Beatrice's Love Letter

Dear Rob,

That movie you were talking about the other day, I think it's before Before Sunrise, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. If so, I remember it well: The connection between the two characters was sudden, surprising, lovely, and innocent. It was a talkie filled with insightful conversations about all sorts of topics connecting the young lovers on a soulful level. These characters meet again nine years later in Before Sunset; I love that movie even more. Did you see it?

This time the lovers are older, a bit more jaded, and involved with other people, but their connection is just as intense. He returns to Paris to do a reading on a book he'd written about the day he spent with her, which was also the last time he saw her, and he didn’t expect to see her at the bookstore. When they walk around the city, their feelings are re-ignited. With these characters, the passion is understood and palpable to the viewer. (I love the type of unspoken passion where the tension boils beneath the surface, don’t you?)

I've played the last scene of the movie many times, where the male character is sitting in the living room of the woman’s apartment. They'd spent the day together, and this time there is more at stake with their love, but they can't say it because it’s too intense and their lives are too complicated (he’s married with a young son, and she’s involved with another man). Anyway, his plane’s about to leave, and he must get to the airport. Yet he can't get up from her couch, and he stares lovingly at her while she hums and sways to a Nina Simone song. Then the screen fades to black…. Magic! (You have to see it.)

As to culture, this morning I read about a Monet exhibition in Paris. I was plotting and planning on getting on a plane there this weekend but decided to act financially responsible because I couldn’t really afford it. Anyway, the critic did such a great job of reviewing the exhibition it made the trip seem worthwhile.

And this is when I thought of our very new connection. The critic mentioned that  Marcel Proust was a fan of Monet's.  Proust said that in his paintings  Monet depicted a world to love because "on the threshold of love we are bashful. There has to be someone who will say to us, "Here is what you may love: love it.'"

I love you,

Beatrice 

Read my exciting memoir, "The Continent of Ruby," available at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5DDWO