A Dance with a Good Friend

Life can be awfully confusing. 

The past engrains into our flesh and influences each minor decision we make.

The future looms just barely out of reach, whispering false promises.

The present is consumed by worrying about the past that stains us and the future leading us on.

Life is populated by inconsistent characters and stories that go nowhere.

But a good movie isn't.

I am inspired by movies that tell stories that lure you in and encapsulate you with each element.

I am inspired by characters who's personalities come to feel like extensions of your own.

I am inspired by soundtracks that with a graceful hand, strike chords within the deepest pits of your being.

I am inspired by visuals that by themselves, uncovers a feeling within you so terribly beautiful.

The screen always turns off and the projector fades.

Yet through every bad dream, false promise, inconsistent character and meaningless story, a thought still dances along in my head.

It's dance is majestic and free, and somehow without a screen or projector, it begins to look familiar.

It turns, and appears as the face of a good friend.

It smiles, and everything returns to me.

The story steps beat for beat, the characters feel like close friends, the music strums on with elegance and the visuals appear like polaroids upon my bedroom wall.

I wonder, how can something so distant become more familiar than the friends I've know for years?

How can I be inspired by something so ridiculously simple?

I don't find the dance simple, and no matter how hard I try to look away, it still beckons for me to dance along.

Each dance is more striking than the next, and I find myself inspired to come up with my own. 

Life is still awfully confusing. 

My skin is very stained with memories, the future I face scares me and the present becomes intimidating knowing it affects the future.

But a good movie somehow tells me more about myself than life ever has.

And somehow a good movie inspires me more than life ever had.

Perhaps theres nothing quite like a familiar dance with a friend.