One of my favorite movies of all time is “Moonstruck,” written by the talented playwright, John Patrick Shanley. ( I love that an Irish kid wrote a movie about an Italian family… apparently, his good friend was Italian and he hung out at their house often.)
Today, when I was feeling a little overwhelmed…like everything is up in the air, I remembered one of the best lines in the movie.
Loretta (Cher) shows her father, Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) , the ring Johnny (Danny Aiello) had given her for their engagement. It was his ring, a pinky ring.
Carmine:
It’s a man’s ring…
Loretta:
It’s temporary.
Carmine:
Everything is temporary!
Besides the amazing delivery, it sounds funny… and I always smiled when I heard the line.
But it was only today (more than twenty years later) when I trying to control what I can’t possibly control, I heard that simple line, so clearly in my head, “Everything is temporary.” I finally realized its awesome truth.
–Sue
May 21st, 2009
When we were still in our courting stage, Scott and I took our first vacation together. We went to Cedar Point. For the uninitiated, it’s a roller coaster park… One of the most celebrated in the US.
I like coasters, always have. But there are some I just won’t ride.
We were a few months in at that point, and he had to have known just how much I trusted him when I let him talk me into riding Top Thrill Dragster. Obviously a NASCAR themed ride, it was a take on racing… complete with a huge traffic light and iridescent green cars.
The line was long… really long. And there was a part of me that just wanted to get it over with already. The longer I stood on line, the tighter the knot in my stomach pulled, and burned. Scott was blathering on about how great it’d be, I was trying to keep my knees from turning to jelly.
When we finally did sit down (we sat in the middle…there was just no way I was doing the front car on that one), I began to turn as green as the plastic they were strapping me into.
One look, and he started to think that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. It might have also been that I was rendered mute that tipped him off.
But there was no time to reconsider. Before I could even start screaming for my life, we were up the coaster, going STRAIGHT up. At the tippity top, we hit zero gravity, and for a few precious moments, I took in the lovely coastline and literally felt like I was on top of the world.
And then we went racing back down.
By the time we reached our final approach, my fist was clenched, my arm waving in the air, and I was yelling, “Yeahhhhhhhhhh!”
To say it was exhilarating doesn’t even begin to describe.
Scott was so proud, he bought me a shirt with the words “Coaster Chick” on it.
Right now, I feel like I’m waiting in line for the ride to start.
And when my stomach starts to hurt, I just have to keep thinking about how thrilling it’s going to be when I’m on top of the world.
You’ll know it happened when you hear me screaming, “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
–Sue
May 21st, 2009
