Stay Gold

Spoiler Alert!!

Last night I watched The Outsiders for the first time. I've never read the book, and didn't really know the story at all.

My mom watched the movie for the first time when she was about 10 or 11 at her friend's house for a birthday party.

After I watched the original Karate Kid movies (the ones with Ralph Macchio), Mom told me that I should watch the Outsiders, because Ralph Macchio is also in that movie.

I was not expecting the movie to be so sad.



I didn't cry during the movie. But afterwards, while I was lying in bed, still awake and thinking about the movie, I started thinking about all the ways that Johnny and Dally could have survived, and yeah, I cried a little bit.

Johnny's death was really sad to me for several reasons. One reason is because he was Ralph Macchio, and I really didn't want him to die. Another reason is because I liked his character from the beginning. I mean, yes, he killed that guy, but he seemed like he really wanted to be better than just a rough Greaser. He wanted more.

Dally's death was also very sad. I guessed from the beginning of the movie that he would probably end up dead, but I didn't think I would care as much. I mean, in the beginning of the movie, I kind of just saw him as a jerk who was trying to mess with Cherry. I liked Ponyboy and Johnny for standing up against Dally for the girls, and I was really glad when Dally left. I expected the movie to be about Johnny and Ponyboy breaking away from Dally, and realizing what a jerk he was, and in the end Dally would be left on his own, or dead, and Johnny and Ponyboy would be able to hang out with those girls and everything would be okay for them.

Boy, was I wrong.

After Johnny killed that guy who was trying to drown Ponyboy, they ran to Dally, asking him for help. I half expected Dally to turn them in for a reward, or refuse to help them, or even try and make them pay, but he didn't. He just gave them instructions on where to hide until the coast was clear and he could come help them.

And he did help them. He didn't leave them high and dry like I thought he would. He, in his own way, was trying to protect Johnny and Ponyboy. They weren't blood kin, but in his eyes they were family. The Greasers stuck together throughout the whole movie, they looked out for each other. Johnny and Ponyboy may have seen things a little differently than everyone seemed to see them, but they still stuck by their Greaser friends, because that is just what they were supposed to do.

When Dally died, it was because he was so upset with Johnny's death, and how meaningless he thought it was. If it hadn't been for Ponyboy and Johnny running into that burning building, Dally would have just kept on driving. But he didn't, he stopped and ran in there too, because he wanted to protect his friends.

It got me to thinking, Johnny probably would have ended up just as hard and cold as Dally one day. They had very similar backgrounds, parents who didn't care, poor families, hated on by the rich kids, always stuck as a Greaser. The only difference is that Johnny had Ponyboy.

Dally probably cried at night too, because of how lonely and rejected he felt by his parents. But he learned to protect himself against a hard world by pretending he didn't care about anyone else.

But clearly he did.

When Johnny died, Dally seemed to take it harder than anyone else, even Ponyboy, Johnny's best friend.

To the rest of the world, Dally was just a good for nothing Greaser who started fights and tried to pick up women. But to the Greasers who knew him, he was Dally, their friend and protector, he was like their brother.

Nobody from the outside could know what Dally had been through, and even all of Dally's friends didn't know everything that Dally had been through.

I'm not saying that the way Dally treated women was right, or that he did the right thing by hiding fugitives from the law, or that he should have stolen from that shop because he was angry and upset. He shouldn't have done any of those things, but the fact is that he did, and that was the way he dealt with things.

One of my friends recently posted on Facebook, asking why people are so judgmental, and why can't we all just get along?

I may not agree with everything a person does. Heck, most of the time I don't agree with most of what people do. But that doesn't mean that I have to be a jerk to them.

Sometimes people we know, or even strangers, might snap at us, or take our things, or get on our nerves, or do something that really is hurtful, like hit us.

Our natural reaction is to yell and fight back. But if you really stop and think about it a minute, you might not yell back. Why would they do that to you? Are they really just being a jerk, or are they trying to protect themselves?

I am terrified of fire. When I was in kindergarten, before I was homeschooled, I had to watch videos and look at pictures of little kids who had died in house fires. I was only 5 years old, and those images still haunt me to this day.

I am also afraid of water. When I was 5 or 6, I was in the pool with my girl scout troop, and I asked them to take my life jacket off. I was not a very good swimmer, but they didn't know that. They took it off, and when I got in the water, I jumped in way over my head and they had to come and get me, because I couldn't swim back to the surface myself.

I stay out of deep water, because I am terrified of drowning. I don't sleep in the winter because I lay awake worried that the chimney might catch fire and burn down the house.

If someone belittled me for those fears, I would probably avoid that person like the plague. I would be angry and think "They don't know what I've been through, they're just being a jerk."

I know I don't like it when people judge me before they know me, or when they make fun of me for something that they don't understand about me, so why would I do it to other people?

People post anti-bullying things all the time, and we read them, but really, do we pay attention?

"That guy is such a jerk, did you hear what he said to me?"

Okay, maybe he really is just a jerk. Or maybe he's trying to be the bully because he used to be the victim. Maybe he thinks the only way to protect himself is to be the one who is hurting others, so he doesn't get hurt himself.

So then, you're a jerk to that guy, you trip him, or spread rumors about him, or even just give him angry malicious looks when you pass him. All that you did was confirm in his mind that the only way to protect himself is to be the bully.

I know what you're going to say, "That's nice and all, but just because I'M nice to other people doesn't mean that they will all be nice back. What if I'm the victim here??"

What happened to turn the other cheek?

"But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."-Matthew 5:39

Yeah, I know, that sounds idealistic, but that's just not possible in the 21st century, people will walk all over you, right?

But "violence doesn't end violence, it extends it".

Next time someone is being a jerk to you, punch them. Go on, punch them.

What do you think they are going to do? Either go home and nurse their hatred for you or punch you back. If they go home, you will come out feeling on top, like you just won, but all you really did is make someone hate you. If they punch you back...well, you're just going to probably get in a giant fist fight and someone is going to end up in the hospital or jail.

I know it sounds really hard, but seriously, just think about where a person came from. You don't know what they have been through, you don't know what brought them to the place they are now. Even if being kind sometimes just gets you hurt, you don't know what that little bit of kindness can do for someone else.

It's a hard world, I understand. People are quite often jerks. But you can rise above all that, with the help of our Lord and Savior.

You can stay gold.

Cheers!