Good Design

There is a great line in the movie Grosse Point Blank that I love to recite on days when I am feeling unappreciated.  John Cusack plays a hit man who is in therapy.  His therapist, played by Alan Arkin, is afraid of him and constantly trying to get rid of him as a client.  At some point John Cusack menacingly drops into conversation that he knows where Alan Arkin lives.  The two men verbally spar about the threatening nature of the comment, which John Cusack insists is not a threat.  Finally, Alan Arkin says this;

"Well, that statement was not designed to make me feel good."

Ha!

I say this all the time, particularly in conversation with Courtney and Ashley.

Kate: So then he said that he adores everything about me, but that he can't commit to any one woman until he's had a three-way.
Ashley: Oh.  My.  God.
Kate: I know.  That was sure not designed to make me feel good.

Or,

Courtney:  I taught a lesson this afternoon, and when the mom dropped her kid off she said to him, "Make sure you tell Ms. Courtney if you start to feel sick."  Then she turned to me and said, "He's been a bit nauseous today.  I'm sure he'll be fine."
Kate: Good God. That's like your worst nightmare.  Puking children.
Courtney:  I know.  Comments like that are not designed to make me feel good.
Kate: Did he puke?
Courtney: No, but I almost did.

Almost every day something occurs that could make me mutter under my breath "that was not designed to make me feel good."  I love this expression because it almost always replaces my annoyance with amusement.  If I can laugh at the offending thing/person/sentence, then I can carry on with my day.  There are very few things in life that actually are designed to make me feel good, but laughing is one of them. 

Comments

[courtney]

Funny you should mention my terror of puking children...yesterday, one of my students arrived and promptly put her viola down on the floor. She then told me she was feeling carsick from the drive to my house and did I have a bathroom. I almost shoved her back out the front door. She didn't actually puke in my house. She just felt dizzy and after a glass of water she was fine. The whole situation was not designed to make me feel good.

[Dan]

Dude, or dudette, GPB is one of my favorite movies. I love the tune "I can see clearly now" in the beginning by Johnny Nash. What a great tune. An ITunes favorite.