{"id":9982,"date":"2010-04-01T11:09:19","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T15:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9982"},"modified":"2022-10-17T08:13:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T12:13:16","slug":"i-firmly-believe-in-trying-out-your-supposed-opposite-not-only-because-as-they-say-opposites-attract-but-because-you-never-know-if-youve-actually-found-your-twin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9982","title":{"rendered":"“I firmly believe in trying out your supposed opposite not only because (as they say) ‘opposites attract,’ but because you never know if you’ve actually found your twin.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nIn honor of Bud Cort’s birthday, Kim Morgan has a beautiful piece up celebrating Harold and Maude<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I came to Harold and Maude<\/i> late (compared to other fans): I was in my mid-20s, although I do remember hearing my parents talking and laughing about it once. My father loved the opening sequence of attempted suicides, and would start to laugh every time he even started talking about it. I think he felt the movie went downhill after that point, but boy did he love that first scene, with the dangling legs, etc. But it was one of those movies I just never got around to seeing in my teens. I just missed it, somehow.<\/p>\n

I arrived in Chicago, and right around that time Harold and Maude<\/i> was playing in a double feature at the Music Box with Play It Again, Sam<\/i>. Ted was a new acquaintance, a theatre director, and he heard I had never seen it, so we made plans to go. He was so excited to “show me” Harold and Maude<\/i> (you will find that to be true about fans of this film – they ACHE that you haven’t seen it). I have told the story of that night many times, in many different contexts. We went to go see the two films with a guy I was dating (full story here<\/a> – with Harold and Maude<\/i> section included). It was the three of us. What ended up happening, over the course of the night, was that Ted and I became friends (I actually date the night we went to see Harold and Maude<\/i> together as the birth of our friendship), and somewhere inside of me, that same night, I made the realization I would have to break up with the dude I was with.<\/p>\n

It all happened because of my response to Harold and Maude<\/i>, which was enormous, and LOUD. Everyone at the theatre was a fanatic of the film. There was cult-like atmosphere, and I was clearly the only newbie. I started laughing so hard at one point (the soldier with the one arm) and it got so out of hand that I had to get up and leave the theatre. I could not breathe<\/i>. At the same time, I remember tears streaming down my face through most of the film, pain, love, grief, regret, gratitude…. Unforgettable night. Unforgettable movie.<\/p>\n

Yes, a romance ended that night (sorry, sir – you should never “shush” a grown adult when she is laughing spontaneously at something that gives her joy. Especially not if you want to be kissing her later.) – but a friendship was born (Ted and I are still great friends today) – and Harold and Maude<\/i> wove itself into the fabric of my life, for good.<\/p>\n

Please go read Kim’s piece.<\/a><\/p>\n

And happy (belated) birthday, Mr. Cort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of Bud Cort’s birthday, Kim Morgan has a beautiful piece up celebrating Harold and Maude. I came to Harold and Maude late (compared to other fans): I was in my mid-20s, although I do remember hearing my parents … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[1151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182547,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982\/revisions\/182547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}