We Live In The Golden Age

       I watched the Oscars for the first time in years this year. Given the fact that I am obsessed with movies (in another life I swear I was an actress and director), I vowed to watch the entire thing from start to finish. Luckily J watched it with me. 

       I could go into the meaning of movies and how much I appreciate them but I’ll save that for another entry. The one thing I took from watching the Oscars was a new list of movies that J and I needed to watch. Although we watched a lot of them, there were a few that we didn’t even know were out this past year.

       So we watched several movies over the next few days. And we finished one recently that really got me thinking. “Midnight in Paris” was it’s title. Now, this movie was nothing necessarily overly spectacular but it was one of the most unique movies I’ve seen in a while. Uniqueness and originality are two very important aspects to me when critiquing a film (sometimes I think I’m Siskel and Ebert wrapped into one small Puerto Rican girl.)

       I’ll try not to go into too much detail, as to not spoil it for some of you who may want to see it. But this movie resinated with me because it wasn’t after a book, it wasn’t a “part 2” to another movie, it wasn’t after a comic or a remake of an old film...it was it’s own kind. Kudos to Woody Allen.

       One of the main concepts of the movie was the idea of “living in a golden age.” Think of the person you know that wishes they lived in another era. Like that one guy who constantly talks about how he was supposed to be born in the 60’s so he can smoke weed in his parents basement and wear bell bottom jeans. We all know these types of people. Well, the star in this film was one of those people, only he wanted to live in the 20’s in Paris. 

       Granted, I know we all have studied or researched a period in time or location and wondered what it would be like to live there or want to be living during that time...but what about now? Although the movie doesn’t show the character to be ungrateful for the present, it did get me thinking...why do some of us take the present for granted?

       So many of us let time go by doing our mundane routines, paying our electric bill, taking out the trash, going to the gym, washing our car, driving to work...hey, don’t forget to stop once in a while and enjoy the sun shining on your face, that good song on the radio, or that feeling when you drive with your windows down on a warm day. This is something I need to learn to do more often myself. We get so caught up in the stresses from work, our relationships with people, our family, our problems, our bills, and our worries. We dwell on things from our past, we hope and wish for things in the future and we completely forget about living in the now. Are we completely missing the the fact that in 100 years, the time we are living in now will be someone else’s “golden age” to live in? Let’s enjoy it!

       Many of us “escape” the present by focusing on the future or dwelling on or missing things from the past. This makes us completely lose the enjoyment of the present moment. Not only that but we have become accustomed to the thinking of “when THIS happens...then I’ll do THAT.” The dreaded syndrome that leaves you never accomplishing anything because you want everything in it’s perfect place. Like one of my favorite quotes says “If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right. You’ll probably never do much of anything.” -Win Borden

       I’m not saying don’t take care of your daily responsibilities all together, to not be ambitious about the future, or to not remember the past that has made you who you are...but what I am saying is that we need to live more in the present than any other place. Because the present is the only time that is promised. The past is forever gone, unchangeable, and the future is too mysterious for anyone to try to figure out. So let us all take a deep breath and leave the burdens of the future and past behind. Don’t you feel that weight lifted off your shoulders?

       The good thing about life is we get to shape our own movie. We are the main characters, and to a degree, we choose how the storyline will develop, who gets killed off and who survives to the end, who co-stars and who is an extra. We get to choose what outfits we will get to prance around in during our scenes, what parts to tell our brains to “edit” out, what moments we want to pause and remember, and what times we rather fast forward through. We get to choose what stud or princess steals our heart, what lines we will have, and what soundtrack will play during our end credits.

       We will never be able to take a time machine back in time or flash forward to the future. So let’s enjoy the age we live in, the age of now. For now is the most golden age of them all. And now is the only chance we get to film our movie and make it be memorable, something we can be proud of, and perhaps have it be a true classic.

       Contrary to some people’s belief, happy endings don’t just happen in the movies. All of our lives can have happy endings...We just have to film it correctly.