Field Day

Lately I've had classic movies on my mind. Today it's Erich Segal's Love Story. The tagline is poetic. Love means never having to say you're sorry. As much as I wish this were true, I don't really believe it. Love, to me, means saying you're sorry if you need to ~ when you need to. Anyway, Oliver's words at the opening of the film are haunting... "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and me?" I read a review of the film once. It's assessment, "Effectively simple and straightforward..." So very, very accurate.

I think I relate to this story on many levels. First, there's the matter of this quote by Julal ad-Din Rumi. It speaks for itself. "The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along." Then, I recognize me when Oliver says, "See, I think you're scared. You put up a big glass wall to keep from getting hurt. But it also keeps you from getting touched. It's a risk, isn't it, Jenny? At least I had the guts to admit what I felt. Someday you're gonna have to come up with the courage to admit you care." Jenny's response..."I care." You know what? I do too.

“Life is short. Don't waste time worrying about what people think of you. Hold on to the ones that care, in the end they will be the only ones there.”

So what, exactly, does any of this have to do with Field Day? It summarily defines my school day today. But there's more... The idiom 'to have a field day' boasts an origin from the military. The literal meaning ~ a day spent in field maneuvers ~ is rarely used these days. Rather, contemporary use of the phrase 'to have a field day' means to have an opportunity to do a lot of something you want to do. Carpe diem. I think I'll make my life a field day.

I want to love like Oliver and Jenny, to laugh...to be productive...and to give a bit of something back. As I prepare for my daughter's high school graduation, I want these things for her as well. And someday, when the time comes, maybe someone will say about me: She was beautiful and brilliant. She loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and (especially) me.

"Live every day as if it were your last and then some day you'll be right."
~H.H. "Breaker" Morant

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
-Abraham Lincoln