L: ... make you feel cool. And hey! I met you... you are not cool.
W: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn't.
L: That's because we're uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in this world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don't have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls but we're smarter.
W: I can really see that now.
L: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love...
- Lester Bangs & William Miller in Almost Famous
Yes, we will smirk and dismiss stories & films. But some images, some moments of music, some lines or conversations will reach deep and relentlessly into the dark places and jolt something. If possible, our expressions will remain the same but... watch closely. Eyes will widen for an instant, the bottom lip will be chewed absently and that seating position will no longer be 'that' comfortable. Inevitably, we will search for those in the room that will know exactly what we know in that instant... and Mona Lisa smiles will be exchanged. Because we understand. Because we are helpless.
L: The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool.
Face it... You just smiled.
Comments
interestingly enough, the shared connection is also sometimes sad because understanding silently is all you are able to do.