Open to Reaction

Open to reaction.

A struggle I have personally been facing, and often feel that swarms of other people, who are drifting around or passing through me as time pulses on are also enduring, is the problem of vacancy. By this I am referring to a state of self that seems devoid of personal value or fulfillment of which encourages the daily spontaneity and excitement of existence. It seems, and perhaps I am prescribing my own sense of inadequacy to the emotional tone of the general public in a sweeping self-referential manner, that life has lost some luster in the face of this abject time period. In reflecting on this sullen sense of self I wandered into the rental store to find some solace in a science fiction film that would perhaps portray future humans in some sort of Utopian escapade flaunting happiness in their strides and conversations. Instead I found a film called “My Dinner with Andre”. This movie turned out to be a philosophical entre that caused me to want seconds. I use this sort of pun only because the entire movie is centered at a dinner table in a chic New York City restaurant, where two men are reunited and as they find their way through the layered courses of the dinner seem to also peel off the layers of their own lives and, unintentionally, explore a philosophical folly of their varied experiences while apart. One, Andre, reflects on the nature of his mystical search and attempts to suture the value of a life spent seeking abroad to the potential adventure and excitement of the daily routine of living in New York City apartment. The other, Wally, seeks to find the purposefulness in expanding his scope and questioning the plausibility of living an open and engaged lifestyle in which he might see the world as it is; in other words removing his narrowed blinders in order to allow the expansiveness of life to present itself within the moment.
Now I don’t feel the need to get into too much detail, as I cannot do justice to the transient poetry of this dialogue. So I will instead include a clip, approximately 9 minutes in length, of which you should not feel obligated to watch in its entirety although I would encourage seeing the whole film. For anyone who has posed the question of honesty or contrivance or intention or authenticity of their work, or life outside their work for that matter, I think should find this to be very inspiring, if not at least interesting. Also before I get to far ahead I would like to propose that this introduction to the clip is not intended to set the stage of a dismally gray posting, but instead is the platform for which hope and encouragement and vivacity are given room to perform and defy the sheepish or remote nature of our personalities, where these things seem to be enveloped at this time and perhaps need some insistence to emerge.