Love against the modern world

Student: Mariela Giribaldi

Love, love, love. Love is everywhere around the world and many of our daily things are connected to love. We listen to songs about it, we watch movies about it, we talk about it, we even have problems with it. But what is love? What does this four-letter word mean? I don’t have the answer. And probably nobody has it. But love is good for us for sure. If not, the world wouldn’t be surrounded by it. Love wouldn’t be as important as it is for our lives. The paradox for me takes place when I see that in a world that is dependent on love, in theory, it is hard to find people dependent on love, in practise. What I mean is that love is in the air, but not on the Earth.

I like love. What’s more, I believe in love. I always think about my grandparents’ relationships. Although when I was born one of my grannies was a widower and one of my grandfathers was a widow, they both talked about their couples with a feeling of loyalty, pride and honour that was almost worship. I would listen to their love stories for hours and hours. My granny’s story was about a long ship journey, a new country, a new life and a beloved man and my grandfather’s was about two political rival families somewhere inland Argentina, and two young people who escaped to get married. Both stories are worth being a romantic film each one.

That´s why I really enjoy a movie in particular: Up (2009). Ellie and Carl Fredickson are a couple and, when his wife passes away, Carl decides to make their dream come true: to visit Paradise waterfalls in South America. In order to achieve this, Carl ties thousands of balloons to his house to fly away and get to this magical place. With the company of Russel –an eight-year old scout-, Carl undertakes his journey and overcomes different kind of obstacles. He also meets new friends as Dug –a dog- and Kevin –a strange three-meter high bird-.

Carl and Ellie have some ups and downs through their common history. However, their feelings are never in doubt. Up portrays the kind of relationship that children need to see. In a world where everything is in crisis, endless love seems to be in crisis, too and for children, it’s not common to see couples that last for many years: most of them come from split families and they even do not believe that a person can choose another one to be his or her partner in life. I believe that those old values such as honour, loyalty and pride to people should be rescued and Up is a good example of them.

I think that there two main causes of divorce nowadays. The first one is the economic problems that people face. We have to work many hours to get the money we need for our life. Everything seems to be fine as long as the money is enough. But when we don’t cover our needs with our salary, problems begin and most couples are not capable of overcoming them. The second reason is the lack of patience of our globalized society. In a world where people have no time to waste, where everything takes place in seconds, couples do not give themselves the time they need in every sense. They do not spend time together sharing “common” things as, for example, dinner time. They neither give each other the time they need until the storm passes when problems arrive. They just separate and that’s it.

The two main characters in Up, Carl an Ellie, have the same problems that the rest of the couples have. They are not perfect, they are common people. But the good point is that they accompany each other, wait for the other and respect the other. And they choose each other again and again.  Although they do not have any child, they share the essence of a real family. That is exactly what modern families need. Because of all this, I think that this movie is a clear example of the lost values as loyalty, pride and honour to which we have to go back in our modern lives.

We should rethink all over again if we really think that those lost values are good for us. And that love is good for our society, too. I firmly believe they are and that they shouldn’t be lost anymore. They are good for us, for our families, for our children and for our future. Let’s place them on the Earth, not in the air!