Quotes after midnight

Because it’s 1:44am, and I guess it was just a good night.

Another show I’m a fan of is House, which I’ve enjoyed since its inception.  Once again, I’m not going to describe the entire show to you–suffice it to say it’s a medical drama that keeps me in stitches.  Yes, groans are expected.

Some of my friends have remarked that I probably enjoy it so much because House is secretly my idol.   While I can’t deny I can be curmudgeonly, he’s not–but I relate to him, certainly, in a number of ways.  I particularly envy the scriptwriters that bless him with an incredible array of retorts and acerbic responses.

The episode I watched was One Day, One Room, which is probably one of my favorites, focusing primarily on House’s conversations with a rape victim named Eve. Philosophy, drama, argument, poignancy, pain; it was as compelling as you can get in an hour-long television show, which has been more the rule than the exception over the last three seasons.

Two quotes, then, and a short blurb after each:

House: They’re out there, doctors, lawyers postal workers some of them doing great some of them doing lousy. Are you going to base your whole life on who you got stuck in a room with?
Eve: I’m going to base this moment on who I’m stuck in a room with. It’s what life is. It’s a series of rooms and who we get stuck in those rooms with adds up to what our lives are.

As a writer, one of my joys is trying to break through those walls; indeed, since my OD is wide open, judging by the amount of random comments I do get, I’m sure there are countless ghosts that have drifted through these waters and left no trace.

When all is gone, we’ll leave behind memories–a brief record of our time on earth.  Some people will have enduring fame, which may or may not distort the truth in the telling. Most of us, however, will only star in the minds of those closest to us, our intimates.  If life is in the end a summation of our actions, then I’m going to make damn sure that I have as positive an impact on people as I can–particularly those whom I love.  What I do add to people’s lives–and what they add in return–matters.

This is probably why I majored in sociology

Second:

Eve: Time changes everything.
House: That’s what people say, it’s not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were.

I’ve always had to fight inertia and procrastination, so this one certainly generated a short, wry quirk of the lips.  At times in my life I let opportunities slip by, and only some of those can be excused by the shroud of depression.  Apathy is perhaps the most dangerous emotion.  Now, I do, I reach, I care, I strive. 

Success thus gained is cherished; but even in failing, there is something good to be found.   There may be no worse feeling than knowing that instead of choosing your path, you let it be chosen for you, or worse yet, opted not to make a choice at all.

ps: Extra credit for the fact that the song played over the final scene was Damien Rice’s "Grey Room", my favorite on his latest album, 9.