Charmed and Dangerous

In a recent Vanity Fair article titled, "Charmed and Dangerous," Leslie Bennetts wrote an article about Hollywood's femme fatals.

"They have just met, and they're downing shots on a steamy patio in Bogota as thunder rolls across the sky. She's wearing a white cotton skirt and lace-up top that might look virginal on someone else, but since this is Angelina Jolie, they seem brazenly, I-want-to-rip-them-off-me wanton.

"When she starts undulating to the music, inviting him to dance, she insinuates her voluptuous body around his so provocatively that it makes the viewer's jaw drop. As she slithers like a sly cat, rubbing herself up and down against him, Brad Pitt is mesmerized by lustful anticipation. At this moment he would do anything she told him, even flap his arms, jump off a cliff, and fly.

"Watching the seduction scene in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a movie Jolie and Pitt filmed while he was still married to Jennifer Aniston, one can't help but think: There is no husband on the planet who could have resisted that woman under those circumstances.

"This is the very definition of a femme fatale. It doesn't matter if the man is married. It doesn't matter if his moral code or his religion or his politics or his job or his government or the last shreds of his common sense warn him not to succumb to her wiles. It doesn't matter if she's his best friends wife, or the crime boss's mistress, or the daughter of a vengeful king. In that moment of choice, he doesn't care what the consequences will be.

"The question is: Yes or no? And with a woman like that, the answer is always yes, even if that choice launches a thousand ships or destroys an empire. No matter what it will cost, the poor guy simply can't help himself."



So ... what do you think? Are you one of those people who would swear that your husband, boyfriend, etc. would be able to resist? Do you truly believe that in that situation, your spouse could really walk away? I wasn't sure what to think, so I read this article aloud to Dave. I wanted to know a man's opinion. After his initial reaction (typical male), in which he thought I was reading him porn and then wanted to promptly go rent the movie (for research purposes), he shockingly agreed it was true. Though he was quick to say it wouldn't be Angelina Jolie for him. He continued his explanation that it isn't the decision at that moment that is the real problem. The problem is letting yourself get into a situation where that scenario even exists - purely circumstantial.

I agreed. I asked around. What would your husband do? Not surprisingly, I got a lot of, "He would never do that." And then I thought to myself, what if I could conduct an experiment. What if I had a friend who would volunteer up her husband? Someone so sure of her relationship that she would allow me to put her husband in a questionable situation and see what happens.

I will be married fourteen years this August. I love Dave. I love our family. I love our life. And as challenging and crazy as it sounds and as much as I trust him - I am not willing to play with that kind of fire.

A woman like that is "the very personification of trouble, and when she fixes him with her hypnotic gaze, the man is toast. By the time it's over, he may lose everything: his reputation, his fortune, his freedom, even his life, all for this moment of glory with her incomparable self. And if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't change a thing."

And yes - I am putting that movie on our to watch list - I am intrigued.

Don't Fall Off

Since Friday, I have been at home with sick kids. It is okay. Though I hate when they are miserable, I find that our entire family takes a big, deep breath. We find ourselves coloring, resting and mostly, watching movies like crazy.

Several years ago when Davis was just five years old, a friend of ours recommended the movie Fly Away Home. It is such a great movie and family friendly, aside from the use of the "s--t" word once. It is based on the true story of Bill Lishman, a canadian, who with the help of Joe Duff and Dr. William Sladen, proved that wild fowl (geese) can be taught new, safer migration routes. He proves that "migration is not actually instinctive...it has been passed on from one generation to the next."

Now the movie, takes some liberties and creates a story around Mr. Lishman's experiment. The movie tells the story of Amy, a young girl, (played by Anna Paquin) who, after her mother dies, moves to Canada to live with her father. She comes across 16 goose eggs, displaced when the woodlands around her family home are bulldozed for a commercial development. Amy's story and the story of these geese is inspiring. We shared this movie with our daughters this weekend and I can say we watched it seven times from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening - and though I did not sit through each showing, I found myself stopping and then sitting down, again, often.

The only reason we would stop Fly Away Home and not start it again, was to watch Secretariat. I saw this for the first time on a snow day in January. My kids had seen it in the theater with their grandparents. If you have not seen this one, I highly recommend it. Again, a film based on a true story - Secretariat - the greatest race horse ever. We have watched it four times since Monday morning.

Tonight at dinner, we were discussing, of course, our favorite lines or parts of the movie. And though there are several great parts, my favorite line takes place during the running of the Belmont, the third race of the Triple Crown. As Secretariat makes his way down the final stretch, Lucian Lauren, the trainer, yells from the stands, "Ronny, Don't Fall Off!" My kids agreed, that part is great.

And as I sat here this evening thinking about work, home, etc. It really spoke to me. I have felt for the last few months as if I am approaching a ... crossroad (for lack of a better term). And as I was making a mental list of things I wanted to be thinking of or doing in the next few weeks/months, etc., all I could hear was Lucian Lauren yelling, "Don't Fall Off!"

That is the plan.