Kicking off Famous Movie Quotes I don't Believe in Week - yes, I made it up... Let's start with the iconic meme from the tragic blockbuster Titanic. In a synopsis:
Jack, po' ass with a heart-of-gold artist, lands ticket on the most fabulous yet doomed ship in the world. Also aboard are really, really rich and really, really poor folks. One of the sorta-really-really-rich-but-really-just-pimping-herself-out-for-the-dollas passengers is blue blooded, hot tempered and flame haired Rose.
Jack loves his life, Rose hates hers. Her fiance is a snob who treats her rather like an accessory, her mama is a money-grubbin' social climber and she has no real friends to speak of. After a deadly dull dinner party where she can anticipate a life of nothing but more of the same, she decides to hell with it, death is better that this cold ass lobster and cold ass life.
She runs (in a formal gown that looked like it weighed a ton) across the ship and up to the far deck so she can fling herself into the Atlantic thus ending her cold, tragic life in an equally cold and tragic way. Jack, on the other hand, is chilling on deck looking at the start and getting his smoke on. Rose runs past him and he feels obligated to help. A meet-cute follows in which he talks her out of jumping by saying he would have to jump as well and did she want that on her conscience? A famous line is born: "You jump, I jump." They repeat this a few more times strengthening the bond of their love until an iceberg ruins alladat and she's left standing alone on Ellis Island in the rain with a fake name and a priceless jewel in her pocket while he's at the bottom of the Atlantic forever forgotten by everyone except her. (There was other stuff but ya'll have seen it, right?) And so their hearts will go on (see what I did there) and the romantic legend of you-jump-I-jump takes hold.
Ummkay - yeah, that really, really depends on the person and the situation. I call bullshiggity on a blanket, sure I'll jump with you cosign. A part of me really wants to be that ride or die, you-jump-I-jump chick and the other part of me says... I'm here for reason. If you jump, Imma mourn you and keep it pushing.
I thought about this last week when I caught up with an old friend of mine from college. Haven't seen him in years. We briefly dated but I spied some self-destructive tendencies and pulled the rip cord early. In fact, it was when he'd been picked up by the law for the second time that I opted not to bail him out and instead, just bailed. Through the years I wondered if I bailed too soon or if I should have either hung in there with him or helped prop him up while he got on his feet. Fast forward to today. Well... dude has been married four times and has seven kids by five different woman. He's currently on parole and lives in the basement of his sister's house. In his words, "I just couldn't get my do-right working full-time. Looked for too many soft landings, I guess." I didn't know what exactly that meant except that whew! Bullet dodged.
You're not meant to jump in the deep end with everybody. Some folks you are even meant to put a pinkie toe in the water with. If you see something in a person that says, yes- they have a parachute or yes, you're only jumping three feet or yes, they'll catch me? Go ahead and jump. Otherwise, wave buh-bye and think of them fondly.
BougieLand, what say you? Are you a "you-jump-I-jump" person or do you require some parameters for all of that? Do share...