Holidays--specifically holidays that Dane gets from work--throw me. I work from home. Combine this with the fact that I stick at this concept called 'Time.' So much depends upon "Is Dane at work? Okay. Weekday." And well...Dane had the day off yesterday. Combine that with birthday celebrations and... LOL.
So, part of my birthday celebration was cuddling up on the sofa with a blanket and a comforting movie. One of the films on the agenda was The Ramen Girl (2008.)
I'm a Brittany Murphy fan from the time of the film Clueless. The Ramen Girl is about a woman who leaves the US for Japan for a guy and gets dumped. She's left emotionally lost and alone in a foreign country where she doesn't speak the language. She's kind of a mess to tell the truth, but so was I at that age. Leaving everything behind for a shiftless man-child is so a mistake I'd have made when I was younger. So, I can relate to her journey. The thing I adore about this film is...it isn't a RomCom. I know it's advertised as such, but it isn't. It's about a young woman who grows up, discovers herself, and finds her confidence and self-worth via learning a disciplined skill in a foreign culture. Casting aside her life for a man is what gets her into trouble. It isn't what saves her. The Universe's lesson for her is that she must be a whole person before she can have a relationship, and in my experience, this is exactly how it works.
My favorite aspect of the film is the idea that when a chef creates soup they put a part of themselves into the food, and their customers take that chef-infused soup and integrate that into themselves on a molecular level. I don't know if that's truly how ramen chefs see their work or not. But in the Japan of the movie, this is why ramen masters are so particular about how the soup is created. People are integrating the soup into themselves. Therefore, the soup needs to be as perfect as they can make it. I love that idea. It's beautiful. I even relate to the many times she throws in the towel--only to pick it back up again the next day. That is persistence. Persistence is not about never giving up. It's about never giving up for good. The movie also quite neatly outlines the distinction between a vocation and a job. And all these things apply to fiction writing.
2 Comments
Stacey Valdez
4/9/2018 03:36:36 pm
Your post really resonated with me. I love Ramen Girl. I just heard your interview on Writers Who Don't Write. I understand what it is like to work from home and can't get anything done when my husband is home. I love that you came into writing later in life. I just turned 50 on March 20th and I know its time for me to start writing again. I survived Bacterial Pneumonia which landed me in the hospital for most of July last year and have felt the same drive to move forward with my writing since I was sick. I love your honesty about older women and writing and I hope you keep breaking down the barriers.
Reply
stina
4/9/2018 05:44:18 pm
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the interview. Happy belated birthday and much luck with your own writing.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
March 2023
|