Moooooo

Have you ever heard of human herd mentality?  It's quite an interesting thing, really.  Essentially, it refers to the way a large group of people, when all together in a group, tend to act in the same way at the same time.  It also descibes how people are largely influenced by their peers (peer pressure).

Hector and I took the kids to see the movie Brave.  We got into our seats, and I remember thinking it was a tad bit strange that the movie was starting 15 minutes early.  As the first preview came onto the screen, Isaac told me that he needed to go to the bathroom.  I started to get up to take him, when I realized that the movie preview they were showing was for a Rated R movie.  And not just any Rated R, a movie about the serial murders of children.  Violent, horrible images started to flash up on the screen.  I grabbed Isaac and hurried him out of the theater.  By the time Isaac was done taking care of his business, everything that has just occurred had fully sunk in.  Instead of heading back to the theater, Isaac and I took a little stroll to the Guest Relations desk.  By the time I got there, 4 other parents had already beaten me there.  It would seem that the night before, when the movies were being programmed into their system, the wrong movie was programmed into the theater that we were in.  We were going to get to see a Rated R movie instead of Brave.  The theater's manager informed us that there was no way to turn off the movie, or to stop it from running.  He was handing out vouchers for us to come back at a later time to see the movie Brave.  I grabbed my vouchers and rushed back into the theater to get Hector, Samuel and Avery.  Four more inappropriate movie previews had been shown to a theater full of parents and their young children in the time that I was gone...

Now then, anyone who really knows me knows how much I love speaking in front of a large group of people (NOT!).  I stepped into the dark theater, with my 5 year old on my hip, and proceeded to tell the PACKED theater that they were about to see a Rated R movie.  As people started yelling at me, "What?", my voice started to shake and crack.

"They've programmed in the wrong movie.  You're not about to see Brave.  You're about to see Abraham Lincoln.  They can't stop it from running."

Even after I had told the entire theater what was happening, it shocked me just how many people, with their YOUNG children stayed right where they were, seated in the theater.  They were convinced that I didn't know what I was talking about.  That theater was supposed to show Brave.  So they were staying put.  And so I spoke up again...

"I've spoken to the theater's manager.  Your children are about to see Abraham Lincoln.  They are offering vouchers for a later movie."  Slowly, parents and grandparents started to get up. Still, some people remained in their seats.

I've never been witness to anything quite like it.  Some adults were handling it quite well.  Others were not.  But after it was all said and done, I marvled at how SO MANY adults sat in that theater and did nothing.  Maybe some of the parents who stayed in the theater questionned the previews.  Maybe some justified it by telling themselves that if other parents thought the Rated R movie previews were okay, well maybe it really was okay to continue sitting there.  I don't know.  But I found it amazing that even after I told them what was about to happen, that many of them still sat there and did nothing, not heeding my warning.

I guess in the end, I was kind of proud of myself.  Maybe I'm not such a follower after all.

We actually did wind up getting to see the movie Brave.  They were able to start it in an empty theater just a few minutes later. It's a wonderful movie - probably the best movie I've seen in a really long time.  At the end of the movie, the main character (named Merida) says something so profound that it really stuck with me, especially after everything we'd gone through with our initial movie-going experience.

"Your fate is inside you, if only you are brave enough to see it."

I love it!  When was the last time that you were brave?