Subjectivity and it’s influence at the Edge

Oh yeah, and Relativity.  You can’t talk about subjectivity without the mention of relativity.  Co-mingled as they say.  In corregated fashion perhaps, but co-mingled just the same.

You may notice a bite of sarcasm or fleeting flippancy throughout this post but I guess that would be one of those subjective things.  I’ve been rather remiss in writing for the last several or more weeks.  It is what’s been causing me to type words seemingly at random, but then maybe that’s one of those relative things.

I had the beginnings of a post last week but you know what?  Too late.  Drive through window closed.  But that was then, this is now.  Still, it bugs me that earlier in the week, in the way wee hours of early morning, some seemingly profound and/or witty opening lines started writing themselves on my mind pad but I was too lazy, too sleepy to get out of bed and upload them.  Serves me right!

The almost intro had to do with a movie I had just watched.  Watched most of  anyways.  It actually took me 2 days to do it!  Believe me when I tell you I am not that kind of person.  It is an abominable thought for me to consider sitting down to a movie and decide somewhere after the movie starts, at some arbitrary point in the movie, to say “hey, I’ve seen enough for now, I’ll watch the rest of it ….some other time.”  Unless the movie totally sucks.  This one didn’t totally suck but it was starting to bum me out. Lucky for me that about 30 minutes into it  I looked over at the couch and noticed my SO had fallen asleep.  Perfect.  “click”.  The movie?  “Seeking a Friend for the End of The World”. 

Ya know how you hear a song or view a piece of art or in this case watch a movie and you can’t get the damned thing out of your head?  Something about it haunts you, nags you.  It burrows into your brain, finds a snuggly little empty spot and it just…. hunkers down.  That’s what happened after I watched “Seeking a Friend for the End of The World” billed, btw, as a comedy/drama. (“Sure that can be a funny topic.  No, no I’m sure there are.  Yes, the violent, catastrophic end to the world certainly can bring out the best in people.  And it can be funny too.” )  

SAFFTEOTW made me think of the S & R words previously mentioned (subjectivity and relativity) and the role they play (or not) in our lives.  For this Girlie, in the midst of some life challenges, I discovered I was vulnerable to the potential “sap” factor present in this film.  Don’t get me wrong, it did have it’s moments of humor and ironic levity (prior to the devastating ending.)  Ordinarily, and especially in times of “crises”, I’m rather adept at putting aside the emotional  in order to focus on the practical.  But not last Tuesday morning when I watched the last 45 friggin’ minutes of this movie. 

…Vary your daily routine by just a little and I tell you –  hang onto your hats!  Trust me when I say all sorts of “odd” things can happen.  The door is open.  LOL.  That particular Tuesday morning I dispensed with my usual morning routine.  Skipped all of it.  I was mixin’ it up, analyzin’, dramatizin’ and prioritizing – you know, trying  to be super practical with my time.  All of it came to a scee-a-reeching halt when I came home to find my SO watching the movie he fell asleep trying to watch 12 hours previous!  What to do?  It was 10am.  I had to be to work in an hour.  Did I really want to finish a movie that just the night before I turned off because it started to depress me?  Really?!  I watched the end of the movie.  

Wow.  So here’s the subjective part:  I did not come away at the end saying “Aw, at least they found each other and were together for the end of, not only their lives, but the life of the entire planet.  How nice they found comfort/solace in each other’s arms as an asteroid totally obliterated mankind.”  No!  I thought it was stupidly, ridiculously, awfully painful, depressing and altogether horrible.  It made me cry.  Dammit, it made me cry!  On top of that it totally bugged the crap out of me that the main character’s (Dodge played by Steve Carrell) recently “adopted” dog “Sorry” (someone abandoned “Sorry” next to Dodge as Dodge awoke from an unsuccessful attempt at suicide) was nowhere to be seen.  WHERE was he and WHY wasn’t the dog on the bed with Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley for the end of life and the world as they knew it?!! What about the dog people!!

In conclusion of this Sunday’s ramble-ette, my reaction made me cognizant that how I related to the emotion(s), how I interpreted the dynamics of the relationship(s) , and how I ultimately reacted to this movie was relative to where I stood that particular day.  Relative to the world I was existing in at that moment in time.  And it made me think what an opportunity we all have to live a little fuller, perhaps less stressful, life each day if we simply stand to the side of subjectivity once in awhile.  If we alter how we perceive people and events and even serious life challenges, then we allow for the opportunity to influence the relativity of those things.