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BY JENNIFER SILVERMAN
I am consistently astounded by the innate abilities of others.
How is it that a task that I unsuccessfully devote ages to can be accomplished by someone else in a snap?
Parallel parking comes to mind. I failed it during my driver’s exam, and it has failed me ever since.
Then there are the boundless contraptions for which I’m perpetually plagued. It just so happens I’ve maintained my struggles to operate can openers and differentiate between wire cutters and pliers since adolescence.
I also marvel at the prowess many folks possess to withstand the temptation to take a binge to the nth degree. Leaving well enough alone has always eluded me. If I start something, by golly I’m going to finish it - with precision.
If I vacuum one area rug, I must vacuum all area rugs.
If I bust out my new label maker for one bin, I’ll of course need to re-label the gobs of other bins in identical fashion. You get the idea.
Likewise, over the past few weeks, I’ve been thoroughly devoted to a Julia Roberts movies binge, focusing on films circa the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
I’m not exactly certain why this particular binge beckoned me.
Per usual, I’ve been all in though, enjoying one Julia Roberts’ masterpiece after another and another, and another.
Surprisingly, the Julia Roberts’ classic that inspired the most musings for moi was 1999’s Runaway Bride featuring the dynamic, Julia Roberts Richard Gere duo.
Directed by the hilarious Gary Marshall, Runaway Bride is an absolute delight, and utilizes breakfast of all things to impart a profound lesson.
Roberts’ character was a well-intentioned bride who unwittingly jilted many a groom at the altar. Gere played a know-it-all newspaper columnist who was frequently accosted by elderly ladies in the street.
When the reporter began observing the nearly four-times-over-bride-to-be, he realized that each wannabe groom claimed the “I don’t” perpetrator preferred her eggs the way he did – from scrambled to poached, to everything in between.
When the duo inevitably fell for one another, the almost Mrs. came to realize that the aspiring grooms did not truly know her, and that she in fact did not know herself.
After also sprinting away from Gere’s character before “I do”, Robert’s alter ego sat down to a smorgasbord of egg dishes – sampling each to finally conclude that she herself preferred eggs benedict.
The film, of course, concluded with the happiest of endings for the couple, complete with a bride who found herself and thereby forfeited her running shoes, and a groom who valued her for who she truly was.
I haven’t been able to get the image of Roberts surrounded by an abundance of egg dishes out of my mind.
In the film, Roberts’ character came to the realization that rather than simply being herself, she acclimated to the preferences of all the prospective grooms.
It was only after taking the time to find herself - eggs and all, that she stopped running.
I once read that lessons repeat until we learn them fully.
I’ve realized lately in both my own experience and in that of gal pals, that the temptation to assimilate and acquiesce to others’ inclinations is so very compelling.
Often, we don’t realize we’ve gotten lost until one seemingly insignificant comment (like breakfast preferences) alerts us that our internal compass has been compromised.
It’s only when we stop running from the life that we want for ourselves and dine on eggs to our own liking that we finally find our footing, which incidentally is even better than the best eggs benedict.
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