Life Imitates Art (and vice versa)

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Oscar Wilde said, “Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” I’m starting to think old Oscar was onto something. Do you sense something familiar about recent events? Does anyone else feel like we’re living inside a movie?

In just the last 18 months, we’ve had Hurricane Irene, Superstorm Sandy and Nemo. 

The coverage for each of these storms reminded me of scenes from movies like “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012”.  During Sandy, I kept waiting to see live footage of a wall of water crashing into the Statue of Liberty, scattering cabs and busses in midtown Manhattan while Jake Gyllenhaal took refuge in the New York Public Library.  The storm never quite reached those proportions, but the Seaside Heights Jet-Star roller coaster still sits in the middle of the ocean.

Last week, during Nemo, I felt like Jake in the second half of “The Day After Tomorrow” as I shivered in my powerless house.  Would we have to burn books to keep warm?  Would Dennis Quaid come snowshoeing up my driveway to rescue us? Would we have to evacuate to Mexico? Does anyone else hear wolves howling?

For those of you who made the mistake of watching “Speed 2” with Sandra Bullock and Jason Patrick (Keanu Reeves wisely opted out), did you feel a sense of déjà vu when that cruise ship caught fire last week, stranding thousands of passengers like upper class boat people? Between the recent Carnival debacle, that Italian cruise ship that ran aground last year while the captain was waving to relatives on shore, and all the noroviruses that have plagued other ships, I think I’ll take a pass on cruising anytime in the near future.  Or ever.

Now meteors are crashing to earth in Siberia?  You couldn’t turn on a television or go online without seeing footage of the meteor streaking across the sky, captured by dashboard cameras.  Which begs the question: Why do so many Russians have dashboard cameras? One gentleman had a dual camera that caught footage of both him and the road as he was driving to work.  Are the Russians so starved for entertainment there that they have to film themselves driving so they have something to watch when they come home at night? The footage reminded me of all those meteors falling to earth in “Armageddon”, that classic Bruce Willis film.  Wait a minute… Bruce Willis’ new movie “A Good Day to Die Hard” opened just the day before the meteor hit.  And the plot of his new movie takes place in Russia.  Coincidence? 

The words “Blade Runner” have taken on a whole new meaning this week.  But let’s not go there.  And for the first time in almost a millennium, a pope is resigning.  Shades of “The DaVinci Code?”

If life is going to imitate art, why can’t it imitate one of those romantic chick flicks I enjoy so much?  I wouldn’t mind finding a “Safe Haven” with Josh Duhamel or have Channing Tatum help me regain my memory, like in “The Vow”.  I wouldn’t mind being “The Lucky One” with Zac Efron.  Oh gosh, I just realized that I don’t want life to imitate art, I just want to live in a Nicholas Sparks novel.

I can handle super storms and meteorites and beached cruise ships.  I can handle massive power outages and super hot summers.  There are countless other instances where life imitates art that I can stomach. But I have to draw the line somewhere: zombies.  Despite my undying love for the genre, if my neighborhood suddenly resembles a scene from “The Walking Dead”, I’m outta there!