You can diminish painful differences between people by being courageous, being kind, and receiving the kindness of others.
That’s message of my Toastmasters winning speech “Terribly and Continually Conspicuous”—the one I’ve worked on for months—the speech with which I won the district Toastmasters International Speech Contest this year.
It’s also the message of The Shape of Water—
The award-winning film directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer.
As I’ve felt my way through the memories (of my year as an exchange student in Peru) to find this message, I’ve understood how important it is to my own life. The Shape of Water let me know the message has universal importance.
In the film’s Special Features, the movie is called “A Fairy Tale for a Troubled World.” Guillermo de Toro wanted to make a story to feed and heal the heart of our troubled world. The Shape of Water is that story.
I came to this film without knowing it is this year’s “Best Picture” Oscar winner. I’ve known Guillermo del Toro to be a unique voice in film direction, and the cast list is stellar. Ergo I wanted to see it.
Part magical realism (a la Gabriel Garcia Marquez), part fantasy, part Beauty-and-the-Beast retold, The Shape of Water is full of heart. Sally Hawkins plays the main character— Eliza Esposito—she’s the audience’s way in to the tale. Her fresh way of seeing the world, her intuition that “the creature” is good and worth knowing, her ability to communicate with it through sign language, music, and dance, and her immediate need to rescue it from imminent destruction, won my heart.
I’m not so fond of the film’s violence, but it’s a necessary part of this story. Violence is often our reaction to painful difference.
That’s the reaction we’d like to eradicate—preferably with courage and kindness.
I’m grateful to The Shape of Water for framing the importance of Courage and Kindness for me in an even larger way.
Coach’s Challenge:
Watch The Shape of Water. First: enjoy it as the masterful artistic rendition it is, and as an excellent story. Next: wrap yourself in the power of courage and kindness, and carry them forth into your larger life.
