Last weekend I watched a stupid movie with my son and my daughter in law. \u00a0My son is involved with the world of medical care, and my daughter-in-law is director of a preschool. They both spend a lot of time worrying about how to make the world a better place. \u00a0The day we saw the movie had been a hard day, the world was a mess, <\/span>their jobs<\/span> were filled with stress, and even getting their kids to bed on time had been a trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

I suggested that we watch a movie that had no socially redeeming content<\/span>, \u00a0<\/span>Guardians<\/span> of the Galaxy<\/span>. \u00a0This was not their usual fare. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t a cook healthy show or a how to declutter show–which is as light as the two of them usually get. \u00a0My son was skeptical. My daughter-in-law only agreed provided she could tune out and read.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty minutes into the movie (note: I am not saying \u201cfilm\u201d because this movie has not earned that epithet.) my son was laughing. My daughter-in-law had put aside her book and was saying \u201cI want a Groot. \u00a0Can we get a Groot?\u201d She had fallen in love with the sentient plant in the movie who only could say three words of <\/span>dialogue<\/span>,\u201c<\/span>I<\/span> am Groot,\u201d over and over again. Both of them were getting teary eyed at the movie\u2019s really <\/span>cliched<\/span>, shallow \u201cmoments of meaning.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes getting teary eyed without any emotional depth is fun. \u00a0Sometimes we just have to pause. To put on hold the worry, the self judgment, the feeling that one cannot rest even for an hour or the world will be damaged. \u00a0\u00a0The banner in front of the CRSL states, Reflect Resist Rejuvenate. Rejuvenate is the linchpin to resistance and reflection. <\/span><\/p>\n

We cannot do the work we need to do in this world without downtime and a little <\/span>silliness.The<\/span> world is broken and we are all called to fix it. \u00a0When we care deeply however, we are always at risk of burning ourselves out. We need to resist resistance every once in <\/span>awhile<\/span>. To leave the complexities behind just for a moment and declare<\/span>, \u00a0\u201c<\/span>I am Groot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rhonda Shapiro-<\/span>Rieser<\/span> is the Jewish Student Adviser at Smith.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend I watched a stupid movie with my son and my daughter in law. \u00a0My son is involved with the world of medical care, and my daughter-in-law is director of a preschool. They both spend a lot of time … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":1643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[114,257,184,236],"coauthors":[269],"class_list":["post-1642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-posts","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness","tag-spirituality","tag-stress-relaxation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1653,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642\/revisions\/1653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1642"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}