Hallelujah Moments from the Movie “Beloved”

The book came out in 1987 and the movie came out in 1998. So I don’t want to hear nothing ’bout a spoiler. Beloved was created by Toni Morrison and is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner.

Margaret escaped slavery in Kentucky with her family by running to Ohio in 1856. When US Marshals came to take ’em back under the Fugitive Slave Act, she killed her daughter rather than see her enslaved again. In Beloved, Margaret’s name is Sethe. And the baby girl she killed is named Beloved and returned from the grave to reunite with her mother who’s had another daughter name Denver.

Now that you’ve been told or reminded of the back story. Here are the hallelujah moments I got out of Beloved:

1. Good loving allows you to be soft and “study war no more,” if even for just a second. Sethe was hard, she was tough, because she had to be. The people in town thought she was crazy; no one wanted to be around her. When Paul D came around and put that loving on her, she softened up. It was so beautiful to see and relate too. We deserve to be able to relax in love.

2. Nobody wanna be the child of the crazy/country, but you won’t get all the way free til you own the decisions you made and the ones your parents and ancestors made too.

3. Thin love ain’t love at all. Paul D tried to tell Sethe that her love was too thick. He was referring to her decision to dictate her child’s fate. He suggested that it was best to love a little bit and spread it out, so that if something leaves, you ain’t left to suffer. She said, “Thin love ain’t love at all,” and I ’bout threw my shoe at the screen.

4. Pleasure is our birthright.

5. Rest is too.

6. Healing happens together. Shame and judgment gotta be moved out the way though. In the movie, there was a part where Sethe’s mother-in-law, who was a preacher, stood among the people and told the children to laugh for their mothers to hear. Then she instructed the men to dance for the wives and children to see. Finally, she told the women to weep–for those still here and those who are no longer with us. I cried and cried, witnessing all that healing in action.

7. Healing is sweet and sour, heaven and hell.

8. Some thangs can only be understood with your Spirit. Beloved included.

9. Spirit will tell you when it’s time to go. 

10. Whether you say amen, ameen, or ase, long as you believe it, it works.