My Complicated Affair with The Office

 I first saw 'The Office' in 2006 as a college freshman. I think it resonated with me because I was becoming an adult, and  'The Office' embodied adulthood to me: getting a job and trying to fall in love.

Of course, I always connected with Jim. He's got better hair than me, but he's the hero of the story. Is he going to outwit Dwight again? Is he going to get the girl, finally? While Jim battled his way up the stunted corporate ladder of Dunder-Mifflin, I battled my way across campus, coming home at night to join the other 25 guys on my hall and watch the next step in Jim and Pam's relationship (The Office--chick flick in disguise? for guys?) See, gang, this is what we get to look forward to!

Then I went and fought some other battles. When I got back, Michael and then gang were still going strong. Here's where it gets dicey. 'The Office' started encouraging me. Hey, if Jim can make Co-Manager, then I can get my bachelor's degree. If Andy can overcome his anger, dodge a marriage to Angela, and realize his true feelings for Erin, I bet I can learn to cope with depression. If Toby sees his Costa Rica dreams shattered and keeps plugging along, then I persevere despite my own scars. If Jim and Pam can finally live happily ever after, then maybe I can find true love too.

Six years later, I still love the show. When you realize that you turn to Jim and Pam and Michael and Creed to cheer you up after a long day in your own office, you know that something's going to have to change. Or is that really what 'The Office' is all about? They all hate their jobs, but they do it because they need to. Broken Bells says that "there's no shortcut to a dream. It's all blood and sweat, and life is what we manage in between." The characters in the show do what they do because its the blood and sweat that lets them live life in between the shenanigans of Michael, the machinations of Dwight, and the yearnings of Kelly. Life's really about doing what you need to to get by, so you can improve and progress.

That's what I learned in the office today.

The Avengers Fulfilled

I saw The Avengers tonight with my buddy Bryce. Great movie, but that's not what this post is about. I want to talk about how this movie "came true."

Every movie has a moral. Whether or not we like to admit it or always live up to it. Television shows, when they originally debuted, always featured a moral. Go watch any show from the 1950s and there is a nicely stated "Well, we've learned that..." statement at the end. We still do it today, in a bastardized sense. How I Met Your Mother or Family Guy still restate their episodes' thesis statements at the end.

The Avengers' is all about trying when victory really does seem impossible. Phil Coulson (played admirably by Clark Gregg) literally dies trying. Scarlet Johannson has some awesome line about how they have to keep going, no matter what, even if it's just one or two them. They have to keep fighting for victory.

Okay, step out of the big screen. I'm a 24-year old college junior, who makes $8.50 an hour. I went through two major, traumatic life events in the last month and am not ashamed to admit I started questioning the usefulness of living life. But, thanks to an awesome set of parents, a stranger named Ben, and now, The Avengers, I'm striving.

This is a movie coming true. Remember the little neighborhood kid in Spiderman (1? 2? 3?)? Who's all like "oh, I look up to Spiderman and want to be a better person because of him"?  Dude, that's me. I went and saw a movie (The Rudy theme I'm listening to just hit that big majestic, triumphant swell in the middle) and said to myself "I have to be like those heroes."  I have to keep doing my best, even when it's terribly lonely and sad and the odds seem totally unbeatable.  Me, with all my personal depression and heartache and anger and fear and frustration, in a little town in Utah, has to keep fighting the good fight. Even if I'm dying on some battleship bulkhead, I have to take one (mostly useless) shot at Loki, because it's what I can do. Even if I'm single-handedly  fighting off an alien invasion force and there's no apparent rescue, I have to keep smashing biotechnical brains because it's what I can do. Even if I hate my job and feel lonely and depressed and just keep going because I hope things will get better, I will because it's what I can do. 


I'm not Captain America. Even at my angriest, I'm not Bruce Banner. My hair will never be like Thor's. I'm not Iron Man. I can't shoot like Hawkeye and I'm certainly not Scarlet Johannson.  But I'm me and I'll fight my fight because

it's what I can do.