{"id":1646,"date":"2007-09-17T18:16:40","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T18:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/17\/remembrance-of\/"},"modified":"2007-09-17T18:16:40","modified_gmt":"2007-09-17T18:16:40","slug":"remembrance-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/17\/remembrance-of\/","title":{"rendered":"REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST – TOM JONES AND SO MUCH MORE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom_jones_2\"<\/a>Not to be too obscure here but think about this: Marcel Proust’s REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST<\/a> was inspired by the scent of one cookie (a fancy one called a Madeline.) Sense memory is a powerful thing. <\/p>\n

I saw Tom Jones<\/a> 44 years ago, with my high school “film club.” The club was just 6 seniors and our creative writing teacher. Our mill town high school wasn’t a culture haven but this young teacher was. He handwrote Irwin Shaw short stories onto “ditto sheets” because there was no budget for the books, started a literary magazine (I was the editor, naturally) took us to Shakespeare performances and — started the film club. At first we rented films (screened on a projector in his classroom) and then moved on to evening journeys “downtown” to local art houses. We saw LA STRADA<\/a> and THE SEVENTH SEAL<\/a>, SUNDAYS AND CYBELE<\/a> and SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER<\/a> — and TOM JONES. The films were so intelligent, so clearly different from the “movies” we saw on our own; the theaters served espresso and everyone<\/em> was smoking. How sophisticated we felt! <\/p>\n

This morning as I watched this nearly half-century old film – still funny and charming even though the playful sexual innuendo recalls a more tender time, that 18-year-old girl I’d been came back – all of her. I didn’t know whether to be sad — miss all that I was then – all that’s changed — lost — or just plain passed – or to be grateful for the remarkable kaleidoscope of experiences that my life has been. From the adventure of a 36 year old marriage<\/a> to the joy of raising two of the most spectacular young men <\/a>on the planet to presences at royal weddings and presidential inaugurations, travel all over the world and great music experiences <\/a>to a gentle childhood with talents acknowledged and appreciated to memorable private moments at weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations and other celebrations with family and friends<\/a>, a lot has contributed to the wiser woman I am today. I know there’s no way to live the life I’ve lived – or any other – without losing some of the shiny stuff of youth but even so it’s a shock when awareness of those losses lands on you in the middle of an unambiguously optimistic movie 44 years old.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I think: there isn’t a person on the planet (despite Edith Piaf) who has no regrets. Recalling days that seem idyllic is a privilege – many haven’t got many to recall. Sadness about the joys of the past emerges only from an accumulated reservoir of happiness that is a blessing in itself. As Auntie Mame used to say “Life is a banquet, and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death.<\/em>” My sisters and I swore we would live by that. <\/p>\n

I’ve tried – and I’m still trying. That’s why this blog is called Don’t Gel Too Soon<\/a>. Wherever that 18 year old film fiend has gone, parts of her are still part of me – informing and enlivening the person I’ve become. The real challenge in this portion of my life is to hang onto the enthusiasm and curiosity of those years – never freezing in place. The last line in Tom Jones, one of my favorite anywhere, was written by John Dryden<\/a> – way before movies or even radio. It still works though, and I offer its wisdom for us all. \u201cHappy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not to be too obscure here but think about this: Marcel Proust’s REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST was inspired by the scent of one cookie (a fancy one called a Madeline.) Sense memory is a powerful thing. I saw Tom Jones 44 years ago, with my high school “film club.” The club was just 6 seniors … Continue reading REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST – TOM JONES AND SO MUCH MORE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4,6,42,28,7,8,97],"tags":[2112,1933,192,2109,1217,369,3416,2111,3414,2110,73,800,2108],"class_list":["post-1646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-baby-boom","category-culture","category-family","category-film","category-life","category-music","category-television","tag-life-is-a-banquet","tag-1933","tag-aging-2","tag-albert-finney","tag-auntie-mame","tag-baby-boomers","tag-film","tag-john-dryden","tag-life","tag-living","tag-movies","tag-oscars","tag-tom-jones"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-qy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}