I just finished watching “Before Sunrise,” a wonderful early 1990’s film about a young couple (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who meet on a train in Europe. He convinces her to get off the train in Vienna shortly after their “meet cute”, and they spend one magical night together before they must part–him back to the United States and her back to France. Throughout the night the young couple talks about anything and everything: the meaning of life. Love. The future. Spirituality.
Almost every “pseudo-intellectual” conversation you can think of is covered in this movie. The couple is young enough to still believe their ideas might be original.
I am in my late twenties and I too remember still possessing that feeling, even just a few short years ago. The feeling that the “deep” thoughts I had might have never before been thought.
As time goes by, of course, we begin to realize that we may never think an original thought our whole lives. In a way this is depressing. I think that is why many adults stop trying to have deep conversations.
When was the last time a co-worker or a friend really wowed you with an attempt at a deep conversation? There is such a backlash against pretentiousness (or is it intelligence) that it is frowned upon to go beyond the superficial. What a shame because I know everyone around me must have interesting interior lives.
Sure those “deep thoughts” are probably not original. But neither is our talk of the weather. Why are we so afraid to put ourselves out there and try to be intellectual once in a while?
Perhaps it’s just because as debt-poor as I am, the only thing I really have are my ideas–unoriginal though they are. After all, I know people have made this very argument I am making right now. Only it seems that such arguments are made less and less.
Anyone else feel that the ability to talk deeply and have a sense of “discovery” about the world is something we lose with time, age, and maturity. The ordinary creeps in year after year until it takes a great movie to even remind you of the thoughts you used to have. Like a meal you used to eat all the time as a kid but now forget it even exists.
Our deep thoughts are just an ember in the memory of an almost-past life. Something that used to be so real but now lurks only in the deepest recesses of our minds.
Like fish-sticks.
Chris Thomas, owner of the online freelance writing and web-copy company, FreelancePF. Chris’s interest in personal finance stems from leaving grad school with six figures in student loan debt.