WORDS OF STEEL:

“Smile. It increases your face value.” – Dolly Parton as Truvy in Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias is a classic film and a favorite in my house. Sure, many would call it a chick flick, I don't care because I liked it, too. This 1989 drama with a southern flair for comedy garnered (at least) one major Academy Award nomination for Julia Roberts as Best Supporting Actress. It was her first major film role and she shined like a true southern belle. The story is part drama, part comedy, part tragedy, detailing the turbulent relationship between a Louisiana mother and her grown daughter, along with the support they receive from four other strong southern women who all frequent the same beauty salon.

Steel Magnolias featured a stellar cast as Roberts was joined by Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis and Daryl Hannah. This movie will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you think. And it deserved much more praise than it got, if for no other reason than the assortment of classic quotes from the film. Here are just a few of my other favorites:

Dolly Parton (Truvy): "If you can achieve puberty, you can achieve a past."

Julia Roberts (Shelby): "I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special."

Daryl Hannah (Annelle): "My personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair."

Shirley MacLaine (Ouiser): "He is a boil on the butt of humanity."

Dolly Parton (Truvy) -- "There's some pretty sick tickets in this town."

Shirley MacLaine (Ouiser) -- "What's wrong with you these days? You got a reindeer up your butt?"

Olympia Dukakis (Claree) -- "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize."

That's enough for now. Go rent this classic and watch it again. What are your favorites?

During the workweek I send out, potentially, hundreds of emails. I work for a nonprofit organization that employees over 70,000 people and my department has the opportunity to touch each of those individuals.

At the close of each email I post a quote from my collection of favorites. I change the quote on my outgoing work email messages once every three days. In 2018, there were 20 email messages that drew positive feedback from my coworkers. I have collected those quotes and ranked them based upon amount of feedback into the top 20 for the year. These are quotes that inspired my colleagues, moved them or made them laugh.

The Dolly Parton movie quote at the top of this article made people smile and moved it all the way up to the 18^th most popular quote of 2018.

If you'd like me to speak on how to raise your kids to be media savvy Christians, please contact me at 916-296-4647 or rich_seiber@yahoo.com.