I’ve been enjoying going back in time a little bit and discovering movies that I haven’t gotten the chance to enjoy and then sharing my two cents with all of my thirteen readers that enjoy my blog.
No expectations.
No rules.
This week, I decided to try the 2013 Ben Stiller movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
As I sat through the earlier parts of the movie I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between Walter’s life and my own.
Walter and I are both daydreamers. Consistently floating off to “somewhere else”.
Walter and I are both part of large companies that sometimes make us feel more like statistics and widgets rather than people with heart and a need to create. People that work hard on things that matter deeply to them, when the people at the top of the ladder often don’t seem to have an interest in even understanding.
Walter’s company, Life Magazine, was being bought out and essentially liquidated and a lot of the film’s plot centers around whether or not the characters keep their jobs. Walter was tasked with developing Sean O’Connel’s image number 25, which would be used to create the magazine’s final cover. The problem was…. it was nowhere to be found.
I got distracted and had to rewind or pause several times while I watched. I was daydreaming about my book, the characters, and what fate I would decide for them. The similarities in this vein? Nothing short of poetic!
If you’ve watched the movie before, you know why.
Walter plays it safe in the first chunk of the movie, but daydreams about being bolder.
Being able to make the move on the girl he has a crush on.
Being able to jump from a bridge, shattering a glass window while he heroically saves a puppy from a fire.
Being able to live.
The one scene that stood out more than anything as the “turning point” of the entire movie was in the skatepark with Cheryl and her young son.
Walter goes from boring photo jockey to, “Holy sh**, this dude rips!”, as we watch Walter teaching Cheryl’s son how to do kickflips.
Eventually we see Walter longboarding at high speeds through beautiful scenery, jumping out of a helicopter into shark infested waters, using cake to appease Afghanistan warlords, and more.
What was formerly his imagination was now playing out in real time.
I won’t ruin the ending for those of you that would still like to watch the movie, because I highly recommend it, but I will leave you with this.
What do you daydream about that could be reality if you took a chance?
For me, its finishing my book.
Maybe people will read it and maybe they won’t, but I’ll never know if I don’t give it a shot.
What about you?
