valentina's post got me pawing through the laserdiscs and DVDs for favorite movies in general, and I must babble about Defending Your Life. Albert Brooks wrote, directed and starred in a movie all about what happens after you die. It's a mix of Occidental/Western religion and Buddhism with some bureaucracy thrown in, because we all love that! Woo!

While I don't like everything Albert Brooks does, he's so dry and smart in this one plus it makes you think for days afterward (or years, but I'm slow ). The premise is after you die, you go to Judgment City and you have to "defend your life," and here on Earth we have to prove we weren't conquered by fear so we can move on to the next level. You're assigned a defense attorney and during your trial you're shown scenes from your life and the attorneys argue before a couple of Gods/judges about whether you faced your fears.

One scene is when he's 10 or so and is confronted by a bully at school, and he backs out of a fight. The prosecutor said he was afraid -- getting hurt, looking foolish -- while the defender argues that "he wasn't afraid, he was showing restraint!" Hee!

So what's my fear? Number one is probably not being able to to support myself -- living on the street, no money or security, where every person is a potential predator and enemy. So am I facing my fear, by working and trying to save, or just avoiding it?

*Edited for spelling, duh