Beaches

July 7, 2015

I gave in to my adolescent cinema memories a few days ago and watched the movie Beaches. I'm a total sap anyway, so put me in front of a late 1980s film--complete with the cheesy music and dying best friend--and you will find me in a nostalgic puddle. Of course, I'm not nostalgic for death or the marginal tunes; it's remembering how much I loved that movie when I loved it. I've probably watched it 50 times; but until Saturday I hadn't watched it in ten years.

The attraction I've always had to this little gem is friendship. Bette Midler (CC) and Barbara Hershey (Hillary) play best friends from two different coasts and walks of life. They meet when they are eleven, but don't see each other again until they are grown. The friendship is spent apart more than together, but it is sustained by their correspondence. For years, letters between them travel cross country, and with them, their lives. They each become, truly, the most important person one for another. 

Of course, sh*t happens and things fall apart between them for a bit. When the big Hollywood confrontation plays out after a span of time when CC has continued to write and Hillary has continued to send the letters back, a hurt CC tells Hillary, "You and your lousy letters. Just to get one of them made me feel special even before I opened it."

Eventually the two mend what is broken and Hillary proceeds to have a daughter, get sick, and die. CC (Bette) sings "Wind Beneath My Wings" over the death montage and takes the daughter to raise. While all of this happens, I sob. It's great.

We live in a world full of communication that is not face-to-face. And the least of it is conducted with the help of the US Postal Service. But holding tightly to a precious relationship--whether by quill and scroll or thumbs and smartphone--is a worthy practice and one for which I am forever grateful. The ding of a text or the discovery of an image posted or an email sent can be a burst of oxygen. A lifeline.

For my fictitious friends CC and Hillary, letters are the artery of their friendship. I understand. I'm certain I'm not alone.

So thanks, Beaches, for the cry...and the reminder that connection is, indeed, very special.