TRUE OR FALSE? Deciding what is true and what is not true in the world is a struggle. Every news program has its own perspective. Defining who the heroes and villains are is more often dictated by our political leaning than by what used to be the facts. We now live in a world of alternative facts and we are the worse for it. FINDING THE LOST KING While searching for something to satisfy my Netflix obsession (although I actually found it on Amazon Prime) I discovered an interesting take on finding the truth in The Lost King, a film about a woman’s search for the body of King Richard III. Richard was the English king portrayed by Shakespeare as a ruthless hunchback, who was as ugly on the inside as he was on the outside. But was he really the nasty royal we have come to revile? The film is the true story of Philippa Langley, one of the screen writers, who chronicled her successful search for the grave of this infamous king. She received world wide recognition as part of the team that located Richard III’s remains in a parking lot in Leicester England. THE REAL HEROS Due to her tenacious commitment and extensive research she not only found Richard’s body, she fought for his recognition as a true English monarch. Although she is an amateur historian, Philippa managed to succeed where the professionals had failed. She was motivated by her experiences of being ignored and devalued because of her own physical limitations and she sympathized with the way Richard was treated in the history books because of his deformity. As it turns out, Richard’s remains revealed that he had scoliosis and was not a hunchback as Shakespearean literature indicated. Although he was vilified by the Tudors who succeeded him, in order to boost their own royal identity, Philippa found that Richard, last of the Plangent Kings, was as much a hero as a villain. Philippa seems like a hero to me as well. She did not let the people who dismissed her as different and unknowledgeable, because of her age, gender, and psychological and physical handicaps, stop her from pursuing the truth. Truth can be illusive. I tend to be wary of people who claim to have the only true understanding of anything. But I also believe in pursuing the truth in the way that Philippa Langley did, by digging into historical documents and making comparisons. She did not take for granted what the experts said. Instead she looked at history with a new vision, open to the possibilities that some of the accepted facts were not accurate. TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES We are now in the process of making history. We are moving into another election cycle where the truth will be bandied about and the process of deciding who are the heroes and who are the villains will be front and center. I try to keep up with the latest news and information from as many sources as I can and compare who is covering what on the different networks and how their perspective influences their facts. Of course I have my own prejudices but I want to make my decisions in a thoughtful way. I am aware that those decisions will affect not only my future but also the future of our country. I love when I find a movie like The Lost King. It brings history to life and makes me realize that the search for the truth has been going on for centuries. For me, looking for the truth involves trying to find a new understanding of the way the world works and what my place in it is. I would love to uncover some major new discovery like Philippa Langley, but I am happy to just keep an open mind to what the truth might be in the past, the present and the future. I believe it is possible to get closer to finding the truth when we open our hearts and minds.
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Leslie Masona woman in search of her post-retirement future Guess what! By subscribing, you get notices about the latest Little Old Lady with Cats posts sent to your mailbox!
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