Charlie Chaplin

Mathematics is a universal language.  Comedy, I have learned, is much more subjective.  However, I have also learned that a good laugh clears many barriers.

I must be complaining too much lately.  Despite my feeling that my relationship with April is continuing to go well, I have apparently spent too much time worrying about the state of the alien refugee situation.  Or as April put it, I have needed to “stop wasting my time putting out fires and do something about it.”

For a moment, I was sure this would lead to another argument born out of my inability to understand female emotions, but she ended up coming up with an interesting solution.  She suggested I “host a movie night.”

My first though was that this was a ridiculous notion, to host my newly immigrated brethren to a “movie night.” Then, April explained.  A local cinema was screening a series of Charlie Chaplin movies, and she thought that a group of aliens would be able to enjoy them because, firstly, they were “silent” movies that relied primarily on visual storytelling without heavy reliance on local language, and secondly, if we could get these aliens to laugh, we all might relax for a change.

I figured it could not hurt much to try, and it actually worked.  Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” character is uniquely human, yet there is some quality that is very easy for an alien to grasp.  We saw a few short films and a couple of his longer feature length pictures.  The one we all appreciated the most was “Modern Times,” I think because we could relate to the conflict with technology, and we generally appreciated a character that seemed out of his element.

I must try more of these. Social events are not something I am used to, but even my sister was very positive about the experience.  Perhaps there is something to finding a cultural touchstone to connect to.