... but dear God, I'm here. I'm here.Once again, I'm following Laura's lead. I loved her write up about It's a Wonderful Life. It got me thinking about the movies and the lines from movies that make up a lot of our (Laura's and mine) conversations. We rarely talk or email without reference or inference to some movie. Two such movies immediately spring to mind (she's nodding already, I can assure you): The Color Purple and Steel Magnolias. We've pretty much got the entire scripts for those two memorized.
Much like Laura gets her Tom Sr. "fix" by watching IAWL, I get my Laura "fix" by watching The Color Purple. I would like it regardless, but the fact that the movie is (basically) about female friendships and relationships, and it actually speaks to me ("ohhhhh, speak, speak, speak to me, Lawd....") is something of an oddity. (Same with Steel Magnolias.) I tend to be a bit of a misogynist at heart, so my truly deep relationships with other women are pretty limited. Over the years, there are so many lines from that movie that Laura and I have relegated to each other and our friendship, that there are even a couple of them that we've even shortened to acronyms. Yeah, it's that bad (or that good, depending on perspective). Our relationship is, by turns, that of Celie and Nettie (the sisters), or Celie and Shug (the friends, but sans the lesbian twist). In writing this, I just realized that I always cast myself in the role of Celie, and Laura is always Nettie or Shug. We both play the role of Sophia. What's really funny is that Laura and I are about the snowflakiest white girls on the planet, and yet here we are donning black south accents with regularity.
Whenever we get to see each other (not often enough with 2,546 miles of distance between us - it's been two summers ago now), we yell, "Ne-TIE!".... "Ceeeee-lie....." But, slapping the lines from the script to-and-fro notwithstanding - for me, hands down, what sealed this flick as the cinematic icon of our friendship is Shug's song, Miss Celie's Blues. To my mind, it says everything about the bond that Laura and I share. We've been there for each other through it all - life, death, good, bad, ugly, men, no-men, funny, sad, drunk, sober, broke... name it. Sistah, we two of a kind.
I don't fawn over people (well, not much), but I'll go on record here. Laura's been my dearest pal going on 18 years now (and to think that I almost threw that baby out with the bathwater back in '98!), and she is one of the very best of the best in all the world... she's had my back at every turn.
This one's for you, Laura. PMTP. Missin' you somethin' fierce today, pal.
"Celiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!!!"
ReplyDeleteThanks for starting my Friday with a cascade of snot & tears (yet again), dearest. Nothing like a cleansing boo-hoo (AFTER my war paint is on) to release endorphins & purge evil humors.
You know I love ya more'n mah luggage... You're the onliest kind of baggage I need!
Muchos besos y embrazos para tu, hermanita ~
Hey, you oughta know by now that I'm good for it!
ReplyDeleteAnd you, m'dear... are too twisted for color tv.
Ahhh yes-- quite recently, I was told I need "a check up, from the neck up"...
ReplyDeletewhy y'all gonna have to come on and sit a spell (hey I can fake that one too, just ask Miss Laura.)
ReplyDeleteA check from the neck up, hmm ya seem mighty fine to me even from way over here missy. Who ever said such a thing needs to take their own advice and get themselves read from the neck up.
I think I do believe I'm just gonna have to find me that movie and view it.
Hey I'm as snowflake white as you - heck probably more snowflake white thatn you seeing as well I am from someplace where summer is when it don't rain everyday just every other day (just about), well that and Mid-70's is considered very warm.