Labor Day

I can't help but feel significant counter transference whenever I watch "It's a Wonderful Life," which I haven't watched in a long time...but I hear this quote in my head every single day, even if I only see the movie on an annual basis:

(George to Mary)

...I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow and the next day and the next year and the year after that. I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon...the Coliseum. Then I'm coming back here and go to college and see what they know and then I'm going to build things. I'm gonna build air fields. I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high. I'm gonna build bridges a mile long...

I feel like that a lot. I feel like Memphis is one big small town where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is in everyone else's business, and there's always some third party connection between all people, and I just want more out of life than this crummy little town has to offer.

I ran into some girl the other night who immediately approached me and said,

"Didn't you used to date (fill in the blank with an ex-douche's name circa 2007)?"

And I thought to myself how depressing it is to be remembered for people you've dated.

Then I met a Pharisee for lunch last week. I haven't seen this person in five years. Randomly she asked if I'd like to go to lunch. I thought that was a nice gesture.

Big mistake.

Lunch entailed her telling me I was "living in sin." I always thought living in sin meant co-habitating before you're married. That's what old people and movies say, anyway. But to this particular legalist (I know "legalist" isn't a real word, but it works, so bear with me), living in sin meant whatever it is that I'm doing. Isn't that weird? I didn't even get mad. I wasn't even surprised. I just thought how depressing it is that this is the culture in which I live in this crummy little town, suffocating under the legalistic and self righteous buckle of the Bible belt.

I got a redemption call from a friend back in L.A. I told him about my experience and he quoted,

"My jaw is agape."

Thank God other people think that these types of occurrences are completely bizarre.

And all of it started with this here Blog. The girl who met me for lunch said she'd read my Blog and concluded that I am living in sin because of it.

I apologize to all of my readers who constantly provide supportive and raving feedback about the attention to detail and humor that I provide in this here online journal. To you, I apologize for projecting an image of me living in sin.

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Anyway, it's real easy to get caught up in the small-mindedness of people in this town if you aren't careful. It's easy to chalk up this culture to very small and routine living if you aren't constantly in tune to your own lifeline, whatever that may be.

My lifeline has consisted of making to-do lists and being more positive about living in Memphis by taking advantage of its cultural opportunities.

Yesterday, I went to the National Civil Rights Museum.



Walking through the museum and watching educational videos and standing behind the balcony where Martin Luther King got shot made me feel like I was learning something - like Memphis is pretty historically rich, if you can look past the fruitcakes who live here and see the soulfulness of the culture as a whole.

There were two drunk ladies walking around who created some much needed comic relief, too, which was entertaining. You could smell the booze and cigarettes a mile away, and they kept taking pictures of everything, even though it was against the rules, and they'd mutter things about how they were going to get shot for taking pictures, but they didn't even care.

Oh, hilarious patrons of the National Civil Rights Museum. Thank you for making me appreciate my Labor Day.