Last Saturday, Chaz and I were at his place watching movies. One of the ones we watched was “American Beauty” with Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening.

But, it’s not the dysfunctional family that Spacey, Bening, and Thora Birch (as their daughter, Jane) portray that’s the main thrust of this film. It’s the message.

Nothing is what it appears on the outside. There’s always something deeper that no one but a few people catch the first time.

One of the characters was a young man in his late teens who made movies with a handheld camera of what other people think are weird subjects. He had a beat down mother and a fanatical ex Marine father who expected his son to be everything he (the father) was not. Whatever that was. The kid, Ricky, also had a very lucrative pot business on the side that his father had no idea about.

One day, he showed Jane some of his movies, and one was of a plastic bag floating around in a cyclonic mass of air. His narrative describes the action in part

…this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.

Just then, I got it. I’ve been like that my whole life. Seeing things beyond what is presented. I’ve always seen things in color, clarity, and notice little things that other people just can’t or won’t see. Like my ability to see beyond a path in a painting where it leaves the frame. Where does the path lead? Then I let my imagination take over, run riot, come up with possibilities that even the artist hadn’t thought of.

Yes, I get it. All the beauty and the ugly in this world. The most beautiful things can be so ugly (like a beautiful woman with an unpleasant demeanor), and conversely, the ugliest things can be so beautiful.

Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. You just have to choose what you want to see.

That’s all from where I sit on the Big blue Couch.