The Longest Ride

Love needs managing…

    Ira's love brings this movie to life. He said, love always requires sacrifice, compromise, and patience. Sounds easy when you just fall in love with a person. Loving a person for some years might be easy, but spending your whole life loving a person is not easy. I can see that he had unconditional love for Ruth and how he expressed his love to her. I am deeply moved on the inside.

    Luke and Sophia were young lovers. It was their first date. On the way home, Luke saw Ira's car bumping into a tree. Luke pulled him out immediately. On the way to the hospital, Ira didn’t forget to ask Sophia to take his box that was full of letters. These letters were precious to Ira, which Ira even wrote a letter to Ruth once a day even if he saw her every day. Given Ira’s advanced age without kids, this city girl with a beautiful heart went to the hospital to attend to him every day. With the condition of Ira’s eyes going down, at the hospital, she started to read these letters to Ira. The love story begins…

    Ira took over his father booming clothes business. He knew his life was going to change for good because of seeing Ruth, who just immigrated to his country, walking into his shop. Somehow, she helped him see the world in a different way, contemporary art. One day, they went to a party where there was a painting in the lobby. Ruth who stood in front of this painting shared how happy she was and showed how much she loved art passionately. Ira didn't know about art at all, but he was affectionate to see her and replied, "I love how much you love it." with his heart. In reality, I have no choice but to say, don’t believe these words when men say those things. Nevertheless, this is one of the most wonderful words in this movie.

    Ruth, who loved kids so much, was a teacher. They got married and had a wonderful life for some years. As the years went by, Ruth, who was eager to have a big family, wanted to start a family. Unfortunately, because of war, Ira's reproductive system got hurt. As a result, he was unable to achieve Ruth's dream. However, Ruth became very sad and almost went crazy. One day, Ruth decided to leave him. Heartbreaking Ira didn't stop her, but said, "I think you should go. I love you with everything inside of me, so I just want you to be happy even if the happiness no longer includes me." A few days later, Ruth came back. She compromised and accepted the fact. Although their life wasn't exactly happily after ever, it was pretty close. They focused on celebrating the wonderful things they had rather than regretting they didn't. After she passed away, one of her students who was influenced by her sent Ira a portrait of Ruth to thank them and to show how much he respected her in his whole life. In the movie, I can see how much Ira appreciated Ruth like a gift came to his life.

     Have we ever showed our appreciation to people who surround us every day? They might be our colleagues, lovers, parents, friends, or kids? Thanks to them, we could have different emotions every day, which is angry, happy, sad, and so forth. I know life is not easy, but we think of them as gifts as much as we could. I am Asian and had Asian education. In our culture, we are not vocal to say I love you to our loved ones. However, I deeply believe that love spoken out is not shallow but deep knowledge. There are so many people in the world. Meeting a person who you have a feeling for is not necessarily easy. Not to mention the person who you want to spend the rest of your life with, how would you not like to manage it and then let the love fade away?

     As for these young lovers, Luke was a bull rider, who got so severely hurt many times, but he didn't want to give it up. Sophia was a student at Black Mountain College, art school, who had an internship and was about to launch her career in two months in New York. I have no option but to say that she dared to sacrifice her opportunity in New York for this country boy she just met in two months. For a freshman, how can she give it up? However, she chose him over her dream. Luke did not appreciate her and didn't expect her to change her mind for him. One day, Luke fell from a bull seriously. Sophia went to the hospital right away, insisting that Luke should have stopped bull riding. They had a big argument. Was it time for heartbreaking Sophia to leave? Ira told her, "You already did everything you could,  you sacrifice your dream for him." Luke’s mom, who always wanted him to stop bull riding, told Luke," it is always 8 seconds on a bull, but that girl could be the rest of your life. In the rodeo, Luke won the competition, but he did not see Sophia cheering for him. He figured out life had no meaning without Sophia. Eventually, what he learned was a compromise. 

     During a class, Sophia received a phone call from Ira's attorney, which he informed that Ira passed away and invited her to Ira’s auction, which all paintings they collected were going to be auctioned. With Ruth having an incredible eye for talent, they collected so many remarkable and compelling paintings. However, for Ira, the great joy of collecting wasn't in the art itself but in the person, he collected them with his beloved Ruth. The happiness these paintings brought her was immeasurable and sharing that happiness was a great privilege for his life. The first painting auctioned was the portrait of Ruth. It wasn't the most valuable painting in Ira's collection, but it was the most precious to him because it reminded him daily of his beloved Ruth and reminded about remembering that this was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen came to his life.

     Luke also received an invitation from Ira's attorney and he went to the auction. When no one wanted to buy the portrait of Ruth, he decided to buy it. Luke knew about their true love and buying the portrait of Ruth symbolized a continuing love. Except for Ira's attorney, no one knew there was a simple stipulation in Ira's will, which was whoever purchases the portrait would receive the collection in its entirety. Luke became a wealthy man and Sophia had a gallery of her own, where it was filled with Ira and Ruth's love story. The end.