Not Official Girl Scouts

The movie carefully avoided making the girl any kind of official, existing scout.

No need to quibble with Girl Scout regs, therefore.

Shula | 1 year, 10 months ago
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I Agree, Marlo- take

I honestly think that this wouldn’t happen in real life, the little boy going to such lengths to return the cookies. I wish I had that kind of integrity. I’d probably do what you said, Marlo, take them home and if I didn’t know the girl and couldn’t find her, I’d keep them. I probably sound evil or something, but how much can you really do if you couldn’t locate the person? An ad in the paper could maybe help, but even that can only do so much and ads are expensive. People would probably vandalize paper signs like Mandy and Lester made, tear them down or something.

Nicole Baumgartner | 1 year, 10 months ago
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Oh, Marlo, it IS so.

Marlo, there are many, many people in the world who would go to such great lengths. I am one of them, and my 5 year old son is another. I’m no saint, but I do try and have gone to great lengths to return items, and generally help those in need. I do not have enough savings to purchase a house, and yet I give money to charities which help those most in need. I spend time talking to my neighbors who are elderly and lonely, and even some “off” types who are good people but who maybe don’t adhere to social norms because they’re a little skewed in the head. I daily sacrifice career choices to spend time with my kids – learn who they are and listen to their worries and dreams. I am always open to criticism and always ask the question can I be a better human being in the world.

Generally speaking, movies, books, stories of one kind or another, are allegories meant to encourage us to look within and ask what would WE do, not whether or not “that would happen.”

I do agree most people in this country suck – materialism, greed and avarice abound so much that this little film is touching – it should be boring because that sort of behavior is commonplace.

But I have to say, the saying is true that the world is what you make of it. The more kindness and thoughtfulness and SELF SACRIFICE I put out there the more comes back to me. Those nasty, tight-faced Gucci-greedy women with their stern looks and bodies racked with tension who are so horridly rude to retail personnel – they bother me less and less – I see them as isolating themselves from life, running from death with such fervor and terror – you can see the terror in their eyes – that they’re missing each day of their own life. I see the tragedy in their eyes, the estranged children, the eroded esophagus from binging and purging. They’re lost and all their airs of superiority only serve to further isolate them from the life the so desperately want to hold on to forever. Their angry husbands bullying their way through life – massive coronary at 45 – I don’t even SEE these guys any more – they’re like invisible to me. If I encounter one in my work, I won’t give them my business nor take theirs, either.

Life is about making connections, positive connections with others, not superiority over them, nor the attainment of more cookies, not the voracious and conspicuous consumption.

I come from wealth, but have none of my own and likely will not inherit any. I have attended elite schools and lived among the very rich, old money and new, and I can tell you that money does not a happy person make. Possession is empty – it gives a false sense of security which must be perpetually refreshed. I have seen so much alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide and low self-esteem in those communities it’s just STUNNING. Wealth, possession – they are empty pursuits. Sure – take care of yourself and your family – you don’t have to live in a hut with a dirt floor.

But…

Ask yourself, – would the film have been so compelling, so fulfilling, if we had watched the boy sit down and eat the cookies while he watched “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” on the Disney Channel? Nope.

THAT’s what this film is about. Choices. Ultimately, YOUR DAILY choices.

So take this film, this simple, predictable, adorable little story, and ask yourself how you can be more the person you admire in the film. The world can change, one person at a time, and if you work to bring all the good in yourself out into the world, if you really sacrifice your time and money to help others, the rewards are, well, beyond any monetary value.

If you want to be cynical, then ask yourself why Liberty Mutual is running this campaign. Would Liberty Mutual hunt you down if they found YOUR cookies???????????? But, whatever. It’s a great campaign and maybe it’ll make a few people take a look at their lives.

Mike McKee | 1 year, 10 months ago
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