Several times each week I will require my offspring to step away from the television and perform some menial task for me, such as “go to school” or “go to bed” or “come eat dinner.” Almost invariably, my gentle request will be met with resistance, usually in the form of six words:
“Wait! This is the best part!”
The response tells me a few things, including the fact that they have seen the show before. Given this intelligence, one might think that I would immediately grab the remote, turn off the TV and move the brothers towards more noble endeavors.
But no.
Little do they know that this particular excuse pushes a button on my heart that renders me helpless and unable to take control of the situation. It is the kryptonite to my type A super powers.
You see, I love “the best part.”
If Verizon Fios and the 7 million channels that come with it have taught me anything about myself, it is that there are some movies that I could watch over and over again. Going just a bit further, there are also countless films which I don’t really need to see in their entirety, but will become completely paralyzed in anticipation of the “best part” which I will watch with a fair amount of intensity. After the part is over, I’m on my way. Kind of like my boys.
So if you are in the vicinity of my family room and we are watching television, don’t even think of pulling me away immediately before Mr. Houseman puts Baby in a corner, Chief Brody shoots the air tank, or Oren Trask tells Catherine Parker to get her bony ass out of his sight. And you will surely get snapped at if you speak to me when Mayo comes to rescue Paula at the paper plant or Todd Anderson stands on his desk and says “Oh Captain, my Captain.” These are just a few of my “best parts.”
Humans are a funny bunch. Why do we get so much pleasure watching a scene that we have witnessed hundreds of times before? It’s certainly not the surprise. But it is a fond moment (in my favorites, it is almost always the moments when justice is served) that we have the good fortune to experience again and again –played for us before our eyesin brilliant HD.
In many ways, our memories are not unlike scenes from the movies of our lives. We have our favorite parts that we replay again and again in our heads, looping endlessly like back-to-back features on Lifetime TV. And then there are those scenes we’d rather not re-live, often switching the mental channel before we get to that awful part. Since we have little choice but to view both the good and bad from our real lives, I’m all for everyone lingering a bit in front of the television for that meaningful moment just one more time. Dinner may be cold, but our hearts will be warm.
The Best Part (Perhaps of All Time) for Yours Truly
