Short, sweet, and savory:
Today, like most days was spent waking up to the Sun, greeting the early morning with yoga, scrolling through emails, driving to the gym, meeting a friend for dinner, catching up on self-care appointments, and making time to call family. While I find joy in these small moments of connection and solitude, I also am faced with the reality that without change, and building new bridges, life will become mundane. So tonight we are trying something new. We are actually going to watch a movie with meaning, we are going to stay present in the narrative and understand the characters for who they are.
Now, I am busy. Don’t roll your eyes. I know, we are all busy. But, spending time on television is not a habitual act of mine. In fact, it’s not something I do often anymore. For that, I am grateful.
However, tonight we are settling in with a hot cup of lemon tea, our comfiest blanket, and our favorite salad from Greenleaf.
The scene is set, tea in hand and remote ready to scroll through the options. So what is the pick of the evening? Will it be a comedy? Are we feeling dreamy and escapism or are we rooting ourselves in steadfast reality, grounding our soul to the harsh Hollywood version of today’s world? Scrolling, flipping, switching between options, we choose reality, that sweet sensation of feeling present and focused at the moment.
I chose the Ides of March.
Originally known as the 15th day of March in the Roman Empire, and the day to settle all debts. In Hollywood’s eyes, it’s a political flick resonating with the 2000’s political arena. Pulling in wide-eyed seeming Ryan Gosling, political expert George Clooney, young and restless Evan Rachel Wood, and intellectual stand-outs like Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Gosling runs Clooney’s political campaign for president, crafting perfect campaign speeches over-flowing with jokes that highlight public relatability and tossing forth ideas that one-up the competition on every backhanded move.
While Gosling believes Clooney is the only electable presidential candidate, he is naïve in his beliefs. He is going against political opponents with marketing experience decades beyond his own, only to find his opponents have outwitted his state by state, leaving him in the shadow of his own defeat. While he uses white papers and political poetry to master perfected purposeful prose, he loses himself to the game, grasping for a breath of air when there is non to be had. Stuck between pulling for his white knight Clooney to capture Giamatti’s queen.
A Poem for the Piece:
Perpetuating political Reign
Realigning morals against Virtue
Vultures preying on the Innocent
Incumbents inoculating wide-eyed Does
Donning animals they don’t Represent
Residing on pedestals with false Purpose
Perfect Pictures
Popular opinions Squashed
Semi-imperfect people in Training
Terrific tendencies to truthfully Share
Supportive tangents like this Poem
Presidential candidates founded on Fortitude
While the poem was fun, we are not done. To wrap the tale, all I will share is that scandal and corruption are the basic necessities for any political proposition. While Gosling attempts to defend the government and political truth with honor, he fails to realize that he is the only one playing this game. He is just too late to play his hand by the time the dealer calls the bets, leaving him high and dry, without luck, and overplayed. It’s sad to think that politics is truly a game of all games like this. While we see it as leading change and future generational prosperity, in reality, it is nothing more than one person trying to outsmart the other, a game of intellect and wit. How can you stay one step ahead? But that’s life baby, just let it roll.