When the heart rules the head, disaster follows.

by Grace Crawford

Images courtesy of Perdido Productions and Sony Pictures Classics.

Comparing love to magic isn’t exactly a unique idea, but it’s easy to see the truth in it. It does seem miraculous how you can be reduced to a stammering mess, how clear thinking can become muddled by the smell of another person’s cologne or the flash of a mischievous smile, how your courage disappears when it’s confronted with a face patiently waiting to hear how you feel about the person it belongs to.

But if you look at the trick for long enough, it’s easy for the wonder to vanish. You become so comfortable with the other person that the glossy, shiny pages of your story together start to look wrinkled and dog-eared. You see the person’s flaws so clearly that you wonder how you could have ignored them for so long. Probably one of you has farted in front of the other without bothering to cover it with a cough.

And when we reach that point, it’s also easy to believe that we never loved the other person in the first place. Because we love feeling the magic, and when it’s gone, we start to wonder if it was ever really there at all. And maybe we might start looking for a new source of magic, starting the whole delightful cycle all over again.

Continue reading →

by Grace Crawford

Images courtesy of Red Wagon Entertainment, Summit Entertainment
Mandeville Films, and Lionsgate.

If you haven’t seen Divergent, you’d better check out my review or you’ll be just as confused as Fiancé was when I dragged him along. If you haven’t seen it but are in a particularly stubborn mood, go ahead and read, but don’t get mad at me when you don’t understand stuff. If you have seen it, fabulous; you have my blessing to read. If you’re getting peeved at this disclaimer, just shut up and read already.

Insurgent picks up a short time after the events of Divergent. Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Peter have found refuge with the Amity faction, which disintegrates pretty quickly once Eric finds them and Peter betrays their presence. Tris, Tobias, and Caleb run into a group of factionless aboard a supply train, and Tris discovers that Tobias is the son of Evelyn Eaton, presumed dead but very much alive and the leader of the factionless.

Continue reading →

by Grace Crawford

Images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

I have always believed that if we are good and kind and brave, we’ll be rewarded for it. That’s why (even if I’m not always successful at it) I always try to do what I can for others, and I feel bad when my good intentions don’t amount to very much.

That’s a pretty common truth. Sometimes, no matter how well-meaning our intentions are, it’s still possible to let others down because of some deep flaw in ourselves, whether it’s as innocuous as time management or as nefarious as self-sabotage because we don’t really believe we’re worthy of being rewarded.

But sometimes, perhaps more frequently than we might like to admit, we let others down because their expectations of us are too high. And yet we keep striving, keep aiming for that impossible approval, keep on trying to be good and kind and respectful in spite of the obstacles placed in front of us, whether by everyday life or by the very people we’re trying to help.

Because still we desperately hope, way down in the deepest parts of us, that no matter how hard life gets or how much it gets us down, we’ll be rewarded for our efforts.

Continue reading →