OUT OF MY AFRICA

In Africa, it's the early 20th century just after the first world war ended. A man has invited his platonic friend of 20yrs to go on a Safari with him.


He says that he asked her to accompany him through the wild terrain with no real idea of what the next day would bring.........because...."he knew she would understand".


He has a strange new habit of bringing his phonograph with him out into the jungle. He loves to play Mozart for the chimps to see their reaction, which is usually one of puzzlement and curiosity. Beautiful imagery. He washes her long hair out by hand. Tender is the day.


After a luxurious dinner in the open air which includes some dancing and some wine, the woman starts to tell a story that she is making up as she goes along; it ends up on a white sandy beach somewhere, that seemed "so wide".


Befuddled and lost in her thoughts, she excuses herself, puts her hand on his shoulder as she passes, and heads to her tent to retire as every night previous. After a few enduring seconds, he opens the tent flap to see her pulling off her blouse bathed in the moonlight.


"I'd like to do that". he whispers to her.



SHOCKED she turns to meet him eye to eye.

He traces her bottom lip with his forefinger.


"Does it hurt?"
"NO"



The restraint is too much. They kiss.



It's at this moment that she utters the line of the movie.........

"IF YOU SAY ANYTHING NOW......I WILL BELIEVE IT".





A little much maybe, even for me........ a sometimes grouchy, cynical guy who mistakenly thinks he has seen and done it all.


I was right there, buying my ticket and getting on board... I bought it.....Yes I thought, it's all fkn worth it. That's me up there on that screen, sort of.




Yeah, I like films and yeah I am taking some course now here in the middle of Siberia, but why is this remotely important or interesting? It might not be, you can skip it.



Perhaps to most of us it really doesn't seem believable or familiar and is much too saccharine. In real life it's often hard to get the right words out at the right moment. Or is it?



I know that on some level, it is really the measure of a person to see how they inspire people around them with their rhetoric and their unselfish actions, amongst other things.



What about the measurement of the solitary human being that is faced with a moment, a second to communicate the entire essence of their soul to another. Succeeding in this moment, in real life, there are no substitutes. (The price of failure might only be boredom and monotony)



We are always interested to see whether characters will get it right in the movies, or in the books we read. It makes up for lost areas and imperfections in life.



That's one of the responsibilities of the WRITER that I find fascinating. Fascinating and alternatively sickening.




Here comes the preachy bit. If you have a happy positive relationship, skip this part and refer back to the beginning and the osculating in a tent scene.....




Most people couldn't give a toss about telling their spouse or girlfriend that they they look... brilliant tonight, or that they... wouldn't want to change anything about them, even if they could. They just go about their business of making money, blowing off steam, and ultimately entertaining themselves, taking themselves very seriously in the process.



Two people buy into this dark unwritten contract of awkward silences, dwindling desires and missed vacations; and sooner or later, there is no Safari left to book.



Maybe the only thing left to really enjoy together is that antiseptic movie for 12 dollars down at the multiplex or some thoroughly mechanical sex, taking place back at hoarding central. Sad but true.



So, for the next two hours of chosen vicarious bliss down at the cinema, some protagonist that you can relate to better be overcoming some version of insurmountable odds that lead to an appropriate exhilarating social conclusion.



Just please make me believe it, they subconsciously think, I am not sure I want to believe in my own reality anymore. Suspension of disbelief it is called.



If all else fails, there is always some Zoloft in the medicine cabinet or some cheese in the fridge. It's extra old.



Maybe, I am being too negative. Where did this come from?



Maybe you think that you try your best and succeed most of the time, the lines of communication are open and you don't need some 30 year old writer to tell you what people should be doing, saying and wearing.


You are living in the moment and so is your partner. Bravo, really. Set up a workshop and I will actually attend. Anything available on the west coast?



If this is really the case, then you might want to be thinking about immediately booking your next trip for two to the Galapagos. The adventure of a lifetime(who cares if you are just platonic), You'll have all the time in the world to say the right thing in the flesh, mean it and deliver it....or I will....(humour)


It really is all about me. (re-occurring theme?)



Where did all these pedantic intimacy lessons come from tonight?

I simply thought that it looked like a really cool and romantic thing to do, to wash someone's hair in the middle of AFRICA.



Hmmmmm. A piece of work.



(As a side note to my friend that suggested that I start reaching for the SPARKS. It's happening, I swear.)



Time for some green tea, I might be slightly delirious by now. I will blame it on that. I am suffering from some sort of fever, nothing life changing though.



Waterspout, Sunray, Soap, Kisses, Trees, Wild Jungle Cats, Eye Contact. Oh forget it.


I have got to get out of the house more. Oxygen is often good I hear.



Rick