Last night we watched “The Incredible Hulk”. Originally I thought that it would just be the boys and me watching, but Sam and Diana wanted to see it too. I really like this movie and I actually liked the 2003 version that Ang Lee did. Hulk has always been a character of interest for me. I like the fact that we all have great power and strength lurking within us, but often times we work so hard to suppress it.
The difference between Hulk and other super heroes may be slightly obvious. Other heroes have an abundance of the nice emotions like love, kindness, charity, etc. Bruce Banner, on the other hand, has to learn to embrace what some may consider the uglier emotions we all have, anger, frustration and even fright. He is a regular guy who hates what he becomes when these emotions become overwhelming, which in turn causes him a great level of internal conflict. It disturbs him so much that at one point he is willing to die in an attempt to “cure” him of his condition. Towards the end of the movie we see Bruce begin to accept himself as he is and work to manage his Hulk rather than trying to get rid of it all together.
Throughout the movie we would have little discussions about what was going on. At the point where Bruce is with Betty and Mr. Blue trying to cure him of the Hulk, Luke made an interesting observation. He said, “He wants to be able to be himself when he gets mad.” For some reason that was profound for me. I think because even a 7 year old can understand that showing our emotions / feelings is a healthy thing, it only becomes dangerous when we let them control us.
Now that I think about it, Luke is our kid that would understand this concept the best.
I feel the same way about the Hulk. John and I have had many conversations about losing your cool like the Hulk when you let your emotions overwhelm you. We have a station that plays the reruns of the TV show and John really likes it. In many ways, John is the Hulk.
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