Like the Movie, Only Better

To compensate during the writer's strike I've been reading a lot more, perhaps ripping through a book or two every week. I've also been watching a lot of movies and much to [probably] my mother's dismay, I've been going out with friends too much and drinking too much but subsequently been having a lot of fun, perhaps too much fun? This is one of those moments that feels so good but is also so scary. It's like I'm on the first page of a new chapter of my life...

Anyway, right now I am reading a book that I can feel changing me with every page I turn. It's so good that I want to sit down and read it all in one bite, like a giant Magnolia cupcake. Except it's so good that I also want to savor it, much like said cupcake. I find myself wishing I could read faster so I could get to the good parts (my friend tells me the best is the last section) but then again, I'm enjoying the middle section so much that I almost want to leave it untouched. I almost want to stop reading it so that I don't have to finish it; I have commitment issues. It's this sort of double-edged sword. And I absolutely love that! I love falling in love with a book, with a movie, with a moment so much that I wished it never had to end but am so anxious for it to end so it can be a complete love. So I can relish in its every complex moment, its every last detail. So I can share the love and pass on the joy that this book/movie/moment has brought to my life. The clarity. The AH HA moments and the moments where I pause to to reflect on just how it is that this is affecting me. Just what it is the author is trying to really say, beyond the words written on the page. I love this book so much I might read it again, which, for the record I've only done with two other books in my entire life: The DaVinci Code and To Kill a Mockingbird. I'll rewatch a movie fifty zillion times (hello, Garden State) but when it comes to taking the time and the effort to reread a book, I always somehow say no.

I've been replaying this one specific paragraph in my head for the last 24 hours. The author talks about how every city has a word that describes it and its people perfectly. Rome, for example is "sex." She goes on to say that NYC's word is "achieve" or "succeed" which, who can argue with either one of those? She was then asked what her own word would be, and was unable to come up with an answer. If someone were to ask me what my word is I don't think I'd be able to come up with an answer, at least not right away. Trying to quantify your entire life and existence on this planet using one and only one word is no easy task. It's like asking an artist what inspires them; there is never just one answer. The possibilities, in a way, are endless. But. If I really had to, if I was with my back against the wall and absolutely had to come up with one word; one single answer; for right now, in this present moment, I'd have to say...


ALIVE!