Searching for Shirley Valentine

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

– T.S. Eliot

There is a real danger of settling for a life of resigned acceptance versus passionate purpose.

In anticipation of an upcoming trip to Greece a few years ago, my niece, Emily, and I watched a few films that featured Greece or Greeks in them, such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding and My Life in Ruins (which is why we went to Delphi!) and Mama Mia!

I also just watched Shirley Valentine, the 1989 film that was based on a one-woman play. I’d seen the movie years before but thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again.

Shirley Valentine is a bored Liverpool housewife who talks to the wall while making dinner for her grouchy, emotionally distant and getting-old-before-his-time husband. Their children have grown up and left home and the empty nest has left Shirley feeling depressed, lost and purposeless.

All she does is shop, cook and complain.

She can’t even dream of making a change because she’s forgotten what her dreams even are.

Yet when her friend wins a trip to Greece, she shocks herself and agrees to tag along — but doesn’t tell her husband because she knows he will object. He’s just as bored, stuck and stale as she is.

In Greece, however, Shirley begins to come alive again. She has a brief love affair but that turns out to be more of a catalyst for change than a cure for loneliness. She quickly realizes the person she is looking for isn’t a lover; she’s looking for herself…

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