Big screen offers some advice for how we all should live

As Good As It Gets -- Melvin (Jack Nicholson) is an obsessive-compulsive author who, with the help of Carol (Helen Hunt), learns the lessons of charity, tenderness and of course -- love.

We frequently forget about these things. Sure, we all want to fall in love, want to be treated with some tender affection and would like to be able to help others out; but in our hormone-enriched bodies, we frequently rush forward into hedonism instead of doing the things that make us feel truly great.

How many people out there really think that they have enriched themselves when they blow 20 bucks at the bar on Friday night? How great are you for "hooking up" this past weekend? How awesome is it to have not gone to class at all on Thursday?

Now ask yourself how magnificent you feel after you help someone, and I mean really help them. We should all be helping our neighbors, donating blood if we can, helping with homework and aiding the underprivileged.

We should be watching for the welfare of those we love and helping them in whatever ways we can. Melvin says to Carol, "You make me want to be a better man."

Witness -- A Philadelphia homicide officer (Harrison Ford), whose only witness to a murder is a young Amish boy, must flee the city with the boy and his mother and ends up staying with them in Amish country.

In our fast-moving world of high technology, global politics and war, we lose sight of many of the triumphs of the human spirit. While I don't believe in much of what the Amish do, I have tremendous respect for their devotion to pacifism. Here is a group of people who have truly devoted themselves to turning the other cheek.

There is a beautiful scene in which the little boy has touched Harry's gun, and the boy's grandfather tells him he must never handle a gun. The boy responds that he would only ever kill a bad man, and the grandfather responds by asking if the boy really KNOWS if a man's heart is bad. The only true judge of a man's heart is God. Taking the life of another is not our place, because we can never truly know another man's heart.

It reminds us that we must not be quick to judge. We mustn't carry out our base emotions of anger which lead us to such things as the death penalty. I don't pretend that always controlling one's self is easy, but we should know from the example of the Amish, that it is possible.

Pump Up The Volume -- A teenage pirate disc jockey (Christian Slater) raises a lot of controversy at his high school by encouraging his listeners to think for themselves and raise some hell by questioning authority.

We have to question authority. I don't mean for the sake of just outright raising hell. This movie isn't about licensing pure anarchy. It's about watching for power- hungry men and women who would curb our rights for their personal gain. IF we have evidence of abuses, we mustn't be afraid of blowing the whistle on the people in power by means of a protest, a trial or over the air waves. Remember two quotations from this movie, "Keep the air alive!" and "The truth is a virus."

Dead Poet's Society -- A truly beautiful story about a group of boys, who go to an all-boy's prep school in New England, and are taught to savor the richness of poetry, and through that richness, savor the richness of life.

"Carpe diem," says Robin Williams' character. "Seize the day." We must never forget this lesson. Every day that you live, you must go after the dreams that you have. Every day is a day rich in opportunity that waits to be seized. If you have something to say, say it. If you have passion, let it out.

If you don't, you could lose sight of what your dreams are, and end up like so many people that have been dulled by the grind of everyday life. "Make your lives extraordinary."

We must be willing to reach out our hands to our fellow people. We must be a community. We must be willing to inspire and be inspired. We must live our lives to the fullest, just like the movies tell us we can.