I only wish I could chime in and say that I'm above all the superficialities other people are prone to. I'm not sure I've always been cooly unaffected by my wife's cute-as-all-get-out-ness, never let my thoughts stray from her eternal soul.

But when I met her what got me was how unguardedly she told me about herself, casually rattling off personal stuff that made my hair stand on end--like quills upon the fretful porcupine. I was such a messed-up kid, any thing I said was edited for it's impression on her, veering toward a childish lie. So I thought Here's an amazing person. That's how people ought to be, I thought. I'd like to learn to see someone's spirit at a glance, but for me and my shallow ilk, it's an effort, takes attention, and when we're tired and beat we enjoy the relaxing superficialities that come easy.

I saw Shallow Hal--I think it's a pretty funny movie that just touches on a grain or two of truth in passing. It's not very disappointing because it doesn't really try too hard. On the other hand, American Beauty portended to be all about a heightened plane of perception, but was often merely clever, formulaic, self-congratulatory and kind of smug. It didn't really walk it's own talk, and I was disappointed in it. There's more truth in an unpretentious movie like Marty, imho. Most of us care about some silly stuff, sometimes. Must be easy going for unclouded minds, not distracted by fluff.