Principles used to be worth having. A set of morals you wouldn’t budge for anyone. An unwavering grouping of ethics set like freshly poured cement – where anyone who comes in contact can’t help but get a little on themselves. And credos aren’t so bad.
“Always cut sandwiches diagonally.”
“Never wear shoes in the ocean.”
However, should situations shift, your belief system may not hold water. What if the sandwich is a triangle – do you still slice it diagonally? What if it’s low tide and you can take a waterless stroll a few hundred yards out in the Aegean? These are things you should’ve thought about beforehand. But you have an unalterable code that makes life far too complicated. Had you outgrown your childish morality, you might be dancing the jig on dry sand while eating an isosceles Italian beef, care and fancy-free.
It’s a better a way to live. Without scruples and virtues, changing your tune faster than a coke-addled Miles Davis, dying to impress his brand-new band of fearless young lions. What you say, what you do, depends on the people you’re with – or at least it should. Let them dictate your behavior. Not a fan of lacrosse? You are ever since Jason mentioned he was on the John Hopkins University practice squad, while training to become the world’s most illustrious rodential cardiologist. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s called being polite, being a good guest. These are attributes maligned and criticized by those who should know better.
We must look to our reptilian friends for guidance. Chameleons are defamed regularly, spoken about as if they're worse than whatever they’re embodying. But what these little guys show is empathy, compassion, and a wonderful capacity for active listening. They are attentive and thoughtful, literally changing their colors and identities to suit their company. Are we this unmoored that we can’t see kindness when it’s right in front of us?
Despite the constant barbs, chameleons aren’t even invertebrates. They have spines, too - tiny ones. The finest portrait of a chameleon as a young lizard is Jacques Cousteau’s underrated documentary, Je suis un Caméléon, (ca. 1974, Janus films). Cousteau examines the life of Léon, an Old World lizard trying desperately to fit into the stratified French society of the borden town of Menton. Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do, he asks? Fit in. The most notorious sequence is when the filmmaker tries to light the lizard's cigarette while the salty Provençal breeze extinguishes it after each attempt. Eventually, Léon waves him off and pours them both a glass of Burgundy. He confesses that he's not even a smoker, but wanted Cousteau to feel comfortable during the interview. That's selfless, not spineless.
Léon navigates his surroundings beautifully, feeling just as comfortable in a knitting class in Marseille as a motorcycle rally in Saint-Tropez. He joins an artist collective in Toulon, a pétanque club in Avignon, and even becomes a morphine addict to enter a support group in Nimes. Wherever he goes, he fits in. No one sees him as the slimy, slithering, oddly smelling reptile. He’s Léon, no more, no less. What's so wrong with that?
No comments:
Post a Comment