Lars is not the real deal

***Spoilers+ ahead if you are going to watch Lars And The Real Girl***

+potentially....

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"I was hoping winter was over."

"No. It's just a thaw. Winter isn't over till Easter."

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Are you jealous of people who have a reason for failing in certain aspects of their life?

Do you think that dogs should wear shoes? Or costumes?

Would you rather donate money to a science research fund that will use your money to search for extra-terrestrial lifeforms in our universe or to an orphanage?

There have been more than once when I secretly wished I had some form of defect that can nicely explain my failings. Have you? It would be so convenient. Pin all the blame on a single condition. A malfunction. Dysfunctional.

Maybe these are the thoughts of a defeatist.

Have you never spoken to a soft toy? Many people project humanistic emotions on inanimate objects. But to do so when you are 27 years old? And to have the entire community participate in your projections? And the object in question is a Real Doll?

Except for being a social delinquent, you are otherwise a fully logical member of a small town. Well then again. You are not exactly a delinquent. People just find you queer. Not the "gay" queer but the "weird" queer.

Go watch Lars And The Real Girl if you've not. It's a brilliant movie and it will probably leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Ok, most would feel warm and fuzzy. Sure, it was a heart-warming comedy. Christians would be happy to endorse it. Catholics maybe. I do like the part when the Father said, "What would Jesus do?" Funny.

So it is a story. Lars fear human contact. Both physical and verbal interactions. Especially physical. So much so that a touch or a hug can leave him with a burning sensation. The sensation he describes as when your feet are thawing after being left out in the cold.

But secretly I am jealous of Lars because he has a reason for being dysfunctional. He has delusional disorder. His mother died while giving birth to him. He loves the blue blanket that his mum knitted for him. Nobody helped him to cope, growing up knowing this and his dad just died a couple of years back leaving behind on a brother, Gus. He uses a sex-doll to compensate.

What about the rest of us? Slightly malfunction but without a medical condition? No delusional disorder. Just failing again and again in certain aspects of our lives? We don't have a neat, convenient defect to explain away our deficiencies.

I still liked the movie though.