The Goodbye Girl

I had an epiphany a few weeks ago.  I have those sometimes.  I was thinking about the movie The Goodbye Girl after watching it at Screen on the Green. Eliot Garfield (played by Richard Dreyfus) tells his lover that he hates all of her past lovers. He hates them because they're the ones who walked out on her and now he's the one who's getting all the blame. 

In this statement, Eliot introduces an idea that I think is a pattern of our entire lives. We are constantly repairing or fixing the problems that others have created. These problems may be emotional like in The Goodbye Girl or physical such as leaving a mess in the kitchen or dealing with the tons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.  And then if we take a huge jump from the menial everyday tasks and current events to the cosmic sphere, then I would say that this pattern rings true of our purpose on earth.  We are in a fallen state--though I have to clarify that it was our choice, as it always is, to get into this specific mess of life--and we are redeemed by someone who made the ultimate sacrifice for sins that were not his own.  We live in similitude. 

But life isn't all negative so I have to share something positive about this epiphany.  Similar to the story in The Goodbye Girl, we also find exceptions.  Their relationship worked out despite those other peoples' problems.  We are not only occasionally, but frequently blessed with beauty and we realize that it's worth it to suffer through our own as well as those other peoples' problems. 

And now a line from Guys and Dolls comes to mind: "If there's one thing Sergeant Sarah is good at, it's solving other peoples' problems."

On a closing note: I spent a wonderful long weekend in Fresno last week and I get to spend the day in New York this week.  Hooray for summer!

beck