INSPIRATIONAL FILES

      We are used to looking at life l as if we are looking in the mirror. What we often see in the mirror is not reality but rather a reflection of it. The mirror does not reflect the true self, but only reflects what it sees. And when you do not like what you see then you begin to distort your reflected self. Then the reflection gradually becomes a distortion of your true self.         The above phenomenon is known as self-delusion. Self-delusion does not bring true transformation. It actually takes you farther away from it. It is hard to achieve true transformation if you are living in the state of self-delusion.         It should become clearer why the makeup and cosmetic surgery industry is a multi billion dollar industry and still climbing.  You do not have to look at it too hard to notice that many of our popularized celebrity cosmetic transformations still have situations in their lives that leave them untransformed....

 If you follow political news intently like I do, the word "Fact-Checking" is definitely not new to you.  Fact-Checking has been around for a very long time but lately has become a more prominent word, especially during the ongoing 2016 American Presidential Election debates and discourse than it was at any other time.        To "Fact-Check" simply means to check the accuracy of what is being presented  as facts in order to establish whether the one presenting it so is misrepresenting the facts or not.        In the process of political fact checking, fact checkers often found out that politicians do take liberty with the facts and stretch the truth in order to sway popular opinion to their own side. Most of us could be guilty of being swayed by statements that could turn out to just be a simple misrepresentation of the facts without checking the facts.        The good news is that being swayed by politica...

Movie producer and director, Christopher Nolan (Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), explores the idea of dream inception (a dream within a dream) in the science fiction heist thriller, "Inception" (2010),  The film stars a large "dream team" cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic), Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cottilard  , Ken Watanabe ,Tom Hardy,  Dileep Rao , Cillian Murphy , Tom Berenger,  and Michael Caine.  DiCaprio plays Dominic Cobb, a professional thief who commits corporate espionage  by infiltrating the subconscious and the dreams of his targets   This is one of the most complex and complicated movies in the history of Hollywood. It is as complex as reality is and as complicated as a dream. This has also been argued by some that one of the reasons why "Inception" did not win the movie of the year could be because the movie was so complicated, that even the Academy did not understand it.  In the movie "Incep...

" I Think I love My Wife"  (2007) is a romantic comedy co-written and produced by Chris Rock. In the movie, Richard Cooper (Chris Rock) is a very successful New York business executive and a happily married man. Happily married and loves his wife, Brenda (Gina Torres), at least it seems until an encounter with a very attractive and certainly seductive old friend, Nikki (Kerry Washington) suddenly begins to cast doubts on the certainty of Richard's love for his wife. Just in case you have never seen this, it would make you laugh, even as serious as the theme might sound. Statements such as “I think so” and “I hope so” communicate probabilities and uncertainties rather than assurance and certainty. Both statements are responses to questions seeking a certain type of affirmation. Four husbands were asked if they loved their wives. The first husband’s response was “I think so.” The second husband replied “I hope so.” The third husband took a little longer but he eve...

"Fantasy Island" (1977 - 1984) was a TV series created by Gene Levitt and starred Ricardo Montalban, Herve Villechaize, Christopher Hewett, and Wendy Schaal. It was an island where guests (strictly by invitation) paid a phenomenon amount of money ($50,000) to live out their fantasies, even if it was just for one weekend only. And the fantasy was always far more than what they bargained for. Each episode always begins with a toast "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island." And in one unforgettable weekend and one attempt, usually, to relive their pasts in one form or another, Mr. Roarke taught his guests very important life lessons, frequently in a manner that exposes the errors of their ways. And more so it is a lesson that sometimes the past is better left alone where it is, in the past. There are three phases in the journey of a man - yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Yesterday always starts out as today. It is what has already bee...

Following in the footsteps of Lee Daniel's "Precious" (2009), starring Gabourey Sidibe and Mo"Nique", Shattered" (2011), produced by Gilbert Lukalian and starring Nigerian Rita Dominic in the lead role, explores the same dark theme of mental and physical abuse of children in the hands of parents. It won two awards at the 2012 African Movie Academy Awards. Rita Dominic rendered an unforgettable performance as Kezia Njema, a Keyan girl whose life was shattered through no fault of hers but by just being simply the right child in the wrong hands, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. Gilbert Lukalia's "Shattered" is a true story of the excruciating pain of child abuse, the plight of defenseless children caught in a spider's web that they did not spin, frailty of the human psyche, mental and physical pain, nightmares, demons, a wounded spirit that may never heal, and indelible scars that will always be there. For example, your average f...

                                                                         Intended ignorance is one of the causes of the disappointment in many relationships. Look at it as the basket of some of the few things that you do know and the little things you do not know, mixed with a lot of the many things you ignore to know about a person that's coming into your life. Boy meets girl is the case of "When Harry met Sally" (my own spin of course), Sally was so excited and in so much awe she became bli nd to the things she really needed to see about Harry and deaf to the words she really needed to hear about Harry. And of course mute to all the things she needed to have said to Harry. Then Harry married Sally in no time. At the beginning, it was like a marriage made in heaven, but not long, and not very long at...

