This has always been my favorite poem since first hearing it. I was working at a Jesuit university (Regis U in Denver if you must know) at the time and found it quite moving. I wasn’t religious at the time and I had found no peace in knowing God loves me. But for some reason, this poem made sense to me and reminded me that we are at ALL times “in love” with some one, some idea, some goal, some hope, some dream, some thing. And it makes us do everything we do. Being conscious of that, we only choose what we are in love with, for, as the poem says, that will decide everything. I pray that you all fall in love today…
“Nothing is more practical than Finding God,
that is, than FALLING IN LOVE
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.”
-attributed to Father Pedro Arrupe, Society of Jesus
I just finished watching the film Amelie and I have to say that I adored it. It was genius and at times incredibly pretty, the gorgeous star of the picture most obviously, as she is quite stunning. The lead man wasn’t so bad either. (Oh, sidenote: so that guy, Mathieu Kassovitz , played the part of the would-be robber in The Fifth Element. He was the guy with the funny hat who tried to rob Bruce Willis in his apartment. Hahahaha that scene cracked me up! I just found that out on IMDB.)
Anyway, so I had been putting off watching this for awhile though I dont really know why. I guess I really just haven’t been in the mood to see the film for a long time and tonight seemed as good a time as any. I suspect I felt it would be much like countless other sweet love stories that make me want to go hole up in a cave somewhere.
Why so bitter and cynical you might ask? (No I dont actually think anyone reading this is asking that) well, love hasnt lived up to all it’s cracked up to be for me so far. There have only been a few of the hundreds of men I have been involved with (uhhh give or take) who have gone to any great lengths to do anything thoughtful and meaningful, ie. things requiring effort. My personal/emotional makeup causes me to think that the issue is ME and that I’m not worth that much effort, rather than there is anything actually wrong about the relationship or, more to the point, the man I am currently seeing. The problem is this line of thinking plunges me further into self-deprecation and defeating behaviors, therefore I become more bitter and cynical. The neverending story. No not that one.
But with movies like Amelie, we are reinforced with this notion that the “right” one is out there and he will just appear at your front door at just the right time and everything will click and birds will sing and clouds will part and well you get the idea. The sweet thing abut this story is that there was quite a bit of effort put into it.
Now you can say it was the mystery and that whole adage of how a girl is supposed to play hard to get. i don’t know. maybe someone else can comment on this and how it works, but look, I read The Rules and He’s Just Not That Into You and Dr Laura etc etc. They all say the same thing – let the man chase. Fine. Go chase someone else. I’m not a carrot on a stick. But it does beg the question of how much effort am I willing to put in here?
There’s a scene where Amelie is leading Nino to a bit of a wild goose chase in the park. She has drawn blue chalk arrows and did all this reconnaissance to find the perfect place to lead him so he can see her through one of those telescope thingys. Anyway, so she did all this work – in this case it was a “stratagem” as they call it later in the film. It was a way for her to keep her distance and maintain some semblance of control. It was also adorable and of course made a 2 hour movie. the point is that you feel this pay-off at the end because they both put some effort into it and as quirky as they both are you get the distinct impression that these characters will fall in love instantly – not to mention fall in bed soon thereafter. Movie magic.
In a way, I wanted the movie to end with a lingering doubt that any of this happened at all and that it was all in her imagination which is quite rich and fantastic throughout. But that’s just because I’m bitter and probably just jealous of a fictional character in a movie. I’ll admit that much. But seriously it was a lovely piece and I’m very glad I didn’t put it off any longer. Plus it totally made me want to go back to Europe in the worst way. Or at least to a real city.
ps. the end was indeed very sweet and smile smile smile-inducing, G!
this song is on repeat today… i could have written the words. i wish i had!
I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind all these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music
And it breaks my heart…
Suppose I never ever met you
Suppose we never fell in love
Suppose I never ever let you kiss me so sweet and so soft
Suppose I never ever saw you
Suppose we never ever called
Suppose I kept on singing love songs just to break my own fall
Just to break my fall…
All my friends say that of course its gonna get better
Gonna get better better better…
I never love nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost
In the sounds
I hear in my mind all these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music
And it breaks my heart
It breaks my heart…
