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<\/a><\/p>\nA then 43-year-old Billy Crystal starred as Mitch, a father and husband filled with ennui who goes on a dude ranch cattle drive “vacation” with a few of his friends.\u00a0 As the weight of adulthood, time, responsibility, and life had taken its toll, this guys\u2019 trip was a quest to regain his lost \u201csmile.\u201d\u00a0 I thought it a funny movie at the time; to this day I still make the odd reference to it, just as I am wont to do with any number of movies.<\/p>\n
And then in the ensuing years, as the weight of adulthood, time, responsibility and life all took their toll on me, as I grew older, the film has taken on greater resonance and meaning.\u00a0 A psychologist hearing me talk about it whilst splayed on the couch might posit it was a seminal film-going experience, one planting a seed of fear for family and the ravages of time, a comedic reading that informs my decisions in relationships and in my existence to this very day.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m not a psychologist so I\u2019ll just say that I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about that movie recently, a movie that at times hasn\u2019t aged well and in some regards remains timeless\u2026 or at the very least timely for this now fortysomething guy.<\/p>\n
There are some aspects of my life where I seem to have lost my \u201csmile.\u201d\u00a0 Not everyone who is lost is lucky enough to wander.\u00a0 I am lucky.\u00a0 I\u2019m quite aware of that and that knowledge sometimes results in a puritanical guilt reflux, a downward spiraling questioning of how dare I not-smile when there is so much to be smiling about.<\/p>\n
What once was lost though may be found\u2026 and thus I set about a wanderin\u2019 once more.<\/p>\n
To wit:<\/p>\n