Evian Naive
I don’t think the movie Reality Bites has aged very well. Or at the very least, it has transformed with time. It has moved from an edgy indie-ish movie to more of a snapshot of the Gen Xers during the 90’s. HIV tests and homosexuality have moved from progressive topics to mainstream ones. I bring it up not to critique the movie, but to point out one scene that’s always stuck with me. Winona Ryder’s asks the idealist/slacker character played by Ethan Hawke his thoughts on the meaning of life, to which he replies:
“There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a quarter-pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter becomes a cackle... and I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt.”
I’ve always wondered what the details I take pleasure in are. So here’s my best effort.
I enjoy that small 3-5 day period of time where you are really into a song and have finally memorized the lyrics so you can sing along with it, but you aren’t sick of it yet.
I like that feeling you get when you have a beer at about 5 in the afternoon on an empty stomach and the alcohol goes straight to your head. That burst of chattiness and energy it gives you before the depressant characteristics take hold.
The sound of Jessica’s laugh.
To that point, I’ll admit against my general modest image, I love that moment where you say the exact right thing at the exact right time. To be the guy who says what everyone was thinking, but was able to put it into words first and bring down the house. Sure, I’m shy, but we all like to be the star performer from time to time.
I enjoy the gentle hum of a baseball game while driving at night during the summer. It takes me back to laying in the back of the van on the way home from Grandma’s or more recently on my 3 hour trips to visit Jessica when she lived in Mankato and I lived in Eau Claire.
That rush you get when you make a boat on the turn and see that third diamond fall on the river, knowing full well your opponent just got there and is about to push all of his chips into your nut hand. God, that’s nice.
I miss that feeling you used to get when you would hand in a project or paper that you had stayed up all night working on. That feeling of complete accomplishment coupled with extreme exhaustion, knowing full well you deserved to go home and flop into bed and wake up when you wanted to.
I like having coffee with a donut.
“There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a quarter-pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter becomes a cackle... and I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt.”
I’ve always wondered what the details I take pleasure in are. So here’s my best effort.
I enjoy that small 3-5 day period of time where you are really into a song and have finally memorized the lyrics so you can sing along with it, but you aren’t sick of it yet.
I like that feeling you get when you have a beer at about 5 in the afternoon on an empty stomach and the alcohol goes straight to your head. That burst of chattiness and energy it gives you before the depressant characteristics take hold.
The sound of Jessica’s laugh.
To that point, I’ll admit against my general modest image, I love that moment where you say the exact right thing at the exact right time. To be the guy who says what everyone was thinking, but was able to put it into words first and bring down the house. Sure, I’m shy, but we all like to be the star performer from time to time.
I enjoy the gentle hum of a baseball game while driving at night during the summer. It takes me back to laying in the back of the van on the way home from Grandma’s or more recently on my 3 hour trips to visit Jessica when she lived in Mankato and I lived in Eau Claire.
That rush you get when you make a boat on the turn and see that third diamond fall on the river, knowing full well your opponent just got there and is about to push all of his chips into your nut hand. God, that’s nice.
I miss that feeling you used to get when you would hand in a project or paper that you had stayed up all night working on. That feeling of complete accomplishment coupled with extreme exhaustion, knowing full well you deserved to go home and flop into bed and wake up when you wanted to.
I like having coffee with a donut.
posted by Roark_8 at 1:41 PM
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