The Kindness of Strangers

I saw all of the nominees for Best Picture yesterday. The last movie they played was Frost/Nixon. I would have preferred Slumdog Millionaire as the last movie. Slumdog is by far the most crowd-pleasing and action-packed. Plus, the closing credits (I'm not going to spoil it, but it won't come as a surprise to anyone who's seen a movie filmed in Bombay, I mean, Mumbai) would have been a good ending to the day.

Even though it was hard to pay attention to some of the more "talky" parts of Frost/Nixon so late in the marathon, seeing it last kept the dialogue fresh in my head. One passage near the end particularly resonated with me:

Richard Nixon: You know those parties of yours, the ones I read about in the newspapers. Do you actually enjoy those?
David Frost: Of course.
Richard Nixon: You have no idea how fortunate that makes you, liking people. Being liked. Having that facility. That lightness, that charm. I don't have it, I never did.

Who knew I had anything in common with Richard Nixon? I thought of these lines as I made my way through the sea of people loitering and leaving the theater. Although I knew it had rained earlier in the day and that it was now cold, I was focused on making my way out the doors and to my car. The sidewalks were clear, but the black asphalt wasn't and...

BOOM!

I can't remember the last time I fell, but it must be at least 14 years ago because falling was such an unfamiliar sensation. I was down for a few seconds when I heard some voices asking if I was okay. I said I was, but the next thing I knew two or three people were near me. One guy offered his hand to help me up and although he was on my right, I instinctively grabbed his hand with my left. He either lost his balance or slid because he ended up on my left, and I never left the ground. Suddenly, more people surrounded me, and I was hoisted to my feet. Getting up happened as quickly as falling down.

Once I was righted, I noticed the first helper was a little guy no taller than me and the guy who led the second effort was a bigger guy. I profusely thanked all the people and collected my bag and bottle of water from a woman who had picked them up. The second guy said he would walk me to my car and gave me his arm. We got to my car, and I was on my way -- a little sore but otherwise okay.

You can appreciate the irony of the situation.

Even more ironic was that I expected to hear laughter from the people leaving the theater but never did.

I'm not sure that I can change the way I feel about liking people or being liked, but I had to fall on my ass to see that people will pick you up when you're down.