Nicole

You Forgot – Dog Hates Me.

When I was a kid I watched Gone with the Wind (yes, all 4,000 hours of it)  with my mother. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge film noir fan, and I was even then, so the affected grandeur and garish Technicolor got on my 9-year-old nerves. As did Scarlett. And wimpy Melanie. And cheeseball Rhett (you can see why they patterned Bugs Bunny after him). But not Ashley: I always had a thing for Leslie Howard (Steiner).

Anyway, today I was remembering how even though I didn’t like it much, I still gave the film more credit than it deserves. Remember the climactic scene in which Scarlett, after going through severe hardships during the war, digs a carrot or something out of the ground and declares, “As God as my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!” Nine-year-old me took that to mean that she had reached some kind of transcendance, that her struggles had taught her not to focus on the physical anymore, and no matter what happened, she would be spiritually full. Of course, that’s not what she means at all: she decides that she’ll bend her ethics any which way she can to get ahead in the world because she doesn’t like being poor.

But I think my misinterpretation of the statement has, in some small way, stayed with me through life. Sometimes people can’t believe that I live on as small of means as I do, and honestly sometimes I hardly know myself how I’m getting by, but I prioritize feeding my spiritual self, not physical. Unlike Scarlett, I don’t see selling out as an option. And I have faith that things will work out without having to sell oneself, or even sell oneself short. As God as my witness, I’ll never be hungry. Again.

Brainstorming Reloaded | PsyBlog.

Lost Ukrainian Kills At Open-Mic Night | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

Snowin’ in the Wind? Dylan Christmas album due | Oddly Enough | Reuters.

I suddenly want to watch Love Actually.