very dramatic moment, I must say, I listened to the Cast Away theme song, and I had a good cry, but afterwords, I had a calm flow upon me like I've never had before. Like Chuck, it was like a "tide came in and gave me a sail". Very powerful even though it's dramatic.

I've never in my life felt such a connection to a movie as I do with Cast Away. I hated it for how it ended, but now, I consider it the best ending in a movie to date. It ends with Chuck looking at a horizon off in the distance towards the ranch, and I feel that Chuck has a new sail. A calm purpose almost. He knows, at that point, that him surviving his struggle and letting go of his past will usher in a new life of happiness perhaps (I hope anyways) with Bettina who has gone through a struggle with her own crossroads with Dave. Although he wrecked their marriage, and probably crushed her dreams, she kept going, and was able to smile when she meets Chuck at the crossroads to ask if he's lost.  Bettina could have surely given up hope in her life and closed the ranch she owned with her husband, but instead, she moves on. She destroys his name, removes it, but leaves the gate there which links into letting go of the past, but not forgetting it. 

Chuck could have easily been begrudged and been angry/upset over losing his girlfriend, being on the island, and losing his volleyball Wilson, but instead he realizes that this entire journey was needed in order to show him the most important things in life. You can see at the beginning that he places so much importance on each second of time. He's obsessed with work. He often neglects his appointments with his girlfriend for work. He plans every second of every day, as evident by his over flowing day planner/day planner meetings with his girlfriend, but at the end of the movie, we see his changes starting, the Chuck Noland at the beginning of the movie would never forget the ten minutes of time his cab driver gave him at the house. He learned to appreciate life for all its worth. I think he also learned the meaning of hoping.

I feel like I've written an essay, but I could seriously go on and on about my LOVE of this movie now, and it's importance in my own life.

If you haven't seen this movie, please watch it, and if you have, watch it again. I mean it seriously is FILLED with the most important lesson in life that is one we simply seem to always forget.

And with that, I'm out. Do listen to the theme though. It's now in my top 10 of favorite songs.