Tuesday, June 10, 2014

"unfinished"

Lately, little and large, the word "unfinished" seems to rule the roost.

Concretely, with the irony of a smirking dream, two movies have brought me back more than once: "An Unfinished Life" and "Unfinished Sky." Neither movie rated critical raves, with the former criticized for being saccharine and predictable and the latter accorded small nods to a small, adult, Aussie tale. Having somehow lost my callouses from an earlier time, I seem to be fair game for saccharine. Trite doesn't bother me so much -- peel back the layers and all stories are trite. Credible silences impress me. And I like characters that are more both-and and less either-or. Anyway, I liked both these "unfinished" movies.

More broadly, if I had to pick just one word to sum things up, I think "unfinished" would be a good one.

Usually, "unfinished" suggests that something is missing, but I don't think that's adequate or even particularly accurate. "Unfinished" is simply a descriptor that clothes each event perfectly -- each according to its need. It's probably not a good idea to mention this since someone is bound to weave it into a wider tapestry of nitwit wisdom. The finished product is unfinished -- nuff said, or rather, too much said.

And somewhere in the bomb zone of this muttering and mumbling ... I wonder if others love stories as much as I do -- being sucked in, enfolded, raised up and let down like a bottle bobbing on the ocean waves. Stories are so, so ... so I-don't know what, exactly. But as much as I enjoy being taken in like some stray dog when it comes to stories, it is odd to think that I may credit the hell out of any story, but never really imagine that I am the story I love so much. Someone or something is a story in my mind and I hug it ... but it never occurs to me that I am every bit as much the story to someone or something as the story is to me. Hugs all around!

Of course if I did imagine such a thing, it would be utterly deluded. But just because something is a delusion doesn't mean it's not true.

The finished is unfinished, the unfinished, finished ... and I do love a good story.

1 comment:

  1. I'm more likely to cry during a movie than during my life. Probably the emotional urging of the sound track. For me, i come to wish that i knew the people in the movie, that they were neighbors and friends. I find my monkey mind sometimes daydreaming a visit with an actor i appreciate to thank them for their hard work. After that, i really can't imagine having much in common with an actor. But the character in a story that touches my heart, i'm all about that as the kids say.

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