As mentioned on previous occasions, I talk A LOT. But, one of the ways I talk is primarily in movie quotes. I really cannot help it. I was the youngest of three children in a busy household and I was raised at times by television, sitting entirely too close, in what really was the golden age of sitcoms and the early days of cable - which we were very lucky to have.
HBO, at the time a luxury, ran the same set of movies over and over again in the late 80’s - they are burned in my brain - and one of those was, Ghostbusters.
I’m pretty sure in the depths of my basement packed away in a dusty bin somewhere is an original store bought VHS tape, the sticky label peeling off of it, where we recorded the movie off of HBO. The glorious original title sequence and all, you know the one where the camera zoomed over a miniature city and careened into a set of stars through the “O” in a floating HBO.
I was, funnily enough, extremely scared by the opening scene of Ghostbusters. Funny because it takes place in a library and now I read 50 novels a year. But, to a six year old child seeing that first apparition hovering over the stacks was traumatizing.
That movie, and particularly the sequel that soon followed, are easily in my top ten of most quoted movies in conversation.
The times I’ve been standing in a photo with people saying “suck in the guts guys.” Or, when there is a commotion or chaos in any situation I’ve exclaimed, more than once, “dogs and cats, living together…mass hysteria.”
When my husband and I are coordinating laundry I have to comment that “there’s not just clean and dirty, there are many subtle levels” and then pick up a shirt and say “you hang this outside the window for 20 minutes, perfectly fine.”
If I’m in New York City anywhere near the Upper West Side I start to twitch if I don’t say “the Upper Vest Side.” Heck, I met my first boyfriend in New York as a single gal with that quote. I am not joking. We met on a subway and he asked where I was going and I said that exact line. He was smitten…for three months. Truthfully he looked a bit like Bill Murray and I was equally smitten for three months.
There is a lot of hubbub today with, I’ll call it a comeback but a semi-reboot, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hitting theaters (and then likely streaming immediately after). So Ghostbusters fever is upon us again. And oh do I love it so much!
I recently rewatched Ghostbusters II, which, unlike the first, I distinctly remember seeing in the actual movie theater when I was eight.
Movies from your childhood - and just about everything from childhood - hits different when you are older. I was watching the film and I thought about the power of positivity, self talk, reinforcement. Odd to get that kind of hit from a movie about ghosts but hear me out.
In the movie there is slime (of course). A river of it. Running under Manhattan, growing by the day and absorbing all of the negative energy that people put out there. When you get near this slime it turns you into an absolutely horrible human being.
But, Egon and Ray, the good scientists they are, test some of the slime and it turns out that when the slime is spoken to compassionately, when it is cared for and nurtured and loved, when it’s allowed to have fun, it reacts positively.
They demonstrate this to Venkman and Wilson by pouring some of the slime into a bucket. First, they scream expletives at it. Tell it it’s bad. It’s worthless. The slime get’s angry and grows, starts spilling over.
Next, they take the same slime and they pour it into a toaster. They put on a record - “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me” by Jackie Wilson - and the toaster begins to dance. Ping. Pow. Ping. Pachow. It practically flies off the table in excitement!
Brave little toaster.
It got me to thinking.
In life, when we are spoken to negatively, or when we so often speak to ourselves negatively, when we are around negativity, we become MORE of what we don’t want to be. It grows. We spill over. Sometimes, we can’t get away from it. We become this crunched up monster of ourselves going down rabbit holes and playing out what if’s as the negative begets negative. We become a river of slime.
But, when we treat ourselves with care, when we speak to ourselves like a beloved guest, when we surround ourselves with people who lift us up and we build our own little environments that make us feel safe and content, we fly. We feel confident. We are more capable of being brave.
Even when these moments of care are just glimmers. You pop your airpods in and listen to your favorite song. You call your best friend just to hear their voice. You treat yourself to a butter pecan ice cream cone. (Butter pecan anyone? Anyone? Just me? Ok.)
That’s the stuff.
When your shoulders drop and you take that deep breathe and get loose.
When you are in your world that makes you, you.
That’s the stuff that is so powerful if you sprayed it all over the Statue of Liberty she would come to life, swim across New York harbor, walk uptown - “I don’t think they make Nike’s in her size, Ray” - and save the city while dancing to Jackie Wilson.
“Here’s something off the request line from Liberty Island!”
I think I’m going to remind myself more to be the brave little toaster of positive slime.
I also cannot discount Louis Tully (played by the esteemed Rick Moranis) for giving us the best advice of all…
“Happy New Year. Stay fit. Keep sharp. Make good decisions.”