Tuesday, July 14, 2009

It's not personal, it's just business

One of the greatest joys of life is to see someone begin to love something as much as you do. A week ago, Isaac came into my room and shuffled through the books on my table. He then asked me if I had any books that he could read. Glancing over, I had my pick of The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, The Idiot by Dostoevsky, What Color Is Your Parachute (A job-hunting guide), Above All Earthly Powers by David F. Wells, and The Godfather, so naturally I handed him the Godfather. He then headed over to his room to start the book. A few days later, Isaac woke up from sleeping and without doing anything else, grabbed the book, headed over to my bed and started reading. A few days after that, James told me in conversation that he and Isaac were waiting at a bus stop the day before and with the few minutes they had, Isaac took out the book and began reading. What a kid. We even rented the Godfather and he started referring to himself as the Don. "I'm the Don fool".

There's a great line from from High Fidelity that says "it's not what you're like, it's what you like". How could that be any further from the truth. I remember watching You've Got Mail (fyi- I was forced to; ex-girlfriend's high school obsession), and remembering Tom Hanks's character stress the importance of The Godfather in modern life. It's like a male rite of passage. I don't want to sound like an elitist film buff with a stick up my ass, but I have a hard time respecting any guy that hasn't seen the Godfather. Two reasons why:

1. It's just an incredible film (I could go on and on about the subtleties). While I haven't seen many, there are more than a few incredible films in my mind. But very few that fulfill both criteria. Casablanca is an incredible film, but realistically, all it taught me was: 1. Ingrid Bergman 2. "Here's looking at you kid" 3. "Penny for your thoughts".

2. It teaches you life (notice, I didn't say "about life", just "life" which is far more meaningful)

They say there are two types of gorillas in the wild. You're either an Alpha or a Beta. Same goes for humans. Alpha or Beta. Everyone's criteria may be different, but you can't be an Alpha in my book unless you can understand me when I tell you "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse", and that's a simple one.

Who the hell doesn't like The Godfather?