Today is my birthday. I am 35. This alarms me. I know that in a few years 35 will seem great and i will be wishing to be 35 again but at this juncture that gives me little solace. Matthew hates it when i talk like this. He thinks that I should be immune to age stuff. That I am bigger than that. Then he gleefully points out that until June it's like he is 2 years younger than me instead of 1.
But I do love my birthday. I love February three. When I finally saw "Groundhog Day" last year (Hey, it came out during my 'lost years' living in eastern europe. I am still playing catch-up on all the missed pop culture) it had a profound impact on me. Aside from instantly becoming my all-time favorite movie it gave me a whole new appreciation for my birthday. As you may recall the film ends when Bill Murray's character Phil wakes up and it is finally the day after Groundhog day. That would be February 3rd for those of you keeping score. I sat there, tears streaming into my popcorn bowl, vowing to remember the lessons that the movie teaches every year on my birthday. So here they are:
1. The path to enlightment is full of shitty repetition. In order to learn and change you have to repeat your mistakes over and over and over.
2. Compassion is the antidote to cynical paralysis. When you get to the point where other's pain is felt as deeply as your own it spurs you to act.
3. No matter what you do, death happens. Keeping your own mortality and the mortality of others present in your mind makes you truly see and feel how special each day and each person is.
4. Clock radios are the tools of Satan and deserve to be destroyed every morning in new and unique ways.
Happy day after Groundhog day everybody!
P.S. Did anyone else think it was weird when Harry Reid (D., Nevada) mentioned "Groundhog Day" in his response to the State of the Union last night? And then (if you were watching ABC) Peter Jennings did the same thing? It truly is part of the lexicon now. Gentle reader, if for some reason you have not seen this film, or even if you haven't seen it recently, I urge you to run out and get the tape or dvd and watch it asap.
don't forget i'm 2 years younger than you, too, until april! hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Posted by: Kara | February 04, 2005 at 07:01 PM
grrrr...
Posted by: LetterB | February 05, 2005 at 02:46 PM