New

I just watched 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I had seen it before and when I first turned it there I thought: No! This is kind of depressing. I don't want to sit through the pain of it. But after a couple minutes, it proved to be pretty well done and Sandler's demeanor is so cool and calm he brings you along for a fun ride. The idea of the movie though has an interesting theme which is reminiscent of Groundhog Day.

What if you relived the same day over and over? Wait a minute! Who says we are not anyway? The repetition of our lives is what makes us feel monotonous. How often do we come home and just sit in front of the tv? How often do we grab the laptop to get updated on the latest happenings outside of our own stale world only to realize we have done this same thing everyday for two years? Do we take the same road home from work each day? Do we sit in the same spot on our sofas each day? Our repetitious, static world is keeping us from having a day unlike Groundhog Day or Lucy's Head Condition.

The scene in Groundhog Day where he decides to learn how to play the piano is an interesting idea. If we want to progress, don't we have to take the time each day to learn something new? Adam Sandler had to start each day at square one where he helped Drew Barrymore to fall in love with him all over again. 50 First Dates. Is it too farfetched to think of ourselves as one who needs to start each day with the attitude of getting our spouses to fall in love with us again?

But then, this idea extends to so much more. How much in the world is new? I think people give up on what is new. They view themselves as old, so they can no longer experience new things. They get in their rut and stay there. And, they hate new things. They hate new music and new movies and new everything. They do not realize that when they were young, their music meant something to them because it was new for them at that time. Why would they not want to experience that again and again with the changing of the times?

Perhaps it is juvenile for a guy in his fifties to have spiky hair and wear new style jeans or for a woman in her forties to have a choppy haircut with a tight shirt. There is a certain prejudice young people have for those who continue to try and look young despite age. I am not sure that there is a great solution for anyone when it comes to appearance. Seeing people in wigs and toupes bothers me and I am bald. Should I care? I understand the desire for that. So, I would imagine the important thing is the inner feeling. If wearing hip clothes makes one feel young, then why not?

I know why not, but the important thing for people is to experience newness. That is what it is more important to me. It would seem that many older people feel like they have to have an outward expression of newness to experience a younger feeling. That is definitely a way, but I would prefer them to express it in a different way. Find the newness in life by not reinventing your youth with plastic surgery and silly clothes, but with the inner expression of communication and cleanliness. Read a new book or watch a new movie. Take a new way home. Meet a new person. Tell a new story. Have new desires and make new goals.

And if there is nothing new for you to experience, then invent something new. Do something new, please!...