Monuments Men

Two of My Favorite Guys: Bill and Charlie

I seem to reference funny men in my blog, but one in particular holds a rather special place in my heart.  Who would’ve thought I would be saying this about the man who was Dr.  Peter Venkman in “Ghostbusters,”  Tripper in “Meatballs” or John Winger in “Stripes,” but it makes perfect ironic sense.

It wasn’t, however, when actor Bill Murray played Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” which would become one of my all-time favorite films, that he gained a foothold in my consciousness.  “Mr. Harris,” as my friend Salli and I would simply call him, is the older, well-intentioned man who, I believe, teaches young-ish, smart adult women what love is and, most importantly, the twists and turns we should expect from life.  It’s okay not to know everything and especially to stand in one’s own truth, particularly in a relationship.

But Mr. Murray, not only Mr. Harris, is mindful of these things, among others, as he framed them in an hour-long chat with supreme interviewer Charlie Rose.  While it’s said a woman’s first male role model is typically her father, my penchant for men of a certain age is more indicative of how I learned to accept that daddy sometimes does know best.  He has my own interests at heart, despite intuiting it in ways I didn’t completely understand at the time.