Life's Like a Movie: Bachelor Party (1984) When unwelcome memories from my teenage years suddenly resurface like some long dormant disease, they're usually of something really stupid or immature I did back in the day. Not so this time around, though. Perhaps spurred on by this scene in Bachelor Party which I recently caught again on cable, I have as of late been plagued by recollections of the time a girlfriend's concerned father took me to the side for a very similar mano a mano conversation.
In language a bit gentler than what plays out in the movie, "dad" explained that even though he did like me for the most part, it was just a fact that I would never amount to much, was completely unsuitable for his little girl (or anyone else for that matter), and it would be a cold day in Hell before he allowed things to go any further with his daughter than they already had. He did this twice. And yes, being both a smartass and a movie obsessed nut even at that age, each time I was absolutely biting my tongue so as not to blurt out Tom Hanks' closing line about applying myself and becoming a changed person by the end of lunch.
The sad fact is, though, I believed him. For reasons I won't go into, I was pretty down on myself at the time and was more than willing to accept this man's assessment that I was a loser unfit for serious human companionship. So, to avoid causing his family grief, I played the bad guy and broke things off with his daughter, never mentioning these conversations to her. She cursed me then and, if she ever bothers to think of me at all, probably still does to this day. It happens.
As far as bad memories go, it's nowhere near the top, but it's irritating to have it pop up nevertheless. You know, there's a train of thought that the devil loves us to dwell on the past because such a mindset is in opposition to the way God views things. God sees us through the lens of eternity; He sees our past, present, and future as one whole. To God, we're not just the present sum of our past experiences, but also of what we will evolve into over time. And if any changes are needed along the way, he doesn't expect it all to happen by the end of lunch, which is good to know.
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