All I Want Is You

All I Want Is You by Barry Louis Polisar



The scary thing about art are those times when you're looking for it to answer current life situations. When life is good or status quo this isn't much of a problem. You watch the movie, take in the song, read the book without much thought about how life is or isn't like whatever it is your consuming. When things are good, you can enjoy the art for what it is. This is why art imitates life.

But when things are bad, well... life starts to imitate art. Art becomes another answer or insight to one's current position. Underachieving? Flip on "Good Will Hunting" and suddenly you ARE Will Hunting. You identify with everything Will is going though, sure he's a math wiz, but that's not the point when you're underachieving. Only Will Hunting knows how you feel. When you snap out of whatever funk you're in, you realize that this is outrageous—you aren't Will Hunting because Will Hunting only exists in a movie.

Right now I'm in one of those, life imitates art stages. When I saw "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" I tried to find meaning in my own breakup with The Girl—why couldn't we be Joel and Clementine? (well maybe not those two, but the true loves who couldn't run from love and fate). And then I saw Juno last night... and well I couldn't help but think of about a few people.

Juno WAS The Lou.

The world sees The Girl as Vanessa, which is unfair and made me sad. I know better than that, I know about her complexities, passions, and how she's oh so much more interesting and real...

I could and may very well probably become Mark.

I even saw the Girl and my relationship in Mark and Vanessa. Mark gave up so much for her, everything really, and he discovered that he didn't like it. Mark's immaturity lead him to the alter with Vanessa (irony!). Personally, the Girl and I didn't break up for the same reason, I hadn't compromised everything, in fact I wouldn't allow her to censor me. And that's why we broke up (of course it's much more complicated, but you catch my drift). As much as it sucked then and now maybe it means I won't become Mark...

Anyway, as the post-breakup shit unfold it eventually led the Girl to tell me something that no one had ever told me: "I'm not the right woman for you, Bobby."

And now when I think about what The Girl said, Mac's words to his daughter seemingly are coming out of the Girl's mouth at that moment. The Girl had seen Juno about a week or two before.

Life imitates art.