The Wonder Twins
“Why
did I agree to go out tonight?” is what the text on my phone read.
The text message came in at a quarter to midnight. I was at home,
watching the movie Die!
Die! My Darling! for
the first time on TCM (A film that I've wanted to see for a long
time, but was mostly a disappointment). The text was not a cry for
help from a night gone sour, not remotely, instead it was a text of
despair from a friend of mine who makes up half of a superpower that
fights crime in the most amazing way possible. We never actually go
out and fight crime. We're like The Wonder Twins, only we're The
Wonder Twins of Anxiety and Needing to Be Alone To Recharge.
That's exactly the situation my friend was in, she had spent most of
her day out with people socializing, and she was desperately pining
for the peace of being alone with a book. She pines for books, I pine
for movies. On that particular day I was most sympathetic with her,
as my day had been spent taking five hours to watch a 90 minute long
Abbott and Costello movie. My day was filled with casual
interruptions and giving relationship advice to friends. Now, all
together, that doesn't bother me. I'm kinda glad that people feel
they can come to me for advice.
However,
I woke up in a mood that morning, and I was unable to shake it as the
day went on. Finally around noon, I knew I had to do something to get
my brain onto a happier path. “Why don't I watch some Abbott and
Costello movies today?” I thought to myself, as their films were on
repeat quite often when I was a kid, I had all the really good ones
on tape, and I still keep my VHS copy of Abbott
and Costello meet Frankenstein on
my desk. A few years ago for Christmas, my parents gave me the DVD
box set of all the films they made for Universal, and the tapes went
into storage.
I
walked over to my DVD shelf, which is the land of wonder and
happiness, and picked the good sized box off the shelf. Opening it up
and reading over the list of 28 films I had to choose from I picked
Hold That Ghost,
one of their best films, and one that I loved as a kid, but hadn't
seen in a number of years. It was exactly what I needed, my mood was
being push away, and I found myself starting to feel back to normal.
Until the phone rang 15 minutes into the film.
“Hey! We're in town and we're bringing the kids over to meet you!”
boasted a family friend I hadn't seen in a long time. I paused my
movie, and spent an hour and a half with them. I was happy to see
them, but I was even happier to get back to my movie. Here is when
being half of a unique brand of Wonder Twins comes in handy.
I bet that some of you reading this just stopped to say “He'd
rather watch a movie then spend time around people? What's wrong with
him?” Nothing, there's nothing wrong with me or my friend who
desperate needed some alone time. We're not anti-social, just a
little selective about how we socialize. When the times comes that we
need to recharge, we need to recharge, and we can't do anything else
with any sense of peace till we do.
We can smile, and we can fake that we're having a good time, even if
we wind up sitting in the corner just quietly observing everyone
else. For my friend and I, our books and our movies is our precious
oasis away from the rest of the world. A chance to get out of our own
heads for a while, and shut off that voice that keeps telling us what
we can't do. A voice I think we all have, even if we don't wish to
admit it or not.
I think that's why I was moody in the first place, I sometimes get
short lately with people who always make it a point to critique my
taste in movies. People assume I don't watch new movies, I do, but I
just don't talk about those as much as my classics. What people don't
understand is that I don't see this films as having an expiration
date on them. A time when you have to stop watching them, and they
become irrelevant. “This movie is 50 years old” says to me “Ok,
so I have to think about when it was made and what was going on.”
But outside of that, if it's a good movie, it's a good movie.
Yeah, I own more older movies than contemporary ones, because
they're a big part of me who I am because they were always around me
for as long as I could recall. Why it bothers people I never
understand, because is one small way they're trying to say to me “You
should change who you are to fit in better.” Which is a bunch of
crap. So yes, world, my friend and I are The Wonder Twins, and when
we recharge ourselves and activate our secret powers, nothing can
stand in our way of doing amazing things. Would I prefer to “fit
in” or be a Wonder Twin? I'd rather be a Wonder Twin. Because being
a Wonder Twin along side my friend is saying that we don't need to
keep up with everyone else to be happy. It's kinda awesome to live
that way.
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