I stumbled across the end of When Harry Met Sally and watched the last ten or so minutes and thought about it and other movies that might make me stop what I am doing to watch for a moment.
Walk The Line, Casablanca, Gladiator, any of the Godfather movies come to mind as well as a few others.
They touch upon a variety of themes, interests and ideas that roam through the empty space between my ears.
The latest jaunt got me thinking about the education you receive from twenty years of letter writing and that made me go back to listening to the song below, both the music and the lyrics.
The moment got me flipping through all sorts of material, things written when I was a much younger man, words that came from a guy whose confidence was sky high and words from a man who felt like he was falling down the side of a mountain.
That last guy bounced off of every rock, and every other sharp object and never stopped fighting to grab onto something to stop the fall.
Twenty years of letter writing show all of the sides, the naivete, the confidence, the shell shock and loss and the guy who came out the other side.
If you watch the video above and listen there is a ton of stuff going on and all of the parts and pieces help make up the whole.
They help make it into something more than it would be, there are layers.
I like layers and complexity as much as I like simplicity.
Red dress, blue dress– I like them both, sometimes one more than the other, depends on mood.
When you have been through the moments that tore you apart and destroyed you there are lessons that come with those, especially when you put yourself back together.
Life experience is a big part of why I am not worried about people testing me because I already know things. I already figured out my red lines and how far I am willing to go or not go.
I already know where my limits are and when I am willing to push beyond them.
Twenty years of letter writing make it pretty damn clear too.
Write The Right Words
Sometimes people ask me why I read through the old stuff. They tell me to remember that people change and the promises that were made may not be the promises that are kept.
My answers are consistent and reflect my belief in a couple of areas.
1) We read what was written because there are lessons to be learned. They might be focused solely upon writing and the things we can do with words.
2) They might provides lessons about people.
Those are the very short and simple answers but they work for me. There is nothing lost in learning more about people and how to write the right words.
The more you understand about your craft and the more you understand about people the more effective you will become at communicating.
In a perfect world you can rely upon simplicity and ask them to spend time with you so that you may exchanges thoughts and ideas.
But that perfect world doesn’t always exist so sometimes you must woo them, male and female.
Sometimes you must spend more time crafting a message that will act like an X-ray and pierce the walls that have been erected so that you might have your moment.
And life is about moments, that is what twenty years of letter writing has taught me.
