This Stubborn World

Who'd be a speech writer?

This short film made me laugh today.  So though my posts these days are few and far between, I thought I'd share it, on the off-chance you  haven't seen it yet. 

Tonight absorbed in reading Lionel Shriver's 'We need to talk about Kevin'.  The beauty of the prose entices me, despite the grimness of the tale. 

Millions

St Francis of Assisi figured in the wonderful Danny Boyle film 'Millions' which I saw yesterday with my son. By chance, my parents-in-law, returning from Umbria, brought my son this postcard today. The film was perfectly appropriate viewing on the day of the Live8 concert. A modern parable about money and the use of it, it chronicles the story of two brothers in northern English suburbia, following the death of their mother. Temptation, in the form of a Nike holdall full of cash (around £200,000) falls from the sky (in fact from a passing train). They hide their find from their father (James Nesbitt) but the two boys have opposing views on what to do with the cash. The older boy wants consumer goods big-time. The younger has a strange fascination with Saints who appear to him frequently during the course of the film. St Francis is the first.

St Francis tells the boy, Damian, he should give the cash to the poor. The catch is, there are only 12 days until Britain converts to the Euro, so spending time is tight. At first Damian shoves cash through the letterbox of the 'Latter-day Saints' who live on the estate. Later he becomes more interested in giving money to a charity who build wells in Africa. All the while, the thief, in search of his lost loot, is on their trail.

The message of the film struck hard as we left the cinema into the midst of Kingston shopping centre. My son was particularly enthralled by the Bang & Olufsen shop. I tried to explain the 'message' of the film, but I'm not sure it had altogether sunk in. We ended up having lunch in Starbucks, me poring over the Fairtrade leaflet. Last night, weirdly, I met the Financial Director of Starbucks who was actually immensely reassuring about current policy. I know the guy from way-back and trust him. But as an impressed (ok, if lapsed) 'No Logo' reader it's probably time I did my own research on that one.

This morning I happened to discover this wonderful website: link and I was particularly interested in the woman pledging 1% of her gross annual income to charity if 400 others will do it too link. By coincidence I'd been considering building my coaching business along those lines so will be signing up pronto. It's a start, St. Francis - from tiny acorns and all...