Better than glue Lebowski

I just finished watching The Big Lebowski, again. I love that movie, it’s funny. Although the plot seems a bit bizarre and controlling, I believe the characters move the movie. Perhaps the funniest part, and the part I have seen countless times, is when Walter is scattering Donny’s remains.

“Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors... and bowling, and as a surfer he explored the beaches of Southern California, from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo and... up to... Pismo. He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And so would Donny. Donny, who loved bowling. And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince.”

Although reading it is not as funny as the monologue by John Goodman I believe it is still something special. Take the first line, being a good bowler comes before being a good man. But, within this hilarious monologue is a profound message. The second line, “He was one of us,” is almost powerful. Despite how bizarre the world can get, it’s the brotherhood (or sisterhood) that holds it together. Like the correspondent in Stephen Crain’s Open Boat who wanted to know that the Captain was awake while the shark was near the boat, not because it would have made the shark any different but because it would have made seeing it more bearable.

Not everyone gets caught up in a complex scam of kidnapping a porn star, or finds themselves in a bathtub size boat an oars reach from a shark, but life is crazy and it’s the friends that hold everything down/together.