Apollo 13

"You never know what events will transpire to get you home."

Apollo 13 is one of those movies that my husband and I always stop and watch if we're channel surfing and happen to find it on.  I love the story, the drama, the suspense, the history, Tom Hanks, and everything else about it.

My favorite scene is when Jim Lovell's (played by Tom Hanks) wife and family are watching the news stories on T.V. about the crisis happening to the space shuttle crew, and they show a clip of an interview with Tom Hanks.  The reporter asks him if there was a time in an air emergency when he felt fear.  Hank's wife moves closer to the T.V. and listens intently to his reply. 

He tells a story about how he was flying at night in combat conditions and the carrier he needed to land on had no lights, his homing signal wasn't working, and his maplight in his cockpit shorted out and caused all his instruments to shut off.  He didn't know if he was flying in the right direction and he's running out of fuel.  Then he looks down and sees a green glowing trail of phosphorescent algae which is only visible like that when a big ship passes through it and stirs it up.  He realized he could follow it and it would lead him to the carrier.

"It was leading me home.  You know?  If my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I'd ever been able to see that.  So uh, you never know what...what events are to transpire to get you home."

Life is full of shorts and malfunctions and things that don't go according to plan.  Chock full.  But sometimes it's the things that go wrong that lead us to just the right thing. 

My failed first marriage was a painful episode I don't ever want to repeat, but if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't be with the love of my life today.

My sister ended a 9 year relationship that she hadn't been happy in for a long time, and wasn't sure if she would ever find love again.  I can still remember her calling me from her car, crying, as she drove into town, leaving the relationship behind her, and wondering if she was doing the right thing.

She found a great guy and got married three years later.  And you know what song was playing as she walked down the aisle?  "Feels Like Home to Me" by Bonnie Raitt.  Is that mushy or what?

The other thing I love about the quote is the hope it gives his wife (played by Kathleen Quinlan).  She was sad and helpless and hearing those words from her husband gave her reason to hang on and believe that he was going to get through the oreal and be ok.

When our families are going through a tough time, sometimes the people we love need to hear us say that even though times are hard, we have hope.  They need to know that whatever the crisis is, we believe that we'll find our way through it and our family will be stronger for it.  They need for us to give them hope.

The "wicked shimmies" in life are what help get us home.  (Yeah, that's another Apollo 13 reference - I can't help it, I've seen it a zillion times!)

Thanks to imbd for the full dialogue between Tom Hanks and reporter.