parts of Amanda's (the protagonist's) life where we see her struggle and eventuallly
overcome the trials which confront her, through this we may learn many things
from her. Amanda begins the story depressed, she can't enjoy the world around her
because she is so caught up in the past and is unable to move on in her life. She
found her husband cheating on her and because of this she has an idea that all men
are just like him. When she is assigned to go be the photographer at a wedding she is
not pleased at all, she constatnly has flashbacks about her ex-husband and can't get
past this, even more so at weddings. We can learn from Amanda that we create
reality and by staying stuck in the past we are completly unstable and our view of
reality, or as M. Scott Peck says, our "maps" will not be accurate. Also, we know
from Amanda just how hard it is to live in the present with our maps not being
revised. Because of this life is twice as hard, for we are using a view of reality that
may have been accurate and effective in the past, yet utterly useless in the present.
Unfortunately, all Amanda has left is her past and it can't help but cloud her vision.
The human brain doesn't know the difference between what it sees and what it
remembers. In Amanda's case, love equates to her husband and her husband equates
to a cheating scum, consquently her bad ex-husband equates to love for Amanda.
Observing Amanda in the movie, we can realize that our thoughts truly affect us. So
much so, Amanda is forced to rely on anxiety pills to get through her day to day life.
Eventually, it is simply too much for Amanda, she has a nervous breakdown. During
this time her brain had to be literally rewritten. Finally, she learned that she alone
was responsible for her future and that she needed to release her past memories,
which hurt her so much. Like Amanda we too must realize that we are the creators
of our futures and our maps must be current and not "past editions," while, at the
same time, not dwell on past hardships.
