I just watched one of the shorts from New York Stories. The first short, "Life Lessons," is directed by Martin Scorsese. He said in a TV interview that he based the story on a memoir by Dostoevsky that told of the writer's relationship with a particular mistress. Scorsese's short brings the core story up to present day (late '80's) New York and features Nick Nolte as an expressionistic painter and Rosanna Arquette as his assistant/ girlfriend.
Yeah well, I think I come out a lot better than the Nick Nolte character in how I've related to this young woman I go on and on about than he does with the Rosanna Arquette character. He feels so diminished by her dalliances with young men that he dismisses the emotional pain and distress that he inflicts on her. He says he knows he's nothing to her. Must be nice; being able to free oneself from any personal responsibility for the well being of another with the belief that one means nothing to them. In my last post I acknowledged my potential ability to inflict pain on someone such as her due to the difference in our ages and overall life experience. That I, in my eyes at least, seem to come out better than Nick Nolte as Lionel Dobie in this regard means something to me because I see a lot of similarities between myself and someone such as he (him?). When things got crazy between myself and someone such as Veronica Ortega in the 1980's, the craziness could match the intensity level Scorsese touches upon in his film short.
I feel pretty free right now. I feel as if I do call a lot of the shots in the deals I find myself in with women such as her. I now feel no obligation to take it upon myself to ask this person out at her job, or otherwise shoulder any other undue burden related to how I view her, feel about her, or what I sometimes wish could happen between us. If anyone out there wants me to shoulder more of a burden than I now wish to, I urge them to watch this film from the New York Stories trilogy of shorts. Things can get like that for me. They have before. I don't want any pain or trauma I could potentially inflict on someone such as her to literally outlive me some day.
Yeah well, I think I come out a lot better than the Nick Nolte character in how I've related to this young woman I go on and on about than he does with the Rosanna Arquette character. He feels so diminished by her dalliances with young men that he dismisses the emotional pain and distress that he inflicts on her. He says he knows he's nothing to her. Must be nice; being able to free oneself from any personal responsibility for the well being of another with the belief that one means nothing to them. In my last post I acknowledged my potential ability to inflict pain on someone such as her due to the difference in our ages and overall life experience. That I, in my eyes at least, seem to come out better than Nick Nolte as Lionel Dobie in this regard means something to me because I see a lot of similarities between myself and someone such as he (him?). When things got crazy between myself and someone such as Veronica Ortega in the 1980's, the craziness could match the intensity level Scorsese touches upon in his film short.
I feel pretty free right now. I feel as if I do call a lot of the shots in the deals I find myself in with women such as her. I now feel no obligation to take it upon myself to ask this person out at her job, or otherwise shoulder any other undue burden related to how I view her, feel about her, or what I sometimes wish could happen between us. If anyone out there wants me to shoulder more of a burden than I now wish to, I urge them to watch this film from the New York Stories trilogy of shorts. Things can get like that for me. They have before. I don't want any pain or trauma I could potentially inflict on someone such as her to literally outlive me some day.
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