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December 5, 2015

Faith in Uncertainty: Love Lessons from James Bond.

James Bond

Last Tuesday night I took myself to the movies.

Cheap night. I frequent the cinema no more than five times a year. The last film I went to see was…

Spectre.

I am drawn to the Bond series for many of the same reasons millions of others are: Daniel Craig, fast cars, big guns, sex and beautiful women. It’s like a shot of testosterone right to the vein. The edge-of-your-seat action is exhilarating.

White tuxedos, lacy push-up bras, tight buns and beautiful breasts—the voice in my second chakra whispers, meow.

I am a woman and a feminist. After I see a Bond film I leave the theatre feeling powerful and sexy, fired up and turned on. I also leave the theatre feeling conflicted—conflicted between feminism and Bond-ism—wondering if I’m even allowed to be experiencing both.

I rinse the sex off my hands, give my head a shake and remember that curated Hollywood action is not a power source to draw from. So much of that big (motion) picture is unattainable and unsustainable.

That feeling of sexiness—my power—exists within me. It doesn’t come from the outside.

I question what it is that draws so many of us to these films. Why is 007 such an icon?

What I’ve come up with is this: Bond never doubts himself. He walks straight toward what he wants.

(Or drives there in 009’s bulletproof Porsche).

Confidence is deadly attractive. It comes from knowing and owning our power. It transpires when we stand in this power. It’s magnetic. It’s beautiful to watch—especially on a big screen.

This is why we love Bond.

I love Spectre, because it doesn’t leave me conflicted. I left the theatre feeling powerful and sexy, fired up and turned on—with my feminism intact.

Not only does Spectre deliver the Bond we all love, it delivers two Bonds: 007 and Madeleine Swann, an incredibly strong, healthy, stunning female lead who is just as bada** as Bond himself. Swann actually saves Bond’s life two thirds of the way through the movie.

Unlike every other Bond film to date, in Spectre, Bond doesn’t walk off the screen solo. He does not choose a life alone to protect his power. Swann actually walks away from Bond. She walks away from an incredibly powerful, yet isolating and lonely life—the only one she has ever known—to begin to nurture her own heart.

She walks towards a life without layers of armor, a life where she can let her heart be seen. And somehow, she inspires Bond to do the same.

This scene doesn’t transpire without the drama and action we all love, but in the end they exit the screen hand in hand. We are left with the exposition of a love between two powerful peers, a love between equals.

There’s a softness to this scene that is more powerful than any other in the film. They have both chosen to be vulnerable to the uncertainty that is love.

This Bond is more powerful than any other 007 in history for having faith in this uncertainty. He walks straight toward what he wants, but this time wearing his heart for cuff links.

Spectre showed me that even in a world full of guns and ammunition, vodka and cigars, fast cars and push-up bras, all that people truly want is love.

This kind of power, generated by the love between two people, requires deep love for the self.

In a recent conversation with a friend, I learned something about power. She described to me that she had paper mâché-d her essence. Our essence is our power. Our essence is love; it is the one thing that connects us all.

We are wildly different on the outside, but this thing called love is the same inside us all.

We paper mâché our essence. We adorn ourselves—especially in the Western World—in layers of protection. Diamonds to reflect the light of others instead of absorb it. Stilettos to lift us off the ground so we’re further from the pain of Mother Earth. Tuxedo jackets to confine our auras where our beautiful power becomes contagious.

We adorn ourselves in an attempt at both self-expression and protection.

Beneath all of our adorning armor—the layers of paper mâché—exists our power. The more our wearable tapestry reflects who we are, the easier it is for us to access this power. And it is when we are able to stand in our power that we are most capable of love.

Love. Is. Power.

Get naked. Find it. Use it. This is the power that will give us global sovereignty. This is the power that will save our Mother Earth. This is the power that will gift us the present moment.

To love and be loved, by both ourselves and others, is absolute freedom.

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Relephant:  

4 Reasons Why we should Indulge in Self-Love.

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Author: Savannah Robinson

Apprentice Editor: Sarah Snedaker / Editor: Toby Israel

Image: Johan Oomen/Flickr

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