Something to Keep
“I’ll tell you in another life, when we are both cats.”
Sofia Serrano, Vanilla Sky
A Second Look
I love it when I find quotes that resonate and that come from unexpected places. I took the quote above from Vanilla Sky, a 2001 psychological thriller directed by Cameron Crowe and starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. Cruz plays the character of Sofia Serrano, who speaks the unusual line as a humorous way to say, “We’ll meet again in another life”.
Another thing I also love is movies that are hard to watch. Vanilla Sky is pretty flat on the surface. It’s about an arrogant magazine publisher (played by Cruise) who starts questioning reality after a car accident. The film deals with identity, reality versus illusion, and accepting pain to experience true meaning. Another memorable line echoes this last point: “You can do whatever you want with your life, but one day you’ll know what love truly is. It’s the sour and the sweet. And I know sour, which allows me to appreciate the sweet.”
As I mentioned, the movie becomes more and more complex as you keep watching. Even if I try to explain what it is, I’ll never be able to fully articulate how it made me feel. There’s a nostalgic aspect to the film, not because it’s relatively old, but because it makes you think about lost love and what could have been. There are dozens of essays out there doing a better job of explaining the film, but if you’re into thrillers or science fiction, I highly recommend it.
By the way, the opening scene of the film took place in an empty Times Square. The production team was only allowed to film for a few hours, and they had to do it really early on a Sunday. This involved shutting down 20 blocks of Times Square, which meant no pedestrians or vehicles. The result is impressive to say the least, especially since most modern productions rely too much on AI or CGI.
Something I Liked
We see discipline as an enviable trait, but discipline is simpler than that. Discipline is giving yourself no other option. This is the perfect example of how constraints can make us free. To get the best results you’re capable of, you need to give yourself no other choice. That’s the topic Mark Manson discusses in one of his latest videos.
According to Manson, the problem isn’t our phones or the algorithm; it’s that we always have access to too many options. When you narrow those options down and only allow yourself to do one thing, you’ll just do it.
