Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Vanilla Sky


"It's the little things. There's nothing bigger, is there..."

I've taken several of my favorite lines from the infamous film mentioned in the title of this blog that provoked deep thought within me, forcing me to face some things I've not really sat down and thought about before... and I'd like to share those thoughts.  They're the little things in life, but they really are the biggest moments I've known.

"Every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around."

A few days ago, someone told me to watch the movie "Vanilla Sky" and finally, I did.  I had been searching for something - anything - to capture my full attention for longer than ten minutes.  In this day and age, I'm so accustomed to multitasking that I can't seem to really devote my attention to one thing at a time.  This has been a good reminder that I need to unplug.  I need to escape from the day to day distractions and really focus on what I want to do.  It's never too late, after all.  I can turn it all around at a moment's notice and really focus all of my attention on the things I'm passionate about.  I think, perhaps, it's time I did.


"Once you've been driven off a bridge at 80 miles an hour, you don't invite happiness in without a full body search."

 Some of you may remember the blog post I wrote a few years ago about how I was driven off a cliff in the back seat of a pickup truck and could have easily died.  This statement, and the way it was made, with the once powerful man sitting in a corner against a wall, hiding behind a mask... this struck a chord with me and I haven't been able to shake it. 

I had lost my trust for mankind long before that moment, but that defining moment is one I can absolutely pinpoint my anger and hatred for drunks on.  Someone I once trusted with my life abused that trust and nearly killed me simply because he had too much to drink and made a stupid decision.  Since then I've had my share of broken hearts, over and over, never really able to understand why until long after they're done.  I've learned not to trust and not to believe in happiness without doing some serious searching.  He was right... "Once you've been driven off a bridge at 80 miles an hour, you don't invite happiness in without a full body search."

"The sweet is never as sweet without the sour."
I'd never have known all the heartache if I hadn't known all the love.  The reverse is every bit as true.  I've searched and longed for that fairytale ending.   I thought that's what life was about, and why we were put on this planet.  Finally, I learned the truth - and the truth was a bitter pill to swallow.  But the bitterness gave way to the sweetest wines from the most sour of grapes.  One cannot exist without the other.  And in the end, would we even want it to?  We cannot truly appreciate what we have until it's gone.  We cannot claim to love if we cannot loathe.  There is no good without the bad, no black without the white, no stars without the darkness.  Life is so much more than just searching for that proverbial "one" who completes us.  Life has a million of those people out there.  They all complete us because they are all a part of our life, and our lives are a never ending circle of continuous connections.  They complete that circle, no matter how many or how few they are.  And of all the sweet things I've known, so few can ever compare to a solid connection based on understanding, trust, friendship, loyalty, truth and commonality.  So to the person who told me to watch this movie, wherever you are as you're reading this, I just want to say thank you.  Thanks for being the 'sweet' in the swirling of sour.





"What's happiness to you, David?"
"I'll tell you in the next life. When we are both cats."











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