"Dear folks, I suspect our guests have finished their cake and coffee too. Shall we go to the cinema?" Huib suggested. As everyone got up and walked toward the laundry room to exit through the back door, Huib walked toward the living room.

"If you guys are ready, come our way, we will go to our house! Will you lock the front door? Then I'll lock the back door."

They nodded, got up, and went down the hall to put on their coats. Cees, the last to leave the premises, locked the door behind him. "How nice this is," he said to Sita, and also audibly to the whole group, "I'm really looking forward to it! Going to the cinema together, just like when we were dating, so romantic!"

Laughing at his remark, the group walked through the large garden. Huib had left the front door ajar, so they could enter while wiping their feet. The coats only just fit on the coat rack.

"Your coat rack is almost coming down, Huib!" Sita smiled at him. "What a crowd, but how cozy too, really a genius idea! Margreet, can I help you with something?"

"No, as far as I'm concerned we can sit down and start the movie. Then we can have a drink halfway through or afterwards. Maybe you'd like to help me bring it from the kitchen to the dining table over there."

"All right, let's get started," Sita said.

Everyone sat down, became quiet, looking expectantly at the large monitor. Huib had turned on the computer and wanted to start the movie already, but changed his mind. "If you watch the movie like this, you will see funny things. What the main character does, seems funny, but then try to see how crazy it actually is, how standard especially, how all persons also react to him in a standard way. And then consider, that we also have this tendency in our society. We do as is expected of us. The main character, Truman, is in a television project, and everyone in his living environment knows about it and cooperates. Truman is the only one who doesn't know. He thinks he is just living his life, doesn't realize that he is being lived by all those people around him, and especially by a few people who control everything in his little world. Also recognizable in our own world. We too are stuck in a system to a greater or lesser degree."

He saw everyone nod in recognition.

"Okay, then let's get started, have fun!"

He clicked on the play triangle and started the movie. Everyone was immediately into the story. They laughed at Truman's goofy mannerisms, and the reactions of those around him. After a few of his greeting scenes, whispered sighs echoed around the room:

"Recognizable, always the same thing."

"That's how goofy we do too."

"Artificial he..."

As the film progressed, it became quieter. Nobody said anything anymore, the only things heard were expressions of feelings, of dismay, a short laugh, "pffff" and "ooooh".

Because everyone was so absorbed in the film, Margreet decided not to take a break. They would put the drinks on the table afterwards.

Over the course of the story, Truman discovered that he was being lived, controlled and directed. Almost imperceptibly, he sought a way out of the system. In the end, he almost went down at sea, because the leaders of the system had discovered that he was trying to escape from the little world they had created for him. In an artificial way they caused a huge storm at sea. The tension among the audience in the room rose. Would he succeed? It didn't look good, he had fallen into the raging water, but he clambered back into the boat anyway, sailed on and... discovered that the 'sea' ended at a wall! There he got out, walked over the edge along the wall, and discovered a door that he got open... With a particularly mischievous face, he turned around, looked into the camera, and waved to the team of leaders that had kept him imprisoned all his life in intimidation and indoctrination, in control and manipulation... and stepped through the door to freedom!

A huge sigh of relief went through the room as the credits began. For a moment it remained silent after that, but then people began to share their thoughts and feelings with each other.

Huib gave Margreet a nod. "Let them go, the movie has done its job," he whispered to her.

She nodded and whispered back, "I'm going to get some drinks from the kitchen. Sita was going to help me, but she's in a conversation. Will you help me?"

Together they walked silently to the kitchen and brought juice and soda to the dining table. Sita looked up first: "Oh sorry Margreet..."

Margreet interrupted her, shook her head and gave her a wink. "That you share with each other what the movie did to you is more important. But if you feel like having a drink, feel free to grab it."

Sita poured herself a glass of juice, then others followed her example and got something to drink. Margreet looked around, saw that there were still groups of people everywhere talking to each other about what they had seen and how they had experienced it. It made her happy, they had enjoyed the film and were now relating the theme to their own lives. They shared how they themselves had discovered things in which they had felt trapped, told each other how they had escaped it and how they had experienced that, the reactions of others and their own feelings and thoughts during that period of release.

"Nice huh, we only had to be the initiator," Huib said to Margreet. "How did you like the movie by the way?"

"Funny, that Truman really has a sense of humor, I liked it! And exciting too, and most of all very recognizable, actually even grimly recognizable because of the background in our own lives. Our world is ruled on all kinds of levels like in that system with Truman. I don't know much about politics, but I think that this control has only gotten worse over time. That actually feels pretty grim. Our little girl, what is she going to end up in?"

Huib put one hand on her shoulder and the other on her belly and looked at her. "Our little girl is ending up with a mom and dad who love her very much and will help her to follow her heart. And the evil world around her... do you know that I have the impression that it is changing a bit for the better? There is more inner healing going on than we see here in our field. Actually we are only a small part of it, I think there is something going on worldwide, healing from within... I have noticed several times that politicians are changing too, just a little bit, but each little bit makes the scale go a little further towards a tipping point. A tipping point from super dark and manipulative to more listening to each other and the citizens. There are those who seem to be listening more to their hearts. And that last group is getting stronger, also in the way they express themselves. Sometimes it sounds rude and crude, like that one minister who is so vehemently against Islam, but he does show things that are wrong, he points them out, time and time again. In doing so, he brings healing, despite the fact that almost the entire government grumbles at him and doesn't seem to take him seriously. And there are others like that. So I think, very tentatively, that our little girl is going to have a better time than we can imagine now. And she herself will also bring healing, it's something she has in her."

Margreet stroked her belly, as if to caress their little daughter. "So she will be a very special little person, a paint artist, a healer... I am looking forward to it, how she will be, how she will develop!"

Sjaak came up to them, "Just a question Huib, can I invite Simon to the dance evening as well? He seems to have been there years ago."

Huib nodded, "Of course, Erik took into account the possibility of doing something like that when he built the guesthouse. The dance hall is spacious enough, so just ask him!"

"I will!" Sjaak said, and away he went again.

Huib laughed, "I wonder..." to which Margreet gave him a friendly poke.

"Matchmaker," she whispered. Together they laughed and mingled among the other guests.

.

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The Truman Show, trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlnmQbPGuls

To chapter 131. Crazy couple!

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