Scene...

Somewhere in a better land there is a perfect scene playing out. There is music playing the outro to the whole movie. I see it clearly but that still doesn’t make it real. I can’t really tell but I hope it’s real…somewhere. I see a bunch of people on a beach because the beach is the end of the world to me, the place where we all yearn to be, by the ocean where all seems limitless and infinitely possible. It is where all the sunny beautiful things happen.

We all make it there alive, all of us, no one left behind, no one lost on the battlefield. Everybody gets the girl, eats the sammich, and scores the winning touchdown in the last seconds. It is a warm human night. The old cars pull up, rumbling muscle thunder under flat black painted hoods, the girls in bikinis dance, the muscle heads flex, the troubadours sing and bop.

Even the bad guys join us because it is so much groovier to sing and dance and eat and drink and smile. Everything is perfect after the long struggle. I see friends long gone, pain long abated. I see my father in his jean jacket next to his Mustang. He gives me a wave and a smile and he sings to the outro song off key. There’s a band playing. It could be any year, anywhere and all is finally well – for a little while. There’s a melody and a harmony and song. There is no more fight, no more struggle, no more long days. The moment is light and blissful.

As the outro song fades, the camera pulls up and back to show the beach alive with people, the water reflecting the orange setting sun, the sky all firey purple and the sun setting so slowly over it all. The cars rumble on the dunes with their lights on, the kids lying on the hoods staring dreamily at the oncoming night sky. All is really and truly well.

The scene plays over and over in my head and lifts me a little because I am somewhere in the crowd with a drink thrust in my hand and my beat up shoes in the other.

As the image fades we all dance and sing together. You win, you get the girl….you get the idea. Use any song you like for your outro to close your movie, it doesn’t make sense to tell you mine, that’s just for me.

Roll credits…