Okay, maybe five.
You know what I loved most about The Fault In Our Stars the first time I read it?
I mean, besides the fact that John Green seems to just get roller coaster emotions more than any other author I've ever read.
I love this one part where Hazel tells Gus that he is enough for her, that her life is better for loving him, and that she longs for him to say this back to her, that she was enough for him.
I can't do it justice. I'll just quote it.
" 'I don't care if the New York Times writes an obituary for me. I just want you to write one,' I told him. 'You say you're not special because the world doesn't know about you, but that's an insult to me. I know about you.' ...
I was so frustrated with him. 'I just want to be enough for you, but I never can be. This can never be enough for you. But this is all you get. You get me, and your family, and this world. This is your life. I'm sorry if it sucks. But you're not going to be the first man on Mars, and you're not going to be an NBA star, and you're not going to hunt Nazis.' "
This is probably my favourite section of any John Green book.
And here's why.
I'm so sick of being wrapped up in doing something noteworthy of my life.
I'd rather just do something useful.
And you know what's useful?
Loving people who deserve your love.
Dishing out food to homeless men and smiling at them because it may be the only smile they see that day.
Writing a fan letter to an author you love to tell him that his book inspired you to be a better person or stop you from killing yourself because it gave you hope or whatever.
Buying the person in the drive through line behind you's coffee because they will think about it all day or week and maybe do something nice for someone else because you did something nice for them.
Inviting the outcast at school or work or wherever to eat lunch with you because they might just need a little friendship or love or human interaction because it's been a little while since they had any.
To me, these things constitute a full life.
There's this really weird, wonderful man I know about named Misha Collins who started an organization called Random Acts that's a pretty balling organization. One thing that Misha promotes through his organization is Random Acts Of Kindness. Which means basically you do something nice for someone. You decide what that means for your life.
I wonder if Misha Collins ever thought he would be compared to John Green.
Anyways, this is what I took away from The Fault In Our Stars.
Augustus Waters was an incredible human being. Not because he cured cancer or solved all of life's mysteries. Because he loved these people named Isaac and Hazel with all of his cancer-stricken heart.
That's it.
That's the point.
It constantly makes me chuckle and then feel very sad that people try to make life so complicated and confusing and "what is the meaning of life" and "42" (sorry, my nerd comes out before I can control it sometimes) and all of that nonsense.
When in reality to me, it's so simple.
Just love, man.
That's it.
That's the answer.
Just love.
Augustus Waters could have used his remaining breaths to try to become an astronaut to walk on the moon or solve some wonderfully complicated physics problem or whatever, but then he wouldn't have had the time to love Hazel and make her little life better. And the same goes for Hazel.
No one is going to remember us for eternity, as Hazel points out near the beginning of the book. Really.
But Hazel remembered Gus while she was alive. Isaac remembered Gus. Gus' parents remembered him. Because he focused on loving them instead of trying to chase after some dream that would never come true, no matter how much he tried.
Man.
John Green, man. The things he makes you start thinking about blow my mind.
Also, total side note, but there was a girl sitting a few seats down from me in the theater while I marveled at Green's beloved words come to life on the screen who I was seriously worried would faint from her fits of hysteria. I think she mourned and grieved more for the characters than the other characters did.
Dear child, it'll be okay. Promise.
Anyways.
Those are my thoughts from The Fault In Our Stars. And, incase anyone is wondering, it was one of the better book-to-movie transitions I've ever seen.
But nothing quite compares to words written on a page.
