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THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY

Sunday Ella and I just enjoyed a very charming movie, "The Hundred-foot Journey:" a romantic comedy spun around an exotic mix of food, culture, race and personal identity issues. The movie is set in the south of France in a quaint village surrounded by majestic mountains.

A family of immigrants from India had been driven from their homeland after the mother had been killed. They were searching for a sense of tranquility.

The widower who was a master of Indian cuisine opens a restaurant 100 feet away from a French restaurant of renown owned by a widow with an attitude. She detests her new competition because of the loud Bollywood music and the pungent smell of curry.

Added to the sights of delicious food there are romantic beautiful moments where the young immigrant son is smitten by a very attractive femme fatale sous chef and you have it all. Even the widow and widower decide to be more then friends and take dancing lessons to cement their relationships.

The movie has an undercurrent moments of tension where people of different cultures and beliefs are faced with the facts that each has choices to focus on the past while celebrating the new found reality of a diverse world made up a beautiful rainbow of colours cultures and people

We parents who are used to the status quo where are daughters and sons living in our shadows of ancient tradition is fading. Our children are more opened minded in their choice of friends, husbands and wives.

There is a multitude of races, colours, religions, nationalities to choose from, The young people do not focus on what makes them different rather choosing to look at what binds them together.

Our youth have chosen the path to love thy neighbour which is probably the hardest of the Ten Commandments to follow. You don’t stop respecting, accepting loving your fellow man when you find people of a different shade or whose eyes are oddly made.

For those who are not inclusive and accepting the new reality the world is shrinking with few places to try and hide to spread their words of dissension and exclusion. We all have a choices: you either embrace interfaith couples or you lose them altogether.

In Toronto the clergy for the most part are flexible and accommodate diversity into their marriage ceremonies. The city has become less religiously homogenous, encouraging more romantic partnerships that reflect the multi-culture tenure of the people.

I am happy that the world is changing for the better even though it can be two steps forward to peace and harmony and one step back to anger and mistrust. In the end the majority of our young people’s positive views of the world will prevail and to-morrow will be a better day. What a beautiful time lies ahead for our children/grandchildren.

Len Lesser