2 Hours and 11 Kleenexes Later

I have seen I am Sam.  I sat on the couch and cried through most of the movie.  I'm fairly certain my fiance's shirt sleeve is considerably damper than it was earlier in the evening...

I am emotionally exhausted at this moment, yet at the same time uplifted.

What a heart wrenchingly beautiful story of a mentally retarded man and his daughter Lucy - his fight for custody.

He may not have the brains of a rocket scientist but he knows how to be exactly the daddy Lucy needs simply because he loves her.  This is a movie that speaks to the depths of human character because it speaks the simplest, yet most profound language ever known: love.

It seems like such a simple task.  To love someone.

And yet, it is so hard.

How can his lawyer Rita love her son Willie?  She is so wrapped up in her work and not having enough time that she cannot help but let her own son slip away from her life!  How can her husband love her?  He's lost his love and replaced her with someone else, leaving Rita feeling empty, lacking, not good enough.

They have failed in the most important part of life.

Mr. Turner, the prosecutor in favor of sending Lucy to a foster family, also cannot see that Sam has the most sought after and rare gift a parent can have.  Instead, he asks essentially the same question over and over again: "how can you help Lucy when she's already smarter than you?"

He doesn't realize that parenting, that family, is not about knowing the multiplication tables.  It's not about being able to tutor your child in history.  There's something much more fundamental.

When at the stand, Sam's simplicity of thought is canonized in eloquent wisdom:
"I...
have had a lot
of time, see, to...
think about what it is...
that makes somebody
a good parent...
and it's about constancy...
and it's about...
patience,
and it's about listening...
and it's about
pretending to listen...
even when
you can't listen anymore.
And it's about love,
like she said."

It's about love.

And Lucy has learned this, the msot important lesson possible in life from her mentally retarded father.  She keeps running back to her daddy because she loves him, too.  She's learned that love is a deep and powerful commitment, one that demands patience, constancy, and the determination never to let the rest of the world separate you from that person.

Couldn't we all learn from Sam?  

All you need is love.