Gratitude Journal - Day 39

Today I am grateful for a quiet Saturday spent working on bulletins and brainstorming final paper ideas. My background accompaniment for these tasks was a chick flick extravaganza:

• When Harry Met Sally
• Sleepless in Seattle 
• You've Got Mail

What these three movies have in common, besides Meg Ryan ...purrrrrrr..... (but who is not aging well, I might add)....is they're all based on essentially the same story. Girl and guy meet and have no idea that they're meant to be together, so they spend the whole movie dancing around each other - as friends, as strangers who keep missing each other, or as online chat acquaintances. Thrown into the mix are the current mates of both characters, each of whom are of course totally wrong for our guy and our girl. But they can't see it. They're convinced that they're supposed to be practical, responsible, and 'love the one they're with' and not be looking for happiness elsewhere. Of course, in the end there's a twist that brings our guy and girl together and low and behold the blinders come off and they finally have that "aha" moment and fall in love. 

I'm a sucker for these kind of stories. Perhaps it's the idea that "fate" or destiny plays a hand in where we end up, and who we end up with, and as much as we try, we can't escape it. Perhaps its the romantic endings where characters who were once so unhappy at last find happiness. Perhaps its just that I like Meg Ryan - or rather the character that she plays in each of these movies. The slightly naive, straight-laced yet vulnerable, hopeless romantic, who has this dream of meeting a "soulmate" - someone who connects with her on an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual level. 

I think it's the point of connection that I long to see. 

That spark that ignites when two souls come together. 

I like these movies because I have an affinity for romance. The Saturdays spent walking in the park, or meandering through flea markets and museums, the Sunday mornings spent lying in bed (these people never go to church), the dinners in cozy restaurants, the flowers, the hand holding, the first kisses.

I've watched each of these movies dozens of times. 
My wife Stephanie is baffled as to what my attraction is to these chick-flicks. Then again she reads romance novels so we're even - we each have our own guilty pleasure. ;)

And now, some happy endings:

You've Got Mail: