 | This was the movie that first made me realize that love didn't automatically have to be shallow and stupid, as it so often had been cheaply demonstrated by those around me.
Although just about everybody in this forum has probably already seen this movie at least once, I think it bears mentioning in a forum such as this one, because When Harry Met Sally appeals first and foremost to the sense of life in all of us: that part that needs to know that we can actually know -- warts and all -- the true inner core of another human being, and not run away in shortsighted fear, towards a life of loneliness.
When Harry Met Sally is a movie about people learning to not just talk to each other, but to slowly uncover, discover, and truly reveal themselves through the years of talking... in other words, they learn to develop their communication into a tool to heal themselves and others, and to build real happiness.
It's a movie that demonstrates everything Objectivism typically values; it shows that as we learn to truthfully and precisely communicate our inner logic and philosophy, we go beyond the typical travesty that calls itself love... a travesty because it is based on the entrenched belief that we can ever have a blind faith in that person across from us.
As we begin to truthfully and precisely communicate our inner philosophy and perspective, we then open up the possibility to be truly cared for by another, in the form of really inspecting, validating, and correcting our most sacred thoughts and thereby our feelings.
And that is what builds something far beyond the typical blind faith-based love that most people must settle for all their lives; it builds actual knowledge of -- and true respect for -- the other and, most importantly, profound trust. And it is that sort of trust which is the pavement upon which real love can easily travel, if indeed it is not the actual stuff of love itself.
Well, then, how about this:
I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out...
I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich!
I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts....
I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes;
And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.
And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Yeah, that's the stuff.
And until that day when I might ever feel this way again, I can always pop in my copy of When Harry Met Sally.
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