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Living a Little
June 15, 2003

Canmury.com

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I love True Lies, and not the least reason why is Jamie Lee Curtis' character, Helen Tasker's, explanation of why she was seeing the sleezy used car salesman, while trying to prove that she still loved her husband. Paraphrase:

It's like there's so much I wanted to do with this life, and it's like I haven't done any of it! And the sand is pouring out of the hourglass, and I just wanted to be able to say: See! I did it! I was wild and reckless and I fucking did it! And frankly I don't give a shit if you understand this or not.

I was thinking at around three this morning that this sentiment is so true. Not to contradict my Point of Life essay, but I think it, alongside the search for a true, intimate friend, is the reason I've done some moves that many would consider just stupid. I took up smoking. I drank and drove (more tipsy than drunk). And pretty soon, I'm going to go to Davis, California and meeting a friend.

I don't want to do something that would harm someone else, or ruin a reputation, or be horrendously offensive to the majority of the population. I'm not one to rock the boat too much. But at the same time, when I'm eighty years old, I want to be able to look back and say that I did something with my life. I did a few wild and crazy things. I did a lot of decent, normal, banal things. I drove to meet a person I'd never met and it ended up being a great night. I knocked out a parking meter and took it home. You know, just really stupid, idiotic, essentially harmless stuff. But I'll have something to tell my kids. Yeah, I remember that night I spent in the UNR parking lot... These are not things to be proud of, but they are momentos that you had a cool life. Helen Tasker would be proud.


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This is just my putting my thoughts down on paper so that they'd be coherent for me. Pardon if they're not cogent or well-written, but now I know how I feel and why I feel that way. If you disagree, email me at jrbbopp@hotmail.com and let me know why.