It was just when I was your age I had seen these movies, I had read Shakespeare and I had listen to Bach. This is why I just find it hard to believe that one has never seen a Bogart film or a Peck film.
I hope you can see where I am coming from.
There are many different types of people here on HHW. Different backgrounds. Different professions. Different nationalities. Different experiences. Different ages. Different generations.
We are all bound to cringe when the phrase, "When I was your age..." comes up. -Come on, you know you did. ;-)
I've read a lot of books. I've seen a lot of plays. I've seen a lot of musicals. I've played for a lot of musicals. I've played a lot of classical music. I've played a lot of popular music.
However, I still have a list of books I want to read. I have a list of movies I want to see. I have a list of plays I'd like to see - and will most like just have to settle for reading. I have a list of scores I would like to play through - and, in my dream of dreams, even conduct one day.
Among all these lists are some "classics", "near classics", and just plain ole "fun" titles. Will I ever get to read, watch all of them? No. Will I ever get to play/conduct everything? No. Simply because those piles will continue to grow... and grow.
I readily admit there are some "classics" from all fields that I have not experienced. And there are some I'm just not inclined to experience. At least right now. My inclinations may change over time. They may not. Does that make me less well-rounded? I hope not. I think not.
Do I think someone who has never seen something like
Sweeney Todd is not culturally aware? Do I think someone who has never been to the Met has been "deprived"? Do I think someone who has not read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in the original language is "culturally stupid"? (My quotes, not yours.) Do I look down on someone who can't tell the difference between the
melodies of Faure and the
lieder of Brahms? Will I write off someone simply because they have not seen
Casablanca?
Breakfast at Tiffany's?
The French Connection?
E.T.?
Out of Africa?
Chocolat?
The Return of the King?
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. And No.
The world is an ever-changing thing. Culture is an ever-changing thing. The educational system is an every-changing thing - for better or worse.
And as DR Sarah pointed out a couple of days ago, some of us have others things to deal with in our lives. There is school. There are friends. There is family.
We see different things. Go to different places. Meet different people. And spend our time differently.
Who knows? Maybe DR Jason has seen the same amount of movies, listened to a similar amount of music, attended the same amount of plays and musical that
you had when
you were
his age? And after talking and meeting with Jason - and even from his posts here on HHW - I would say the amount of experiences is comparable. However, it would be impossible for him to have experienced the
exact same films, music and theatre that you had when your were his age. It's just the age difference, the different generation.
A quick for instance - Have you seen all the plays and musicals that Jason has seen the past year in NYC? Heck, even in the past two months? And when was the last time you were at The Met?
We are all the sum of our parts, our experiences, our contacts, our geography... And that's what makes all of us different.
Finally, we all even write differently. And sometimes the "wink in they eye" and the "pat on the back" is hard to infer from time to time. Just the nature of the printed word.
And that's what makes horse racing!
-Or something like that!
