20 Little Lyric Essays (for Harold and Maude)
for Colin Higgins (1941-1988), after Jim Simmerman (1952-2006)
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again for that moment when
Harold looks at the camera and you know he knows you know.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again to say Vivian Pickles.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again for Maude’s favorite funeral
umbrella, which is yellow.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again for cemeteries, their
breathtaking algorithmic scenery and their stalkers.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again for: A lot of people enjoy being
dead. But they are not dead, really. Wisdom à la Maude.
Or this: Grab the shovel, Harold.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again knowing that Ruth Gordon
didn’t die until she was 88, and on her last morning she was working on a
play.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again knowing Bud Cort is still alive
and dimpling in the summer of 2016.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again for the Cat Stevens
controversies that have nothing and just about everything to do with music.
Maude tells Harold there are two things no human being should live
without: making music and breaking the law. It’s worth watching Harold
and Maude again to see how they accomplish both.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again to understand the difference
between death and death, and to decide which one you prefer.
Death is a metaphor, of course, but for what? It’s worth watching Harold
and Maude again to find out.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again to support or reverse the
theory you’ve harbored your entire life about old women and sex.
Harold grows in wisdom over the course of Harold and Maude, but it’s
worth watching it again to see Harold’s face when Maude says she took
the pills two hours before her 80th birthday party.
What!? (Harold)
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again if you are on the fence about
choosing your own death or about how old is old enough or whether you
should move to Oregon or Vermont before it’s too late.
It’s worth watching Harold and Maude again to see Harold dance on a cliff.
Or Bud Cort dance on a cliff. Either way, any movie with someone
dancing on a cliff is worth watching again.
Maude was my great-grandmother’s name, but without the e. Maud
Emerson. Not necessarily a reason to watch Harold and Maude again,
unless you like the way your mind travels from one Maude to the other,
which I do.
And it’s worth watching Harold and Maude again to recall that smart
people exist. This is particularly comforting when any humanity your
country still has left is up for grabs, not to mention its poetry.
For poetry alone, it is worth watching Harold and Maude again.
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