I watched “As Good As It Gets” this evening – the movie with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. I love stories about broken people – where being different isn’t seen in such a negative light. The moments where the actors drop their character’s walls and connect – if only briefly – is spellbinding. Of course it helps when the actors are Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.
I find it interesting – how vulnerability can be so attractive. I wonder how many of our responses are based on instinct. In the same way we might empathise with failure, we feel a pull towards it – to help – to support – to repair.
While I often rant about “people”, there’s an odd duality to my frustrations. I often lose patience with ignorance, and yet if any actual harm comes to those that have raised my ire, the slate is wiped clean.
I’ve never forgotten something a close friend once said, when talking about people from the various cultures he had crossed paths with during his life.
“Folk are just folk really”.
It’s worth remembering that sometimes. Although we might look different, sound different, and come from different worlds, a great many of our values, aspirations, and dreams are the same.
