Very few things have been sown through my life for most of its entirety. It has surely been one of what you would call rocky roads, but some things have always been there and never let me down. On this particular day, the thing making me happy is Keanu Reeves, yet again. I saw an article as I read my morning dose of aggravating news and among the farce was an article of an average actor taking a chance at stoking flames of interest in itself by being what it must have thought was cute, insightful, or God forbid, genuine. Kind of like the attack on Trump in the most repulsive, selfish, ‘thinking it was cute’ Guthrie interview. You know, the town hall meeting she stole to make her case. Whether a Trump fan or not, it should be laughed at for what it was. She should not be rewarded, and she is not cute. That same ignorance lashed out when Wannabe Cutie Couric had the nerve to suggest Trump supporters needed to be deprogrammed. The nerve…to say something like that to her following of odd people I still cannot fathom. Today’s media frenzy and their followers need to be deprogrammed. Gloating when it was necessary to combine warring factions within itself and be faced by a demented, angry grandpa who clearly lacks a hundredth of the brain power necessary to be even a decent president is repugnant. Selling out to big media, China, left extremists, socialists, and idiots is nothing to be happy about.
Back to Keanu making me happy. It’s not because he is absolutely beautiful in all facets of the word. It’s not because he’s the quiet type that fascinates me and makes me wonder what an actual, real conversation with him might be like. It’s not because he has given us endless action badass movies or because back in the day one of my favorite memories to make was escaping with my soul mate on the weekends of our youth and spending all night playing to wake up and get stoned to watch the cartoon version of Bill and Ted! For the first few seasons, the voices were Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. I admit, that’s a huge part of it, as I wasn’t blessed with as many years with my love as most get with a fleeting affair. It isn’t because these many years later in life he’s there to provide yet another bond I shared with my son in his learning what this thing called Keanu can bring. It’s not even that he is so dedicated to his passions from motorcycles to literature. It’s not that he quietly goes about life as well as he can doing good in the world. It’s not that he has a wonderful sense of humor that unfortunately, we mostly get to see come out in the roles he chooses. I love his little insertion of himself in oddball movies just to make our day. The movie “Keanu”, about a cat, is my favorite display of this absurdity. If you haven’t seen it, please do. For you, not me…or Keanu.
In the end, it is the mere essence of Keanu Reeves that mystifies us all, I think. In my case, he has been woven throughout my life in key ways from my youth until this very day. Why today? Because in the face of all the turmoil that is today, he has still not let me down. Every day, we turn on the tv, radio, whatever your device of convenience and we see everyone from Hollywood to the White House jumping on a band wagon of a shared foe and using the opportunity to spout their own little comments to seem relevant and intelligent, which most often backfires. I can’t tell you how many actors and other public faces have actually pissed me off enough that my southern indignance will no longer allow me to patronize their endeavors. They won’t give a damn, but I do. Why come out so offensively to so many people? In this current climate, people feel free to show their true ugliness and most will blindly go about ignoring their insults and fork over their dollars. I always respected actors and would happily ignore them if I saw them in public because I viewed them as people and what they did for fame as their craft. I didn’t care what they were like in private, who they slept with, their political or religious affiliations. Remember blacklisting? We’re heading that way again in a day and age when no one is allowed to speak, think, or feel genuinely about things that actually matter in the world. The level of hate and herd mentality mixed with anger towards Trump is absolutely ridiculous and should change politics for anyone who witnessed it. I have not only lost respect for a huge faction of the population, but I have also developed anger towards them. I believe everyone is human and deserves the right to think and feel as they wish. Using their platform of fame to insult, patronize, and influence people in this divisive time is not necessary. We have enough to be angry about, out here in our normal lives of hardship and devastation. Kindly butt the Hell out and go back to your vain endeavors. Fame is fleeting, especially when you enrage the masses.
So, trying to have a good day in my quarantined life such that it is, these irritations beset me and put an invisible rock on my brain that forced my eyebrows down in what can only be described as a Thwomp face from the glorious Nintendo. I pondered a few minutes about why this had descended on my head and realized it is the accumulation of it. The non-stop ignorance going on in the world around us. The everyone giving their two cents tirades. The overwhelming disappointment in our current climate that threatens to enrage us right into another civil war. I thought fondly of so many people who I now have no respect to muster and pass in their direction. And then, right in the middle of this angry mind fest came my happy voice inside and it said ‘thank God for Keanu Reeves’. I agreed. I live a happy, quiet life and can no longer allow these intrusions. In the face of it all, from the first time I ever was aware there was a Keanu Reeves on the planet right through to today in the face of all this ignorance, he has never let me down. He hasn’t even deemed it necessary in this climate to make his views known or insult those of others. I love him for that. Not in a sexual way, a fan way, or a personal way…just the mere essence of the person he is, the one he portrays, and the parts of him he keeps to himself. Whatever he thinks, feels, and does in his life is none of my business unless he deems to shine the light of himself for us and share it himself.
Thank you, you subtle badass. America needs more of you.