Mother of Outcasts, Madonna of the Unloved

AMELIE Poulain is the Godmother of the Outcasts, Madonna of the Unloved. She can’t relate to other people. She was always a lonely child. She would rather imagine herself relating to an absent person than build real relationships with those around her.

I am very much like her who’s afraid to take real risk but she showed me that there is still beauty left in my vintage aspirant black and white world.

The future looked dreary to me in the pre-Amélie days. I was neither happy nor unhappy and that was why I needed intervention. I felt like dust, invisible to the eye but when piled after the other, makes dust clumps just for barely existing. Polluting the world since 1995.

I know that I’m a very pessimistic and cynical person, so just excuse me for breathing.

Moving on so I won’t bore you with my talking, I was just casually surfing the internet (otherwise known as my fantasy dimension where I see people that I’ll probably never meet in real life, read about stories that no one is interested in and saving the pictures of celebrities and models that I look up to in an insecure and twisted kind of way) when I came across a very interesting list.

The title of the list was ’20 Movies to See before You Commit Suicide’.

My reaction after reading the title was, ‘What the hell? Who has time to watch movies when they want to die?’ But I clicked it anyway and came across Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, which literally translates to The Fabulous Life of Amélie Poulain. That’s Amélie to you, non-French movie watchers.

The long story short, I searched for a site where I could watch it. (Hint: Youtube)

The movie is basically about Amélie Poulain who is an innocent and naïve girl in Paris. With her own sense of justice, she decides to help those around her and along the way, discovers love. I won’t go into details because that’s what the movie is for. It’s a sweet French film which reminded me of the simplicity of human life and emotions.

The movie showed life at its rawest form. It reminded me that the best things in life are not seen but felt. That simplicity is better than a lot of luxuries that are of no use and that love could be found in the most unexpected places. It reminded me to enjoy the little pleasures and mercies of life and for that I am grateful.

It made me think long and hard about where I am now in my life. I have come to realize that I am the books I read, the movies I watch, the music I listen to, the people I meet, the dreams I have, and the conversations I engage in. I am what I take from these. I am the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. I am a collection of every experience I’ve had in my life. I am every single day.

Somehow, I am glad that Raphaël Poulain’s sperm with one X chromosome made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine because nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born. My hero was born.

So I am going to drown myself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through my veins and let the techni-colored world fill my mind.

Eileen Guibone, Daughter of the Outcast, Madonna of the Unwanted has finally found a reason for shedding her ugly view on life and start seeing it in a fresh new perspective, all thanks to the woman herself, Amélie Poulain.(Eileen May M. Guibone, Development Communication student of Xavier University)