By Bobby Shortle (cinematographer/editor/studio manager for Pennylane Productions)
My decision to propose to my fiancee came to me suddenly. I was sitting on an LIRR train on my way back from a trip to Manhattan. It had been a good day. I saw old friends, had an excellent meatball sub in the West Village, and purchased some wonderful off beat books at Midtown Comics. It was while reading one of these recent acquisitions that lighting struck.
Daytripper is written an illustrated by brothers Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon. It’s a gorgeously drawn, bittersweet story about the life of one man, the choices he makes and how fragile our existence is. It sounds morbid, but when you read it you see that it’s actually an inspiring story about how we should live each moment as if it’s our last.
As I flipped through the pages, my nose nearly pressed against the pages, I came to one passage that stopped me in my tracks.
“Life is like a book son. And every book has an end. No matter how much you like that book you will get to the last page and it will end. No book is complete without its end. And once you get there, only when you read the last words, will you see how good the book is.”
I read it again, then a third time, then a fourth, and then a fifth. Then I closed the book, placed it down next to me, shut my eyes and put my head back against the head rest. I sat for a few moments listening to the rhythmic clicking of the train tracks beneath my feet. This was not the first time I had considered what I was considering. Somewhere in me I always knew I wanted to ask this girl to marry me, but it was that passage that caused a new thought to formulate in my mind.
When I get to the last page will my book be worth anything without her in it?
When I opened my eyes I had my answer. I grabbed a pen, the empty Midtown Comics bag and I began to write out how I would propose to the person I could not live without.
What did I write? That will have to wait until my next post. But before I go I want to leave you with one last quote from Daytripper.
“The young open the paper to forget about life by reading the funny strips. The old do it to forget about death by reading other people’s obits. My advice: don’t open the paper and go on with your life”
What was the moment you realized who you wanted to marry? Let me know in the comments below.