Reflections - April 15, 2014

There’s No Such Thing as ‘Out of The Blue’

There's No Such Thing as Out of the Blue

While I was home this past weekend, Dad and I stumbled upon The Wedding Date while hopelessly scrolling through channels after watching the terribly disappointing The Secret life of Walter Mitty (what the heck was that?). Anyway, the movie [the Wedding Date] was super cute and a great chic flick, but movie critiques aside, I’m bringing it up because of a quote that stuck out to me.

Let me give you a little background on the plot and then I’ll set up the scene. Kat (played by Debra Messing) hires an escort (Nick played by Dermot Mulroney) to be her date/pretend fiance for her sister’s wedding.

Okay so two things: 1) her ex fiance is the best man in the wedding so 2) she hires the escort to basically just be a “prop” (so-to-say) to make it seem as if she has moved on with her life and is completely unaffected by the fact that she was dumped.

So now to the scene I’m getting to – Kat and Nick are talking about a comment that Nick made in an interview. She disagrees and reads this section to him,

“You said (and I quote) , ‘I believe every woman has the exact love life she wants’…do you honestly believe that I want to be single and miserable? Do you think I want to be hung up on some guy who led me on for years and then—out of the blue—shattered my heart?” 

And then Nick replies, “First of all, there’s no such thing as “out of the blue”. And secondly…. yeah, I do.”

She yells “What?!!?”

and Nick responds, “When you’re ready to let go, to be un-single and un-miserable….you will. Till then….” and walks away.

Hearing this really made me think. It’s such a simple little comment – about there being no such thing as out of the blue. It’s such a simple comment, yet it’s so strikingly profound. And although the context is obviously strictly relating to relationships, I’d be willing to argue that this simple truth could apply across a number of domains.

I mean, think about it. Wouldn’t you say that more often than not, things somehow seem to sneak up on you? Maybe it starts as a tiny little seed/thought planted in your mind. But little by little, that once unnoticeable little bit of nothing becomes something more – something you can’t really ignore. Over time, it grows as you shine light on it, feeding it energy and attention and thus bringing it to life. And before you know it, the thought (that was once barely there) has become a full blown opinion and then (heaven forbid!a crystallized reality – albeit in your mind.

These things (often leading up to big decisions/realizations/etc) build up over time. So when you think about it, tragic accidents and the like aside, you really could argue that there’s no such thing as out of the blue. We’ve all got a gut…that deep (sometimes dark and suppressed) feeling/voice/sense somewhere inside that tells us something we don’t want to/aren’t ready to hear. And even though we may choose to shut it out at times, that “gut” always has something to say. And more often than not, it starts with a whisper and then slowly, over time, starts to build volume. And then before we know it, it’s screaming at us “out of the blue”. But then again, was it really out of the blue?

Obviously this little quote is just from a movie and can’t really be applied to every situation. But it got me thinking…so I wanted to pass that thinking along to you. Take it for what it’s worth – just something to chew on and think through – not some over-sweeping generalization about life as we know it. So do just that – chew on it. And let me know what you think/how you digest this little nugget of movie-quote-knowledge!