It has been a few days. I sometimes get in these moods where nothing strikes me as funny, irrational or inspirational enough to write about. Not that today was any different, I suppose. We'll see what transpires at the end of this.I was at the post office today to mail a package to my "kids" in Iraq. Mail always makes the day in Iraq- even if it is junk mail. But I went to the post to mail a box and get some post card stamps. As usual, there was a line a mile long and only two of the four cashiers open. You would think that during lunch they would have a full staff to greet the onslaught. There I go thinking again... lest I digress.
Everytime I go to the post office, there is always a child-friendly DVD on the TV. Any other time, I just glaze over it and watch the people instead (much more entertaining). But today, for some odd reason, I started watching the movie, The Flinstones. I never saw it outside the bits and pieces when I am at the post office (they change them every other month, it seems); it is not something I would normally watch based on principle. Come on, a movie about a cartoon I used to watch religiously when I was six? Anyway, I started watching and I guess it had just begun because Fred and Barney live together and have yet to meet Willma and Betty. Five minutes into watching it, I had this epiphany (for the lack of a better word). The story about the Flintstones kinda mirrored a part of my life in a strange way. The part that had me think "gads" was when Fred asked Betty out and it ended up a double date: Fred with Betty and Barney with Wilma. Then there was the weird minute with the same funny laughs between Barney and Betty and they took off... After that it was the bowling incident with Fred and Wilma. These particular scenes reminded me of just after I graduated high school. My very good friend G. and I were hanging out in front of an all-ages "punk" club down at the beach (1st Street... HOOTIE!). G. went inside, I think, and I was approached by a tall, dark, and very handsome Indian named Z. (So, I bet you are wondering why I am only using first initials... I feel very awkward using the names of innocents in my novellas without their approval. Call it a guilt thing. I would use their names but, like me, are so unusual, it could instantly identify them. Why not make up a name? That would be silly.) We started talking for awhile then G. comes back out and he leaves. We go inside and she goes off to dance and Z. approaches me again. We continue to talk for the rest of the evening and realize we are very much alike. Then he asks me who my friend is. Now all the while, Z. was with this guy who doesn't say much, B. To make this boring story short and relevant to the movie... Z was interested in G. which was fine by me... I wasn't much interested in guys, believe it or not... not even at 15 with the exception of my first love, my heart, PS ... more like wanting to find myself first, well, maybe waiting for him perhaps). He asked G. and I, for some reason, decided to go out with his friend B. Similar, but not the same as the Flintstones, at least in my eyes. But it had me thinking, movies sometimes imitates life. My dearest S. and I used to talk about this once in awhile while we were in Iraq. Working during the night shift brought interesting conversations. S. and I used to do all of our talking either during breakfast, after shift, before I went to sleep, while I was getting ready for shift, or on our way to shift. Sounds like a lot, but all together, it wasn't much at all. Anyway, I remember we took a movie or a TV show and assign each character with someone we knew from the unit. For example, The Muppet Show. We assigned the two grumpy men in the skybox to our two chiefs. Gonzo was the LT, the prior commander was Ms. Piggy, the current commander as Kermit, so on and so forth. Then there was a time that S. and I took the movie Shrek and assigned roles. That was fairly easy and so very true to life. It would have been eeire if it weren't for the fact that it was a damned cartoon we were talking about. He was Shrek, I was the princess and my dog was Donkey (just thinking about it, if we were to discuss Shrek II, I am almost certain that we would agree our "kid" O. would be Puss n' Boots), the reserve unit would be those gay men in tights, etc. Thinking about that makes me laugh. Maybe because I am crazy.
Not everything is all tee hees and haa haas. There are some movies where I can draw direct parallels with my life. For some reason, I find myself addicted to the age of the kings and queens; the Elizabethian era or the Rennaisance, or the Enlightenment periods... Movies such as Elizabeth or Pride and Prejudice illustrates such parallels to my own life in such insignificant ways. Well, insignificant to others but me, that is. I could simply draw these paralles to explain, but why bore you to death now? You made it this far.
My point is simly this: Life imitates art imitates life. It could be commical, it could be poingant.
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