Sunday, November 20, 2011

Xanadu


My choices for X were kind of limited. I thought about using Xmas & giving my speech about how the X is NOT crossing Christ out of Christmas, but that’s a rant for another day.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Xanadu this is what immediately springs to mind:



Oh 1980, did you know at the time that we were going to mock you so? I think you did.

In 1980 I was in high school, and I was one of those unkissed boy crazy girls who goes to the prom with a girlfriend. I was making plans for my life based on my expected spinsterhood, and tormenting my mother with my superior knowledge of language. I was churchy and bookish and a mostly A student who didn’t really apply herself very much. And while I thought Sandy was cute and all, I secretly wanted to be Rizzo. On the other hand I was appalled that Sandy had to change herself to get the guy. Wait, why am I talking about Grease?

Is it 10th Grade Bug? Or Mattie from (the original) True Grit? You make the call!
Anyway, I was your typical conflicted teenage nerd in 1980 with no idea what my life would look like in the future. I probably thought the idea of Xanadu was magical, sort of a forbidden heathen heaven. A nice place to escape. And what teenager doesn’t want to escape a little bit?


Why does Xanadu make me thankful? I look back at that girl and, while I’m grateful for her, I’m so thankful to not be her anymore! She envisioned a different life than the one I have now. Her idea of heaven wasn’t the same as mine. I wonder what she would have thought if she had looked down that long road and seen me at the end of it? She might have been horrified, but I know Xanadu when I see it.
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13 comments:

  1. stephen HayesNovember 20, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Nice post and tie in with Xanadu. I've never seen the film but I know the name from the famous poem about Kubla Khan by STC. Glad your life has turned out better than you thought it would.

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  2. CatalystNovember 20, 2011 at 10:10 PM

    I think it has turned out just as you hoped, even if you didn't know what you were hoping for back there in 1980.

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  3. shoreacresNovember 20, 2011 at 11:53 PM

    Oh, I am so there with you! Well, maybe with a little twist - I turned out to be the person I wanted to be, but didn't know how to be. I guess we've got kind of a win-win going.

    What I can't figure out is how I got myself back here and we're at X already. It was just day before yesterday I was here...wasn't it...uh oh. I think the holiday madness has started, or something. ;)

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  4. ArgentNovember 21, 2011 at 3:34 AM

    I was that girl too! I fully envisioned a life of spinsterhood, was bookish, etc. I'm glad I'm not my younger self either.

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  5. Rachel FoxNovember 21, 2011 at 5:26 AM

    I was more Rizzo. It had its moments.

    The older I get the more I know it's really just all about survival... making the best of the good and the bad, the right anwsers and the wrong, getting on to the next phase.

    x

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  6. Steve ReedNovember 21, 2011 at 6:28 AM

    Ha! You're thinking of Grease because the plot of Xanadu was so utterly terrible and forgettable! (The music, however, is awesome.)

    For the record, I too was horrified that Sandy felt she had to change to get the guy. She just needed to hold out for a better guy!

    I couldn't agree with you more on looking back on our former selves. I like my former self but I'm glad not to be that person anymore. My life was so small. Good grief.

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  7. Rebecca JoNovember 21, 2011 at 7:42 AM

    OK... wanna know something CRAZY? I just left a comment on someone else's blog about my crazy love for Xanadu ... &then see this! HAHA!!!

    You have NO IDEA how much I love that movie. I made my step daughters watch it when they were little &they thought I was punishing them... me? I can still sing every song, say most of the lines, still do the moves on skates... & still wear barrettes with ribbons in my hair! :)

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  8. ellen abbottNovember 21, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    I don't think any of us had any idea how life would really turn out for us. I certainly didn't envision the life I have but then I had no vision at all of my future, had no idea even what I wanted to do once I was out of school. And then I was out of school and it just started unfolding.

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  9. Brian MillerNovember 21, 2011 at 12:15 PM

    grateful to not be here anymore...i hit that a few years later, so i understand you completely...

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  10. NanceNovember 21, 2011 at 1:26 PM

    Xanadu had a plot? I just remember rollerskates and really, really bad fashion.

    Really bad.

    Thank goodness for Coleridge's poem, and even for the 1977 song by Canadian rockers Rush for crowding out that horrific film in my brain. Why was Olivia N-J's film career so full of yucky stuff?

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  11. NCmountainwomanNovember 21, 2011 at 8:10 PM

    I am so with you on this one. I am delighted that I am not the teen-aged me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. gretchenNovember 22, 2011 at 12:44 AM

    I wanted to be Rizzo too!

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  13. Don't Feed The PixiesNovember 22, 2011 at 3:12 AM

    Ha ha - great minds think alike because the first second i saw the name Xanadu i thought not of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Khublia Khan but of that film: about greek gods offering a kind of heaven on earth via...erm...a roller disco

    Yeah...

    I'm with you on Grease btw - Danny was prepared to become a better person for Sandy, so why did she have to change for the worse?

    ReplyDelete

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