One of my very favorite scenes is the one with Maud and Harold in the field of flowers. I sat in our campsite with the boys yesterday and made myself a chain of daisies to put on my own head. We were waiting for Tim as he took his first shower in days.
They sat too, obsessively playing with cars (Mason) and obsessively tracing the campsite numbers over and over with their finger (Owen). And I thought about the quote from the movie...
Maude: I should like to change into a sunflower most of all. They're so tall and simple. What flower would you like to be?
Harold: I don't know. One of these, maybe.
Maude: Why do you say that?
Harold: Because they're all alike.
Maude: Oooh, but they're *not*. Look. See, some are smaller, some are fatter, some grow to the left, some to the right, some even have lost some petals. All *kinds* of observable differences. You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sorrow comes from people who are *this*,
[she points to a daisy]
Maude: yet allow themselves be treated as *that*.
[she gestures to a field of daisies]
Maude: [cut to a shot of a field of gravestones in a military cemetery]
I didn't cry though a part of me wanted to. Instead I took this picture of a child I have been at war with for a few days...we had just gotten in a fight...can you believe I fight with my three year old? Gawd.
But then I found him studying the flowers and he smiled and I realized all I ever need him to know is that he can be any type of flower that he likes. As long as he remembers his Mama loves him. Loves him so very much.
The road with the boys has been beyond my expectations but there have been rough patches. Like the asking to go home. All the time. The waking from impromptu naps with crying and crying and CRYING. The camp sleep...oh, god, my back. But a part of me still thrills to the fact that we are doing it. And they are too.
Check out Harold and Maud if you can. It makes the world a little lovelier.
5 comments:
OMG, Harold and Maude is in my top 5 movies of all time. I have seen it over and over. LOVE that you can quote it. From the time I first saw it, I have wanted to be Maude, grasping life by the horns until the day I die.
Most of it was shot in SF and when I lived there, I loved going to the places they shot and just sitting and thinking about the movie. I lived right by the overpass where Maude threw the jewelry into the water.
I pretty much can't hear Cat Stevens without wanting to watch it!
What you are doing is very important, my friend.
And you are doing it beautifully.
xx
I think it's so awesome you guys are doing this. Even the hard moments you'll remember fondly, kind of like labor :P And it's also nice to know I'm not the only one who fights with their 3 year old, sometimes I just get really tired of hearing "You can't come to my birthday!!" and "You're MEAN!"
harold and maude - agree (1)
:) so good to hear about your trip. go you, camping with those toddlers!
You know, I've never seen Harold and Maude. And now I HAVE TO.
This is a beautiful post, btw.
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