Tired eyes

Last week I went to see A Serious Man with G, the latest offering from the Coen brothers, whose movies I love. It left me silent afterwards (very unusual for me) as I contemplated its intricacies and the overall downtroddeness of it. It’s about a guy in whose life everything is going wrong. Depressing really, but done in the Coen brother’s signature style which, somehow, brings a humour to even the worst situation. I must admit that this was not their most humorous though, the ‘black comedy’ being somewhat too real (as opposed to their normal kookiness.) Thus my quietness. I felt sad.

During the movie, the main character, whose life is falling apart around him, goes to the rabbi to try and make sense of things. In this scene the rabbi points out of the window at the most ordinary, drab parking lot and says: "I mean, the parking lot here, not much to see. But if you imagine yourself a visitor, somebody who isn't familiar with these autos and such, somebody still with a capacity for wonder, someone with a fresh perspective... You're looking at the world through tired eyes... Things aren't so bad. Look at the parking lot, Larry."

It made me think, and has stuck with me (obviously, otherwise I would’t be writing about it, it would’ve flitted out of my mind like the million other swirlings that have left me before I put them to paper) and I realized why during my insomniac moments in the early hours of this morning… My eyes are feeling tired, I’m looking at the world through them, tiredly, like Larry in A Serious Man.

Time for me to look at the parking lot, right?