This was truly a beautiful movie. The main line that stood out to me was, "I'm not very ambitious. Is that a sin?"
Stephen Hawking is very ambitious (obviously). The choir director Jonathan is not, but he is doing something that he loves, he's helping people, and he's falling in love. And that seems like a good enough life to me.
I should be talking about the beautiful story of love in the movie: how Jane loved Stephen so much that she chose to be with him even after knowing the circumstances, and they had only been dating a short time! Love is so powerful. Seems it can get us to do anything, and it's cool when it gets us to do something truly good. But I wonder if she would have stayed with him if he didn't have a disease, like if they had just continued to date in the regular college way, would she maybe have broken up with him because of his lack of belief in God and things? She seemed much more compatible with Jonathan, or someone like that anyways, someone a little more down-to-earth and laid back.
Anyways, it's not really worth analyzing. Jane did a lot for Stephen, and how great that he had her. She really did love him, and that kind of sacrificial love is so rare and beautiful. So maybe we women do like to help men and "fix them" or "save them" or whatever, but I don't think it's as wrong as everybody acts like it is. It's in our nature to be caring, and when someone comes along our path we want to care for, why not? Especially if we love them.
Jonathan wanted to help Stephen and Jane, and that was fueled by romantic love as well. But who cares? Again, if romantic love can motivate you to do something truly good, I think that's the best kind.
Even Elaine, Stephen's later caretaker, you could tell she truly enjoyed him. I don't know if she had romantic feelings for him or not, but you could see that taking care of him gave her energy. She really liked it, whereas by that point Jane had been drained from it.
I'm not here to analyze if what Stephen and Jane did in and with their marriage was right, but it is interesting to note that I think it's okay if our lives are driven by love, as long as it's leading us to good, to true love I guess, which is really more about giving and serving.
But also I think all true love comes from God. He was the one that loved us first and gave us the ability to have that for others, so to not acknowledge Him... I just couldn't do that. I love Jane's heart for God and for doing the right thing. She's not perfect, but then, "No one is good--except God alone" (Mark 10:18b, NIV).
The part in Stephen Hawking's speech where someone asks him about his disbelief in God and if he has a philosophy that helps him, honestly I didn't understand what his philosophy was. Usually when people try to give an answer for hope that's not God, it usually sounds wordy and confusing, though perhaps eloquent sort of, and then people clap. People love when you have something "beautiful" to say about life that doesn't make you have to acknowledge a being you have to obey and submit to. But what they don't know is that obedience and submission to God is where we find true life and hope and freedom, and true love.
