The Security Blanket

There's a meme that travels around the Internet where a girl will take a picture of the contents of her purse. The innards of the bag are meant to give some glimpse into the inner workings of the girl. The only thing I've recognized about myself is that I have a penchant for hoarding ancient pieces of hard candy collected from the 'thank you, come again' bowls stationed at the exits of most restaurants. And yet, whatever this says about myself or my sanity, those fuzzy mints, and the fact that I didn't just remove them like any sane individual probably would, got me thinking.

There are things we all hold on to that tend to take on greater meaning during the holiday season. Old toys, family traditions, torn pieces of paper that have some story we never want to forget. I always go back to classic film. When I'm tired or when I'm stressed, even if I don't have time to watch a whole film, I can still count on the drunken Jean Arthur scene in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to pull me out of a funk.

Going into 2012 I'll always have those cherished go-tos that make movies magic. The mints will be thrown in the trash, but decades later the same gestures repeated again and again, now part of an unchanging, well oiled machine, delight just as they did in the galaxy far far away that is the past. Next to the family photos, the lip gloss, or the hand mirror, I hope you keep close some secret joy, and that the films we all love continue to inspire for new years to come.