Nell (1994)
Screenwriters: Mark Handley, William Nicholson
Director: Michael Apted
Starring: Jodie Foster (Nell), Liam Neeson (Jerome Lovell), Natasha Richardson (Paula Olsen), Richard Libertini-with-a-beard (Alexander Paley)
Dear Knights in Shining Armor,
Where is your shining armor? You still have it, right? It’s just hidden? It is just a golden silvery sheath you put on energetically before you walk out the door, correct? And only you and I know the secret of the glory of your knighthood in this wild, twisty world of lies and fabrications and chaos and accoutrements?
Nell (1994) is a film about the sacred feminine.
Knights, you know about the sacred feminine, and it is your time to begin helping our country and our world understand it.
Years ago, I remember sitting at my dining room table in this lovely house I owned, the epitome of the suburban dream, and journaling in a quiet moment, and recognizing what it was I really craved. It was not what I’d been taught to crave—a bigger house with walk-in closets, or more money, or even the publication of all my stories and writings to great critical acclaim. No. It was purity. I wanted something pure. I wanted to know what purity felt like. I wanted to experience it.
And then years later, finding myself in a new abode, I had the same dawning again. Purity. I craved purity. What was it. Where was it? What did it feel like?
Now, let’s get clear about what purity is, because so much that we are inundated with in terms of words and connotations and understandings is pollution. We all have to do a lot of wading in swampy waters to get to truth. No one hands that to you.
Purity is authenticity and it is the om-truth of life, which is untainted by the ills of the world.
We have been taught that women who are virgins are “pure.” There is a tradition of recognizing a woman’s body as part of nature, and as something sacred. And yet in the same manner that conquistadores have put money and laws and boundaries on land and nature, they have also put money and laws and boundaries on women’s bodies for centuries, trying to own what is divinely made. They try to put a stake in it and claim it and feel all puffed up about everything.
Nell is a woman untouched, untainted, like a child, or a whisper, or a wind. She is the lake before someone added “science” to make the lake profitable. She is the earth that is rich and renews itself. She flows, she feels, she knows the heavens in her own sacred song.
And Dr. Jerome Lovell (played by Liam Neeson) recognizes sacredness and purity when he sees it. He has the natural tendency to protect what is pure, because he knows it is so rare. His colleague, Paula Olsen (played by Natasha Richardson), is a woman in the modern world, trying to make a name for herself. She just wants approval by the higher-ups, and the higher-up is a man with a beard. (There is always some higher-up with a beard, it seems. White and old, wearing a suit.) Paula Olsen is ready to use and manipulate Nell so that she can publish stuff and be all prestigious in the field of psychology.
Nell is fortunate to have this knight, this protector, Jerome—Jay—who sticks up for her. Instead of invading her home and her space, he has a heart open to learning. He wants to communicate. He wants to engage. He wants to ensure her boundaries are honored, and her way of life is honored, and that people will not try to pollute or poison someone so rare.
Nell is sensual and child-like, but not sexual and sexualized, and this is probably why the movie had such strange effects on people. We live in a world where the feminine has been raped and pillaged and devalued by those with prestige, status, titles, and power. These polluters exist in religion, in government, in industry. They are out for their own gain, and women—or natural elements, or gosh, even children—are pawns to be used in their gain and their games. The Wise know that innocent creatures are meant to breathe and live and flow, and not to be conditioned to harm. And so the harmers take advantage. Then the harm amplifies.
Even hospitals may not be safe havens, as we see when they try to put Nell in a hospital to say she’s—what, crazy or something? What’s crazy is to take someone genuine and kind, who is able to do so much for herself, like chop wood, and eat from the land, and entertain herself for hours, and let life just be—and cage her up, and want to fill her with drugs, and inspect her and use her for scientific purposes and personal profit. That’s what’s crazy.
Luckily, Nell has Dr. Jay. Those blue eyes. Oh, Jay. That stalwart and staunch heart of goodness. We need more of yous. You listen. You sense in. You don’t react impulsively. You have a deep appreciation for beauty. You communicate. You defend what is worth defending.
I have so much to say on this topic of the sacred feminine, Knights! I think I gave you enough of a starting point here, though. You have seen the mess we’re in. You know what you know. I am not going to spend time pointing fingers. You get it, I think. Though if you have any questions, and you are a blue-eyed Jay (or even a brown-eyed one), please feel free to reach out. I’ll teach you a new language.
Now, what can we honor today, gentlemen?
Hugs,
Ms. Wonderful
Start by dancing?
I do also have my campaign for Madame President that needs financial backing….