up in the air

the music on SKY fm doesn't calm my nerves tonight. maybe writing might do the trick

Watched Up in the air a few days ago. The show had a surprising impact on my thoughts, especially about how a motivational speaker teaches people how to unburden themselves from the heaviest things in their lives; their relationships. I thought about how Ryan travels, suitcase in tow, emotionless, nothing to weigh him down. Nothing to wait for him, no place where he could call home. His only goal was to get 10 million flyer miles so that he could get all the prestige of being an exclusive member of a flight club. I thought it was a sad life, one void of meaning and relationships.

And then this woman comes along, she makes him smile but his heart is still guarded and she is nothing more than a fleeting fancy, just another exploit. And then a dangerous thing happens. Ryan loses sight of his own motivational speech, be begins to fall for this woman. And with that he gives up a part of his heart, one that was guarded, and for once in his life he feels he needs to pursue this relationship more than anything else. For that he walks out on his own motivational speech, and pursues her..only to find her married with kids.

I saw that coming. and i sympathize with Ryan. He should have followed his own advice after all, where the unburdening of his relationships set him free, albeit lonely path. He twists his own logic and his theory to encourage his scared brother in law to be to marry his sister, because he asks him to think about all the happy times and whom he spent them with. How true.

But he fails to mention all the saddest moments in life are similarly tied in with relationships and the people around you. Too many examples to mention, the death, the loss, the estrangement of a loved one. But we all take the side which we want to hear.

Perhaps the lonely characters in the Murakami novels, the ones that sit at the jazz bar alone night after night, reminiscing about the past, aren't that sad after all.