Ann recently read the biography of Iris Murdoch by her husband John Bayley, and wants to watch the movie while it’s still fresh in her mind. I was taken quickly with oddity of the characters – they are odd the way people are and not the way movie characters tend to be. One of Iris’ oddities is her idealism, and the movie convincingly conveys how idealism can survive in a non-ideal world, and even live beyond the mind of the idealist. The romance between this strange husband and wife is lovingly done. The fragility of the human mind becomes palpable as Iris starts to suffer from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Having witnessed some of this kind of suffering in my grandfather, I’m reminded again to appreciate our dependence on this vulnerable thing, the beauty of it, and what might remain when it is gone.