Blazing Saddles, Batman! I'm A Jerk Because Everything I Learned Comes From Movies.

To say that the last few months have been a little chaotic would be an understatement of epic proportions. A little rewind is certainly in order. 2 years ago, I decided to end my marriage, move out and venture forth in doing what I wanted to do to make myself happy. Little did I realize, at that time, is that the past can be unforgiving. I have a pork chop in my back pants pocket and that little wolf of a past keeps nipping me in the ass. What else should I expect after almost twenty years of one crazy carnival ride?

*I started this almost nine months ago when things were a bit chaotic in my life.

For some reason, when I need a few words of encouragement (or something semi witty to say), I tend to lean on a few well worn words from some of my favorite films. Horoscopes and fortune cookies have nothing on the powerful words of wisdom found in movies (more often than not in comedies, of all places). The one that has been cropping up recently is “Out of chaos comes order,” which is spoken by Howard (?) Johnson in the classic Blazing Saddles.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: There's, another example. See, here I'm now sitting by myself, uh, er, talking to myself. That's, that's chaos. (Jurassic Park, 1993)

*I truly had some sort of direction for this mess.

Most of this stuff enters the brain via osmosis, the primary learning style of school aged kids around the country. Beauty, Clark. It is not that I sit in a theater with my handy-dandy notebook and scrawl out lines of dialogue that I like. Nor is it that I enjoy the various quotes that kick my gag reflex into motion such as the ones that has everybody reciting them so as be part of the pack and less of a lone wolf. No! I enjoy the throw away stuff, the rejoinders that are often missed because they are uttered after the big line and, thus, getting trapped under an avalanche of laughter (usually). Since I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue, I would be able to list an entire page or two of movie quotes that you would, undoubtedly enjoy. I can't and I won't (I am too lazy to look everything up). There is a simple beauty in a couple of words that are well placed in the chaotic frenzy of a verbal tennis match. So, where am I going? To the end of this fence. This is where it ends for me and for you to begin. Be a nugget finder.

I guess that, what I am trying to say is this...you can find solace and comfort in something as “low-brow” as a movie. Don't be afraid to embrace the quirky or the odd. And, who's to say Navin Johnson is less of an intellectual than Plato or Aristotle? So, with that, I am going to end this episode, grab my thermos and go enjoy some pizza in a cup.