Last night I watched Save the Last Dance with my roommate and my friend Mindy. (Yoo-hoo, Mindy-Lou! :) ) They had not seen it before. I have seen it a few times. It's not really a romance, comedy or action flick. More than anything, it's about choice. I guess it's a drama film.

It's set in the inner city, though it isn't entirely clear what city. There's a LOT of language and sex and some gang violence, too. Poverty, in a word.

Something Mindy said after the movie got me thinking: "Now I'm going to have to be careful. I'll catch myself saying those words because I've heard them so much now."

And when I asked my roommate what she thought of the movie overall, she was silent for a long time. "I guess I'm sensitive to the sex," she said.

Thought-provoking.

I didn't say anything to Mindy or my roommate, but I wrote a lot last night, and when I woke up this morning, I was still thinking about the movie and their reactions and everything. I went back to the scene where Mindy had made her remark and imagine a subsequent conversation we could have had...

Good thing you don't live in the inner city, huh? I imagine saying to Mindy.

Yeah, she enthusiastically responds.

But we're called to help the poor, I counter her.

But not to talk like them, Mindy says.

No, I answer, but you can't always avoid them either, for fear of being "tainted."

There is silence, and my thoughts turn inward. What about me? I'm as guilty as they are, and I sure talk big for it. I'm sure they're thinking that.

My thoughts are changing or have changed, but my actions haven't followed through. I'm still scared of being "tainted," just like I always have been.

I want to go somewhere. Maybe I will go on the mission trip to inner-city New York over Spring Break. Maybe my life will be changed.

At one part of the movie, you see a clear depiction of choice-making. The theme runs throughout the movie, but in one scene it's very, very clear how choices divide two friends. While we watched, Mindy was cheering on the one who made the "good" choice. I thought on the one who had made the "bad" choice. I couldn't believe Mindy was acting so happy about the scene. Yay, the good guy made the good choice. What about the other one? Why couldn't he have been saved? Why is life like that?

None of that really made sense. Especially without tone of voice and expression. My intent isn't to preach at anybody. I just have a lot of thoughts from that movie, about poverty and the church, and how they often have little to do with each other. :(

-Stephanie

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