Went to watch, "Where to Invade Next" with my daughter. Her teacher told the class she'd give anyone who saw it and wrote a paper on it extra credit, but honestly, when my kiddo and I watched the trailer, we were both hooked on the idea of seeing it, anyway.

I won't lie - I LOVE having a kiddo who will watch documentaries and educational films with me, especially controversial ones.

I would encourage everyone to see this movie. Seriously. Even if you dislike or disagree with the ideas presented, it's really important to stop and evaluate WHY those ideas make you so uncomfortable.

The film challenged some of my own thoughts and beliefs, which was awesome because it helped give me an understanding of just how we've come to this place as a nation. No one likes to be told, "Hey, what you're doing is actually creating results opposite of what you want to see." (And that's mildly putting it... some of the messages are a LOT more "in your face"!)

I felt a little bad for my daughter who walked out of the theater feeling despondent and defeated. She made some comment like, "I feel like I should just leave the US and go to a better country!" That was a GREAT jumping point for a conversation, though, because a huge part of the reason some of the highlighted countries were doing so much better is NOT because they quit and went somewhere else, or because they just always WERE better, but rather because someone said, "This is BS!" and they FOUGHT to make a change. In some instances, like Finland with it's education system, they had to fuss around a bit and try different things before they landed on an answer that worked for them.

I think this is really what rebuilding a marriage is all about.

Some folks sort of think, "My spouse messed up, so I'm outta here," whether it's infidelity or they just get into a fight over something stupid or a million other things. We're such a throw away society that the answer to marriage is to just bail if things aren't perfect, rather than fighting to make things better.

I'm not saying every person should stay in every marriage. Nor am I saying every relationship can be fixed. However, I DO think that giving up just because things aren't all roses and sunshine is never going to result in a happy marriage. Even if one does find a "better" partner the next time around, that partner and that relationship will also have issues. Working on those issues has huge merit.

At any rate, my kiddo was still pretty beaten down until I brought up to her that it's not about changing the entire country all at once, it's about making changes in OURSELVES to make things better. It's about being a better neighbor, a better student, a better friend, and making better choices. And yep... this relates back to marriage, too. When faced with stacks of marital issues (because honestly, it's VERY rarely just ONE thing!) it's really hard to face that mountain. It's absolutely impossible if you're looking at it as, "How do I move this giant mountain... TODAY..." because it just doesn't work that way.

I look forward to talking to my daughter more about this in the coming days and seeing how her thoughts evolve with a little time and thought. By the time we were home and had a chance to chat about it a little, it was interesting to see how much her mind set had changed in such a short amount of time. She was already thinking about how SHE could become part of the bigger WE before she ever went to bed, and how she wanted to write about that.

And yeah. That too is a transformation that must happen in order for a marriage to become successful, you know?