Hidden Figures

Going to a movie is a treat for me.  Usually we don't have time to drive to Lafayette to go to a movie.  When we do drive to Lafayette, it really isn't to Lafayette; it is to Pyrmont or Frankfort or for a doctor's appointment and then to see the kids.  Visiting the grandchildren is more important to us than going to a movie.

Well, times have changed.  Now we have more flexibility and can work in a movie now and then.  Today we went to see Hidden Figures at the theater by Pizza Hut.

What a fantastic movie!  I was captured from the very beginning.  I had focused so much on the three actresses in the promos that I had no idea that Kevin Costner and Jim Parsons were portraying key characters in the story.  The references to the space program and especially to my favorite two astronauts, John Glenn and Gus Grissom, were meaningful for me, and I think Gary enjoyed that aspect as well.

Two things to note:  The title.  Hidden Figures - double meaning.  "figures" can mean working with numbers and that is what the three women were doing. "Figures" can mean key people also.  These three women were key components of the successful space program.

The second thing is this:  recently the Women's March in Washington DC and other large cities across the United States and even in other countries has made the news.  Women are marching for equal rights for women, for being able to have abortions and obtain free birth control, and to protest the election and inauguration of our President.  Many women marched and if they didn't march, voiced their support for those who did.  Many women also expressed their disgust at some of the costumes, threats and crude remarks made by some women in the entertainment industry, and cited the lack of freedoms many women in other countries endure.    My thought was this - the three Hidden Figures inn the movie and their 'colored' co-workers made more strides for equality by their actions, their patience, and their perseverence than the women who marched over the weekend.  And they did it peacefully.  And many women reaped the benefits of their actions.

If you haven't seen the movie, plan to do so.