I watched Mad Men last night and really liked one of the lines. Four people snuck into their boss's unlocked office to look at his new painting. (It was a Rothko.) Ken, in the elevator afterwards, said: "I could write a story about this: The Day We Looked at the Painting."
It would be a cool story too. It was a neat little scene: suspenseful, funny, and introspective. I forget sometimes that that's all short stories need to be, just an interesting moment. If you watched the episode, you'd realize that while Ken's story would be interesting, it would be completely different from the story Sal would write. Ken's story could be incredibly well written, and expertly capture all of the emotion, but be totally unaware of how enormously different and significant the moment was for Sal.
When I'm in a car on the freeway, I'll sometimes try to catch a quick glimpse inside the other cars driving along side me. I've thought before that there are entire universes existing inside each car, that I am completely unaware of, but driving right next to. That's what that scene in Mad Men reminded of. There were three people in the elevator (one took the stairs down out of fear of being caught). They all just had just done the exact same thing, but each had a vastly different experience.
1 comment:
I'm glad someone else in the universe has this car moment. You pinned my experience precisely.
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