-Akeelah and the Bee
I just went to see the movie Akeelah and the Bee. I love to see movies, but a film about a spelling bee didn’t really grab my attention. After hearing so many people rave about the film, however, I sucked up and went. I am so glad I did.
All I can say is WOW. It is rare that I go to a film and leave feeling like I can really make a difference in the world. The story is about a young African American girl, Akeelah (Keke Palmer) who lives in a very rough black neighborhood in LA. Her father was killed, her mother (the stunning Angela Bassett) is stressed to the hilt as a single mother, and her brother is getting involved with a gang. The only thing she has going for her is her ability to spell crazy long words that no one has ever heard of.
With the guidance of her spelling mentor (Lawrence Fishburne), Akeelah faces her fears and enters the competitive world of the spelling bee where the children are stressed and the parents are totally insane.
Throughout the movie, a famous passage from Marianne Williamson’s book A Return to Love is quoted several times:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
(From Chapter 7, Section 3)
In conquering her fears and following her dream, Akeelah inspires her entire neighborhood in ways that no one could have predicted by demonstrating the powerful truth in the above quote. This movie is a must-see for all who have let fear hold them back–okay, I think that is most of us, so go see this movie!
