Love is Passion...Obsession...Something You Can't Live WithoutFirst and foremost: eyes are much better today.Rachel came down this evening to stay the night. Jon and I dug potatoes after work and then headed home to fix chicken. Mom called while we were doing so and said that they were going to put Meet Joe Black on. Turns out it was Pa's idea.
Interesting that such a story touched me at age 14. I think I could quote that entire movie, but it's just the nuggets of ideas throughout the entire thing that got seeded in me. It is a great love story but it's also a great story about the priceless-ness of life in general and being a genuine, honorable person, like Anthony Hopkin's William Parish. The whole thing is about love and how it is what makes us human and makes life worth living.And it's not just the love story about finding that one where lightening will strike, but the passion Bill has for his company and it's purpose, passion for his family and for his daughter. And that is why, even when very, very few understand it, I'll dance with my Pa to the instrumental version of "What a Wonderful World" from the Meet Joe Black soundtrack, because that is what William Parish and his daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani) dance to. Every time I hear the song I get teared up so who knows what will happen that day. But I do love my Pa and it has been through his love for me, his love for mom and his love for our family that I have learned what great love is and sought to find it for myself. Fortunately, I found Jon to not only love...but to be that person whom I could love like crazy and does love me the same way back.
Dani and I watched the movie, Lars and the Real Girl last week. It was a random choice by her through her Blockbuster flicks deal or whatever. I'd never heard of it and was a little suspicious of it being that it was about a guy (Ryan Goesling) who's convinced his blowup doll is a real person that he is dating. It turned out to be extremely entertaining and not creepy at all. I got a lot of laughs out of the guy's sincere belief that Bianka, the doll, was a real person who spoke to him. He was legitimately in love and the reactions of family and friends were equally entertaining as they went from being weirded out, to playing along, to completely embracing Bianka in the same real way Lars did.
I only write of it now in order to share a quote from it with you. For the most part it was just a funny movie for me, but there was one scene when Lars is talking ot his older brother, Gus (whom he's had a strained relationship with) and Lars asks Gus when he knew he was a man...what event brought about manhood versus not being grown up. Gus's response really stood out to me as so true:
"Well, it's not like you're one thing or the other, okay? There's still a kid inside but you grow up when you decide to do right, okay, and not what's right for you, what's right for everybody, even when it hurts."
The fact that his response acknowledges that we never really let go of being a kid or even want to but that we reach a point of understanding responsibility and right versus wrong...and that we can put those we love before ourselves. Whoever wrote that line, in my opinion, nailed it.
It may only be one week until it comes out on DVD but I still decided to go to the cheap theater to see the movie Twilight. I read the book in November at the hype of the theatrical release but never managed to make it to a viewing on the big screen. So why not pay three bucks to see it on a big screen when next week it is going to cost me that much to rent it at Blockbuster?
My desire to see the movie developed from two things: having read the book and the Edward Cullen obsessions of my friends. (Which, I admit that the latter reason was also my reason for reading the book in the first place.)
I think, though, that I figured out why it has been that while the movie tends to be pinned to teen girls, I have found so many friends my age (and older) are also in love with Edward Cullen. At the same time, any guy I know who dares admitting he actually saw the movie (as well as the guys who refuse to be come anywhere near it) insist it's simply a crappy, cliche love story. Or, as my friend put it, a movie made for "13-year-old girls who have never had the opportunity to have a boyfriend."
Interesting...because I think all of my friends who have talked it up so much to me have at least had the opportunity to have a boyfriend. In fact, some of them are married.
After watching the movie tonight I think I figured it out. Nearly any girl can watch the film, read the book and want what Bella has. Every girl wants a love story and every girl wants the love and loyalty that Edward gives Bella. Girls relate and understand what Stephanie Meyer was conveying in her story. Guys, on the other hand, cannot relate to Edward. First of all, they aren't vampires. Beyond that, Edward is nothing but a fictional character to them and nothing of reality. This makes the whole storyline a cliche love story.
I think the story and the love of it I have seen from both those "13 year-old-girls who have never had the opportunity to have a boyfriend" and from my 23+ year-old friends who are in serious relationships or married proves that the story strikes the chords of love in girls of all ages and experiences. Perhaps less cheesy or cliche, but somewhere inside, every girl wants her own love story of sorts.
"General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." [Love Actually.]
