Airway Heights, WA: Tonight, I saw the movie, Beginners. It wasn't necessarily one of those movies you could throw into the good or bad category. I definitely liked it, but I left furrowing my brow, knowing I'd probably be thinking about it for the rest of the night.
And here I am, writing a blog about it.
The furrowing brow came from the following dialogue between an elderly father and his 30-something year old son:
Dad: “Let’s say you always wanted a lion ever since you were a kid, and you wait and wait, but the lion never comes. Then along comes a giraffe. You can be alone, or you can be with a giraffe.”
Son: “I’d wait for the lion.”
Dad: “This is why I worry about you.”
A review of the movie from
Screened explains it like this:
"There are two kinds of people in the world; those who will gladly take the companion of a giraffe to avoid the abyss of loneliness, and those who will wait for their lion to avoid the equally daunting abyss of disappointment. In short, you can either wait for that perfect partner, or you can compromise and learn to accept what’s on offer."
When I first heard the line, I thought "well, of course I'm going to wait for the lion! I don't want to settle for the giraffe just because I'm lonely or think the lion is never going to show up. Plus, what if I give up and go with the giraffe and then the lion comes along? Then I'll be stuck with the giraffe, knowing if I had only waited a little longer, the lion would be waiting for me!"
But after reading the above description, I wonder if the lion actually even exits. Maybe this holding out for the "perfect partner" is just a crazy idea put into our heads by others that have gone before us who are unhappy in their own relationships. Maybe it really is all about compromising and learning and working with what is in front of you instead of pushing it away in hopes to meet "the one" -- that may or may not actually exist.
I'm still not sure how to figure out if someone is the lion or the giraffe... or if it means I am supposed to hold out for the lion (if he is even real) or go with the giraffe (as long as I'm not with him because I'm lonely). What I do know is that I am so grateful to be in the place where the wild things are. I just hope I will be shown what the hell to do in this zoo.
