Wake up!

This morning was like most other mornings in many ways:

• The birds that live right outside of my bedroom windows woke up first.
• The sun came up...eventually.
• I wished I was waking up in the Caribbean.
• A song from an original film score was spinning through my mind.

I've admitted it before, but it's worth mentioning again - I'm a cinematic score fanatic. This morning was different, though, because the tune in my head was from my favorite movie of all time - Joe Versus the Volcano.

I just heard a collective virtual "What?"

It's true. Favorite all time. There is neither enough time nor space to elaborate on all of my feelings about this film. Suffice it to say that its many levels of meaning, symbolism and language move me like no other silver screen product.

I just laugh off the criticisms of lameness, cheesiness and too fairy tale-ish. By the way, what is wrong with a fairy tale? We could use a few more.

But Joe vs. the Volcano is much more than a fairy tale. It's a story of discovery with fine performances (Tom Hanks, et al.), insightful dialogue and an endless supply of metaphor. You should see it, even if it's not your first time. Plus, it contains "The Line". The very essence of my being. The reason to do more than merely exist. It carries a meaning of biblical proportion to me. The Bible mentions the phrase "out of the mouth of babes". Well, out of the mouth of a babe, Meg Ryan, comes this quote: "...almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to...only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement." I immediately fell in love. The moonlight didn't hurt, either. Nor did the fact that this statement occurred on a sailboat out on the open sea.

image:imdb.com

Until this epiphany, I had trouble expressing my sentiments on life in general. Ryan's character nailed it for me with her brief but awesome proclamation:

"(A)lmost the whole world is asleep." Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is false bliss. Ignorance is also rampant, skipping down society's yellow brick road, arm in arm with conformity, bias and narrow-mindedness.

Need proof? Just go to the zoo.

There you'll find the great American family - sitting on a bench, waiting for the tram to carry their over-nourished, under-worked, sunburned bodies to their car; Mom and Dad puffing away on Marlboros under the No Smoking sign while the kids rave about their favorite attraction, "Safari Burger". As you watch the actions and listen to the conversations, you start to wonder that maybe the wrong animals are on display.

Then you get confirmation of such when little Paris is suddenly yanked up by the arm and spanked for running towards the aquarium, setting off a tooth-challenged barrage of expletives from Mom, only to be quickly replaced by family laughter at the baboon's panic-stricken choke fest caused by Timmy's well-placed bubble gum toss. Makes me wonder what goes through the gorilla's mind every day. I have an idea...

Whoa! Reel it in there, fella. Weren't we talking about fairy tales? Ah, yes. Even though dreamers like myself usually opt for the escapist path, the here-and-now offers numerous opportunities for "constant total amazement".

You must be awake, though.

And, although dreaming is usually associated with sleep, this dreamer finds being awake far more preferable to the alternative.