Yesterday, I watched the most beautiful movie, What Dreams May Come, with Tamara. It's one of the few movies I've watched where the main characters actually felt like they were in love. It also has a great artistic bent to it, and the visuals of the movie are sublimely captivating.
And if you're a sap for romance, like me, then you'll groove on the story, which is, in part, that of a man who dies and then reaches back to his wife through her painting.
What would happen if the love of your life left? Would it be as though all of the oxygen had left the room?
It was tough for me while Tamara was gone... I'm joyous that she's back.
A good friend of mine once told me that there is nothing sexier than a man who loves and adores his wife. I'll stretch that a bit further. There is nothing sexier than a couple who only have eyes for each other. When I see that, I wish that for everyone. That depth of intimacy sparks the air around them and brings people to talk of their "magic" long beyond the evening.
On the flip side, is there anything less sexy than a married guy flirting with other women? Oh, but it's innocent and harmless, some say. He'd never do anything with someone other than his wife, they'll tell you. He's just being a guy, others say in excuse for him. Worse, I hear him say, "At the end of the night, she's only one I go to bed with." Some consolation. After ogling, flirting, and touching every woman in the place, his wife now gets to go home with him. I wonder if he's thinking of his wife when they're in bed...
Yuck.
Is it okay for the married guy to flirt? Go ahead... type in "married flirting" into Google. The results are riddled with affairs, the top link pointing to "Discreet Adventures." Yeah. What woman wants to sign up for that when she marries her man?
I bring this up (and passionately so) because I was recently subjected to this behavior by an acquaintance who did this at a party. He touched other women and even lay on top of one as she was on the couch. Her husband was in the adjacent room and he said nothing. In fact, no one said anything because no one wants to ruffle any feathers. He's an okay guy once you get to know him, I'm told. Allow me to call bullshit on that.
If my spouse flirts with others, then flirting with me becomes meaningless. Where it might have been sexy once, it loses its attractiveness. Just like going to lunch with someone doesn't imply a date because I do it with so many people, if I flirt with others while I am married the implication of attraction toward my spouse becomes washed out because it's shared with others. Flirting becomes common and nothing special. Big deal.
I've never heard any woman look at the married guy who flirts with other women and say, "Gee, I wish I could find a guy like that." Instead, I've heard some single women suggest that he'd be fun for a night. But that's it. Until they consider that he's been passed around like so much Jell-o at the table of a potluck supper. How special can that be? Only enough for one night. Maybe two.
On the other hand, I've seen single women look at the married guy who only has eyes for his wife and they light up. They smile and say approvingly, "She found a really good man. He's totally in love with her." That is exactly how it should be. Bingo.
They say that we become who we hang out with.
It would never cross my mind that someone I would call a friend would touch my wife inappropriately. Instead, he would seek to protect her and my marriage from the men who would try to do that.
A friend wouldn't see my wife as a sexy thing he can play with, but rather he would see her as half of me. Because of this, he would treat her with respect and care.
A friend knows that she's mine because she gave herself to me. He wouldn't think of crossing that line.
Such a man is one whom I can call a friend. And those are the kind of people with whom I want to surround myself.
I finished my read and film of the Jim LaMarche book, Up. Unfortunately, I can't upload it to YouTube because their site is undergoing maintenance. When I get it uploaded, I'll post it here.
Off to bed with Tamara's dog, Dochas...
The coolest part of Christmas so far? Tamara called me from Jamaica. I love that woman.
ETC: There are no examples on YouTube of productions like this, so I'm waiting to proceed - copyright issues and all that. Don't want to step on any toes.
With all of my kids away for the holidays with their moms and with Tamara in the Caribbean with her family, I'm whiling away the evening doing stupid stuff and painting. I'll watch a movie shortly, but try this game. I managed to get almost 29 seconds... and if you read French, you'll know what they're saying about me.
One of the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes ever: Space Mutiny! Starring Santa - er, sort of. The three irreverently comment on one of the worst movies ever. Bonus at the end with the absolutely most ridiculous chase scene ever.
If you're not familiar with MST3K, hang in there for the first 15 minutes... the non-movie segments are never my favorites, but the movie bits are worth it.
I've felt for a while that today's necessity of PowerPoint in the business world will be eclipsed by video. Managers will use multimedia and interactive videos to model their ideas and present their facts. The only question is how do we McJob the creation of video so that anyone can do it and look professional?
We're getting there with digital cameras and cell phones being able to shoot movies and Windows Movie Maker being on every copy of Windows itself and the growth of YouTube and Revver and others. That's bringing everyday people into this world of video production and distribution.
But... I want to get back to my statement that video is the way to present ideas and that business folk will seek to present their ideas in this format. Why is that so?
I read a lot. In the past year, I've purchased maybe 50 to 75 books, everything from "Execution," a business read, to "Conversation in Paint," an art book. Great stuff. I like the portability of books. I can even take the to the bathroom with me if I wanted to - The Library, as it's jokingly known in some quarters.
Even 5 years ago, it was pretty much unthinkable that I could drag a video - any video - into the bathroom with me. Sure, there were portable DVD players, but that was movies. What about TV shows? Home videos? These things weren't really available to put on DVD.
The Internet and video iPods and such make just about any video available to us whenever we want it. And a picture is worth a thousand words.
In the last 12 hours, I've spent about 2 hours of it watching explanations of m-theory and string theory, the latest trends in physics to resolve the questions of the universe into a single "theory of everything." It reoccurred to me in the course of my watching these videos that I was learning this much faster with the slick presentation of complex, moving graphics and human expression than I would through books. This doesn't dispense of my love for books, but it does show the alternative benefits of learning by video.
Now take that to the business climate. Do people really like to read the dry writ of reports? Of course not. If they did, PowerPoint would have never gained any hold. Managers want bullets, not paragraphs.
But how much better and more efficiently could we present project proposals and financials in video?
View the videos below - both of these are the first segment in multipart videos available on YouTube. Then imagine reading the books that give this same information. Doesn't video propel you much further along? And if you agree with that, apply this to communication and growth within a company. Would video accelerate the growth of the business because of the greased communication that video provides?
Parallel Universes
The Elegant Universe
Text works today because I can search it and jump into it and through it. For example, in reading a book, I can skip ahead, grab another book to dig deeper into something to understand a concept better. Video isn't interactive. I can't hotspot something and get more information. But I'm sure that's coming.
Video isn't searchable. I can't go to Google video and query to find all of the videos that have a Coke bottle in them somewhere. Only if someone tags the video with text, "Coke" in this instance, can I find the videos that feature a Coke bottle
And so PowerPoint is useful because it is both searchable and I can stop it to have a discussion and drill into a point.
How long before video offers that to users? And how amazing would learning then become?
I recently bought Jim LaMarche's book, Up, for my younger sons. Great book. I've always liked children's literature. Good stories, excellent illustrations. This book is no exception.
But here's what I'm doing with it... I'm reading the story and filming it with scenes from the book.