Real life couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell light up the screen in "Overboard (1987).  Joanna Stayton (Goldie Hawn) is an idle rich woman who fell overboard her luxury yacht just to be rescued by a passing garbage barge. The comedy of the movie “ Overboard ” is that of error and the irony of unexpected change. Within a twinkle of an eye, Joanna went from being on the deck of a posh yacht to being on the deck of a garbage barge. She went from being Joanna, an idle rich wife, to being Annie, the assumed wife of a carpenter [Kurt Russell] and the "mother" of four unruly boys. Though hilarious in the movie, this is the type of change that we neither expect nor even think about. The story of Joanna is a comedy that will make anyone laugh, but the story of Jonah on the other hand is not a comedy to make anyone laugh. It is the tragedy of a disobedient prophet who changed the direction of God for his life with his own direction just to end up at a destination h...

Eight strangers, eight different points of view, but only one truth. And what matters most is the one truth. " Vantage Point " (2008), a political action thriller film, recounts a series of events surrounding the "assassination" of a US president on foreign soil from several different perspectives and viewpoints in order to reveal a "truthful" account of what actually happened. In what is unquestionably one of the best movies of 2008, Dennis Quaid led a star-studded cast including Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, and Matthew Fox to light up the screen in one of the most intense political action thriller films of all time.   Now check this out. As they were leaving, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John. " What did you go into the desert to see? Tall grass swaying in the wind? Really, what did you go to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Those who wear fine clothes are in royal palaces. Really, what did you go to s...

Frank Sinatra is more remembered by many for his silky, love ballads than for his many movie roles. Yes! In his lifetime, Mr. Sinatra appeared in not less than fifty – six (56) films, including his number one, “ From Here to Eternity ” (1953], with Burt Lancaster and Donna Reed. And I really doubt if many people still remember or have ever even seen Frank Sinatra in “ Suddenly ” (1954), in which he plays the role of John Baron, a psychopathic assassin. Don’t feel bad if you have never seen “ Suddenly ”, it happens to be just one of those forgotten Sinatra classics that now runs once or maybe twice a year on The TCM (Turner Classic Movies) Channel.  In “ Suddenly ”, John Baron (Sinatra) leads a team of hired assassins to Suddenly, a sleepy little town in California, on a mission to assassinate the President of the United States, as the President’s campaign train makes a brief stop at the town’s train station. As the camera rolls in on the opening shot, Sheriff Tod...

Paul Newman reprises the unforgettable role of Fast Eddie Felson from The Hustler (1961)in The Color of Money (1986). Twenty-five - years after “The Hustler,” Fast Eddie, now retired from the pool–room hustling, finds inspiration for a comeback and a grand finale in an immensely talented younger protégé played by Tom Cruise. The connection between the title and the plot is in Fast Eddie's interpretation of the traditional green cloth (baize) of a pool table. To Eddie, the sight of the green baize of a pool table is always an opportunity to make money. How one sees money doesn’t really begin in the eyes but in the heart and the way a person sees money really depends on the lens the person is looking through. If he is looking through the lens of society he would see money as a simple means of meeting his own personal needs and possibly sharing with others if there is a little bit left over after he had met his own needs. At least it is his own money and he could do an...

  The movie " Glory " (1989) stars Mathew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, and Morgan Freeman. Set in the turbulence of the American Civil War, it tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first formal regiment of the US Army to be made up of entirely African American men. Told from the point of view of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, its commanding officer during the war, the 54th was a unit that almost did not see combat. The regiment went from doing mostly menial labor to participating in a skirmish in South Carolina, where they successfully repelled a Confederate attack.    If you have not already, in your lifetime you will encounter someone who would attempt to use the problem of suffering to create doubt in your mind with the objective of discrediting God’s love for you. Such an attempt could come in the form of a question like, “Why does God allow Satan to attack you if He really loves you?” Such a question is designed to cr...

In " The Preacher's Wife " (1996), Whitney Houston gave a stellar performance in one of her most unforgettable movie roles since "The Bodyguard" (1992). Ms. Houston plays the role of Julia Biggs, a Baptist preacher’s wife in one of the best romantic fantasies of that decade. Most people that have seen " The Preacher's Wife " probably saw nothing beyond the simplistic story of a struggling New York Baptist preacher who is devoted to serving his flock and his community. But to the very discerning, "The Preacher's Wife" looks more like the story of a very beautiful woman neglected by a very pious husband committed to work and other people rather than devoted to a wife and a family. And that makes " The Preacher's Wife " the untold story of many women in every tongue, in every nation, in every language, in every culture, and in every nation. And there is one in every family. Women crave attention and they respond...

" I am Not going to be ignored, Dan! " Those are the famous words of Alexandra "Alex" Forrest (Glenn Close) from "Fatal Attraction" , the second highest grossing film of 1987 . " Fatal Attraction" is thriller with a spice of horror, starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer. It is the story of a married man (Dan Gallagher) who has an affair with a woman (Alexandra Forrest) who refuses to let it end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking and ensuing obsession. There are a few similarities between my story and the plot of Fatal Attraction but for the twists in my story. One twist is what actually happened in the bedroom of the woman in my story. The other is in how my story actually ends compared to the ending of Fatal Attraction . It is not really my story but my own spin on a famous story from antiquity.    This is really my version of Fatal Attraction . Except in my version no one really dies. It is the story told f...