Another 80's Movie...(yet C.H.U.D. still not getting its due)

Well, I really have no excuse for the lapse in my postings. Work has been a bear, unfortunately and even now, my eyes are glazing over from staring at the computer screen. Let's imagine how nice this blog would be if I were to pursue this as my full time job. Perhaps I should renegotiate with Type Pad for them to pay ME $8.95/month. I will keep you posted on the heated negotiations…

Anyway, I need to get back up to speed. The google searches are flying in which is growing the viewership by incredibly large multiples everyday. So without further adieu, time for a Ronbo passage

Cartoonists with acid-tipped pens portray some of the reminders of our heritage and our destiny as old-fashioned. They say that we are trying to retreat into a past that actually never existed. Looking to the past in an effort to keep our country from repeating the errors of history is termed by them as “taking the country back to McKinley.” Of course I never found that was so bad -- under McKinley we freed Cuba. On the span of history, we are still thought of as a young upstart country celebrating soon only our second century as a nation, and yet we are the oldest continuing republic in the world.

-from the "City upon the Hill" Speech Jan 25, 1974.

Now for the movie moment:
She's Having a Baby A classic from the John Hughes days. Kevin Bacon and his cast with that giddy (I am part of the game now!) look on their faces portray a typical young couple facing growing as adults, new jobs, and growing a family. Although late 80's and looking a bit dated, there are still some classic scenes that I can relate to. Being unmarried and having no children (that I know of, alla Steve Garvey), the family parts are not the most meaningful to me (although the idea that they got married out of college makes me light headed…). The part that we are discussing is Kevin Bacon and his job. First the interview when he is called out for completely lying on his resume and has to answer the all important questions:

Interviewer: How do you feel about slave wages?

Bacon: Slave wages are fine.

Interviewer: How do you feel about alcoholics?

Bacon: (pause)I Like alcoholics?

The questions that seem to be completely worthless in interviews. Being unprepared and getting asked worthless questions. Happens all the time. One interview I had starts with me in a dark suit realizing right before the interview that I had white dry cleaner stains all over my suit coat, and then I was asked about which products I was most interested in in their company, and I named the same one twice…brilliant. Hire that man!

The other more telling scene is when his boss, Dennis Dugan, gives him some telling advice:

DD: I live my life in varying degrees of happiness: I support my family in a way that makes me happy, I have a great house, I have a really nice car, and once a year I write an ad that I'm proud of

Bacon: And that's what you want?

DD: No, that's what I take. You never get what you want. The guy that jumps off the Michigan Avenue Bridge on his 40th birthday wants more than he will ever get. Relax…it only gets worse.

When I was young I did think the boss was depressing, but every year I feel more and more like him. Whether it is Steiglitz, Satre, Freud. No matter the discipline and the equations used, we are all trying to figure out why we make the decisions we do, and how we maximize our own utility, happiness, etc. My own Gen X has people that sit around for months and years wondering what they really want to do. In the end they never accomplish anything. Think of Reagan and other past generations. Do you think they sat around in foxholes in Bastogne or breadlines in California wondering if maybe their calling is to be a sculptor? Now, you can babble about Maslow and self actualization all you want, but in the end I have a friend who said it best: "I always know I am doing what I should be, because I picked the job I knew I was best at." Simple, yes. But when you think of your friend "following his dream" and he stinks at what he is doing. Is this guy going to be wandering around the Michigan Avenue bridge in a couple years?

Comments

[The Misspent Life]

Sometimes people don't get to do what they are best at doing, they just don't get the chance. Their life is misspent. Chances are their dream job is their dream job because it is what they are best at doing. Don't get so down on dreamers because they dream, Reagan was a dreamer--he never settled. People said that his dreams were impossible, but they weren't. Sure, no one is like Ronbo, but should we try?

(I say this hypocritically because I'm the biggest settler out there and am quite familiar with the Boss' speech. How about Sharon Stone?)

[The Misspent Life]

Disregard the Sharon Stone comment. I confused He Said, She Said with She's Having a Baby.