Thursday, December 26, 2013

The Hot Beef Injection

Most moviegoers know the line, "Make my day," uttered by actor Clint Eastwood playing the character of Dirty Harry - although people often confuse the real person with the fictional guy. However, it was such a popular and endearing phrase that Mr. Eastwood repeated it in his speech at the Republican convention in support of Mitt Romney. Isn't it sweet to make people feel like kids again, in the good old days when "make my day" was cool?

A less known phrase, but one oft repeated by teenagers in the late 1980's, derives from the classic movie The Breakfast Club. The bad boy asks the prissy and virginal prom queen, "Hasn't anyone slipped you the hot beef injection?"

Redolent of hot dogs or cows being slaughtered, nonetheless this catchy sentence became the rage - until it wasn't. Naughty humor aside, these fictional high school students have real life troubles, and ask questions which many can relate to, having once been hormonally challenged under-twenty-somethings.

The beauty of this movie, made an entire generation back, is the portrayal of timeless emotions. Insecure human beings wallow in the story of who they are, break down when trust becomes a shared experience, and repressed pain, vulnerability, and a desire to love and be loved spills forth.The operative word here: shared experience.

Who are we without others reflecting back to us an identity? Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all? Those mirrors are alternately pleasing, frustrating, or baffling as embodied in the illusion of "the other."

When we connect from an honest place in the heart, a magical force seems to unite us together in a hug of warmth. And then the mirror reflects back to all in the circle, "You are loved." And we are content.










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