RIP~Patrick Swayze

A good actor can do a lot of things, make you laugh, cry, and fall in love with them. We love them because they portray the human experience with expertise and sensitivity for even the most vile characters that they are commissioned to play.  If the actor is very good, the audience is convinced that he is drawing upon life experience not theatrical talent, and somehow his craft is transported beyond artifice into the stuff of legends.

Patrick Swayze was that kind of actor. His roles may not have been the most serious...but you find me a woman who has watched dirty dancing, and didn't believe that Swayze was a god.  

I watched the movie at a friends house in 6th grade. Her parents were cooler than mine, I wasn't allowed to watch anything that had even a mention of sex in it. The irony of this? There was no movie "too violent" for me to see, this taught me at an early age that sex was more powerful and mysterious than any gun could ever be. Swayze, could easily steal Stalone's woman with wit, charm and dance moves.

Dirty Dancing gave hope to all the awkward, rythymically challenged girls who played the role of wall flower in a society that prizes beauty higher than any other attribute. If a man like Swayze could fall in love with a clutz like "baby"...the possibilities were endless. Though it was just a movie, you could never convince myself or any one of my friends that Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey were not in love "in real life".

Thats how good he was. A hunk with a heart of gold. So rare. 

So today, I'm going to whip out a my dirty dancing CD, and remember the movie that made me believe that plain girls had options.

~SQ