BLOG 208: Serendipity In Action

“Having polled over 1000 linguists , the word Serendipity has been voted one of the ten English words hardest to translate” Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Internet Translations

Today was a Perfect Chilled Out Sunday.  Now I hasten to add what I describe is not everyone’s idea of perfect, but man, it is mine. You see, the thing that stops me just chilling out and enjoying my own space is when I have something to do nagging away at the back of my mind. And there has been something.

For the past three weeks the thing carping away at my conscience was the fact that my house has not had the ministrations of domestic servitude. Basically...my abode has been the party house for three weeks and despite a new dyson (who knew vacuum cleaners could be sexy tech..) I had not quite reunited the status and the quo. Thus there has not been one room in this big ol’ house that didn’t need attention.  The knock on effect of this has been that I could not empty my head and get lost in a movie...  which is normally my idea of a perfect Sunday.

So this weekend, the much needed late spring clean took place and I could relax with a great meal (my butter chicken ROCKS...even if I say so myself) and a long cool summat and tonic on the rocks. At last... after a three week hiatus (which as you know is like forever and a day to me)... it was lounge away and let the land of make believe draw me in.

Movie of choice? Well, I was in a devil may care mood and told my television that it may pick a movie for me. No... before you ask, I do not possess a smart TV... and even if I did I doubt very much if they have a mood movie setting. No, I handed the choice over to fate. First movie I hit... I’ll watch. After all, it is Sunday afternoon and any broadcaster worth their inflated salary would know this is prime ‘classic movie’ time. Unless some fool thought now was the time to re-run Hammer Horrors, I figured I was pretty safe in allowing the fates (and about 200 tv station schedulers) pick 110 minutes of entertainment for me.

So I coasted the channels and the first movie that came up... Serendipity (2001Miramax Films).

It’s curious that Serendipity (which despite the quotation I opened with, kind of but not quite means leaving things to fate) happened to be the movie that came up when I decided not to choose and leave selection to forces outside myself. Sometime you just have to love the universe.

 Despite the fact that my least favourite actress (Kate Beckinsale) co-stars, there is enough in this movie to put it a cut above its genre. Perfect Sunday afternoon (with an empty head, a plate of grub and a cool drink) movie.  Pretty much the ideal circumstances for watching the protagonists trying to reconnect to their youthful commitment to serendipity.The only ghastly thing about it is that  (dare I admit it) it is one of the few movies that absolutely make me cry, every time...which is quite a track record for a ten year old film! Not that it is sad... the story is far from sad, but the storytelling in the movie is quite overwhelming.

It’s the motion picture equivalent of reading Pride and Prejudice... you know the ending but you still feel anxious that the plot twists are not going to resolve in the protagonists favour...so when it inevitably comes about, the relief creates the old moist eye... either that or I need to start watching movies with a less alcoholic beverage! Anyway I think it’s all in the storytelling and I’m sticking to it!

If you haven’t seen it (and I have no idea how) the basic premise is a simple one: ten years ago Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sarah (Kate Beckinsale) meet by chance in Manhattan. They spend a few hours together. They make a connection but all they know is each others first names. Being young and silly decide that if the universe wants them to meet again the clues they leave behind will find a way back to them (serendipity). To facilitate this she writes her details into a second hand book and puts it up for sale, he writes his details on a five dollar bill and spends it - then they go their separate ways. Over the next decade their paths cross without them knowing but they fail to reconnect. A decade after their chance meeting both have reached major cross roads on their lives, before committing to what is next for them, both independently set out trace the other. But the universe will not be hurried or messed with and has its own sense of timing regarding the book and the dollar.

It sucks me in every time.... despite the fact I must have seen it a billion times. That little voice inside of each of us that tells us to give up on our dreams because they just don’t seem possible...  well, it’s just nice to watch the tale of those who are brave enough to shut it out and just go for it. None of us would in real life.... would we? Most of us are like Sarah’s pragmatic best friend; who tells her how it is in the cake shop scene.

EVE: It’s a wonderful thought Sarah, that all of life... is some kind of part of a master plan... if that’s really true then what’s the point of living? Or making decisions? Hell why should we even get out of bed in the morning?

SARAH: For cake?

EVE: No... not for cake! It’s so you make mistakes.... and if you are smart enough you learn from your mistakes. You figure it out... that life isn’t some kind of elaborate stage play with directions for the actors... Life’s a mess Sarah, its chaos personified...

SARAH: I have to give this all up now, haven’t I?

EVE: It’s not giving up... It’s growing up

It’s a dialogue that many of us have with ourselves on that fateful day when we tell ourselves that the faith we had in what ever it was that we thought was going to work out... was misplaced. That it is time to put that behind us and settle for what is actually within our grasp. That doing so would be the mature thing to do.

I do wonder about that quite often.

Actually ... I reckon I know that Eve would be giving me the same talk... my best friends often do!  I’ve never quite got my brain around the concept of growing up. I don’t think I’ve ever quite got around to putting childish things behind me.... and don’t suppose I ever will.

Anyway... back to my perfect Sunday... 110 minutes later, Sarah had proven Eve wrong and the credits rolled.  I had moist eyes (well... Jonathan got to read his own obituary, I challenge anyone not to be moved), but I was chilled, relaxed and my plate carried the briefest memory of butter chicken (and only a chemist could find traces of what was in my glass.) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... it was my  perfect Sunday.

Relaxing in a clean house.

Great food (even if I say so myself).

Random movie... picked by the universe!

Serendipity... you might say!

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