Hugh Jackman is so cool

I saw Wolverine last night. Part of me loves it and part of me really doesn't. I love that in all his bruskness his character always chooses good when it comes right down to it. Even when seemingly justified in his anger he pauses and realizes he still has a choice. (Watch End of the Spear! Completely AWESOME. Reminds me of this message.) I love the old man's reminder of this in the barn scene. And I love his girl. (How often do you get a non-dizty, non-slutty, non-naggy, down-to-earth female role? Awesome. What happens to her? She better show up again...=oP) This is one of the main themes I try to teach my 2nd graders--that you can step back and metacognitively see what's happening and choose to do something good, even when it seems hard. These are the kind of "Hollywood Heroes" I'm glad there are for kids these days. (Or for grown-up kids who...still...love X-Men...(me).)

I love what I feel is the main underlying message--summed up: that in any group of people there are those who choose to do good with their lives, and there are those who don't. Minorities cannot be blanket-statement judged. And shouldn't be blanket-feared, either. Misunderstandings and unfair judgements come from not knowing a person or people. The more we truly know someone, no matter how seemingly different, we will find that there are much more similarities than differences--much more to love than one might at first realize.

It was pretty violent though.

Anyway...I'm looking into some things I want to do with my summer and have found so many cool charities and volunteer groups. This morning I read in NY Times that Hugh Jackman started a contest on Twitter--people would let him know in 140 words or less why he should donate to their favorite charity. He ended up giving $100,000 to these two charities:

Well funded by Saks Fifth Avenue Chicago. from charity: water on Vimeo.

This somehow makes Hugh Jackman even nicer looking. (His eyebrows are so cool.) Don't you think we need more men like Hugh Jackman? Pretty sure we do. =o)