Movie Night

It's been a long week. I've started my final "academic" semester this week and it's been pretty crazy at work as well. I've had a tough time going back to the classroom for a couple of reasons. First, I find it difficult to sit and focus on one topic for 3-4 horus. Second, I've gotten so engrained into the hospital that I work at, that my mind is always on what's going on at work instead of focusing on the lecture I'm sitting in. I think my boss has caught on to this - she asked me something about it today. Anyway - this post isn't about my conflict between academic and professional. This all was to just talk about me having a long week.

So tonight I decided to just veg and make it a movie night. I got a lot of movies for Christmas that I haven't watched yet. My two selections tonight, Garden State and Orange County, in that order. I hadn't seen Garden State before and had seen Orange County a number of times. I expected Garden State to be funny (I was expected a character like JD from Scrubs) but was pleasantly surprised to see something a little deeper. I enjoyed the movie - it moved a little slow, but there were a number of great moments that really stayed in my mind. Orange County is a perenial favorite of mine. Ever since I first saw it with one of my best friends a number of years ago, I thought it was very clever and very funny. Colin Hanks reminds me a lot of Will in his mannerisms and the movie just has a ton of great quotes:

"Shaun, the house is a mess and Bob is bleeding"

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"Now, when I say Romeo and Juliet, who comes to mind? Dana?"

"Claire Danes"

"That's right. Claire Danes. Who else?"

"Leonardo DiCaprio"

"Right. Who else? Someone else was involved in that movie who in some ways is as famous as Leonardo DiCaprio. And his name's William Shakespeare. And some great movies are based on his plays. "Hamlet", "West Side Story", "The Talented Mr Ripley", "Waterworld"... ..."Gladiator", "Chocolat".

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"Do you want me to call Public Safety?"

"Do you want me to get naked and start the revolution? I'll take that as a maybe"

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"That lady, Mona, said that you two were in the building when the fire started."

"Yeah. She's a liar 'cause I don't know her, so whatever she says is a lie, so..."

"So you weren't in the building with her?"

"No, not I. All right. She started it. Because she was like, "I hate my job, I'm going to burn this mother down." And I said, "You better not. You better not."

Anyway, the movies were both enjoyable, but I found a common theme. Both movies had main characters that underwent a transformation that showed that what they were really looking for was right in front of them the entire time. In Garden State, Andrew comes home, meets Sam, but still spends the whole 4 days wondering what his life is going to be like once he leaves New Jersey and heads back to LA. We see him "let go" down by the quarry, but this isn't when he gets it. It isn't until he gets on the plane, crowded back into the fast-paced lifestyle that has taken him from place to place on a whim that he realizes that what really makes him happy is being with Sam. Sitting and talking and just enjoying her company.

Similarly, Shaun is dead set on going to Stanford. He thinks that the only way for him to realize his dream of a writer is to get out of Orange County. His journey to get in shines the light on his situation - eventhough his family is dysfunctional, his friends, stoners, and his girlfriend a ecoactivist; he finds that they are exactly what he needs AND wants.

I know these movies aren't revolutionary and the theme has been done many times before. The message though is so relevant. We spend so much time - I spend so much time pondering about what else I need to do to succeed, or to be happy. I think that most often, if we stop and look around, we'll see that what's right in front of us is exactly what's right for us. We are who we are because of the influences around us. Our families, our friends, our coworkers - our God - are our inspiration.

So take a look around you. What can you appreciate about the person sitting in the next room? How does your sibling make you a better person? What is it about that one guy at the coffee shop that tries to remember your regular drink, but always gets it wrong, that adds a little humor to your life?