Without a doubt, this is the best line, in a movie, of all time.

"You look great!"

The line is from “Papillon“, starring Steve McQueen in the title role, and Dustin Hoffman as his amiable, four-eyed sidekick.

Based on the true story of Henri Charriere, “Papillon” is a petty thief, who is unjustly convicted of murder and sentenced to life to a penal colony in French Guyana. The plot thickens when Papillon, who is determined to escape, fails repeatedly, resulting in recapture, and several incarcerations in solitary confinement, and finally in complete isolation.

In solitary confinement, Papillon’s only contact with others is once a day when a guard delivers a pot of water and a bowl of gruel. Once a month he sticks his head through an opening in the door to be deloused. In the early days of his incarceration, a haggard old man in the cell next to him asks: ”How do I look?” It was clear that Papillon’s prisonmate was completely broken and very near death. So Papillon charitably responds: “You look great!”

At the periodic delousing several months later, Papillon sees his new prisonmate (who has presumably replaced the previous one who died). This time it’s Papillon who appears emaciated, teeth rotting, eyes sunken back into his head (but somehow still gleaming), clearly very close to death. Papillon asks asks: “How do I look?” His new friend looks at him and responds: “You look great.” This is when he knows he’s in big trouble.

The big takeaway

The lesson here is that by the time people stop complaining about the timeliness or quality of your work, how you smell, or how you look, or whatever — it’s over. It’s too late.

So if your boss is giving you a hard time. Take encouragement. You’re not out the door yet. Don’t be offended. Don’t be insulted. Get your ass in gear. If your customer is complaining…, consider yourself really lucky because statistics show 1 out of 7 walk and never come back, and they never say a word. If your girlfriend is crying…., be happy there is still hope. Take her shopping, and buy her something, unless she’s crying because you’re not making enough money in which case, get your ass out the door and go get a 2nd job to make the poor girl happy. If your mate begrudgingly cuts a small space, with an exacto knife, for you to sleep in the conjugal bed…, jump for joy, and shout “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!” because you are still alive to see another day. You’ve got another day to do whatever it takes.

The key is to recognize that what you’re perceiving as ‘someone giving you a hard time’ should really be a wake-up call.

Don’t take it personally. Just get out of the way. 

This is the same principle behind Judo. It’s ‘surrendering to the universe’ in yoga. It’s accepting who you are as you are rather than continually seeking to transform yourself. It’s taking whatever life throws at you and rolling with the punches. It’s ‘turning the other cheek’.

Anyway…, that, dear reader, i.e., the secret of knowing how to live with whatever life throws at you, was the gleam in Steve McQueen’s eye. And, that, is also thankfully, the gleam in mine. And that is what makes this the best line, in a movie, of all time. Tell me I’m wrong.

“How do I look?”

“Why do you write only sad songs?” someone once asked the legendary Townes Van Zandt. “Well…, many of the songs…, they aren’t sad…, they’re hopeless,” he affirmed.

Townes and Seymour

If you’re going to sing and play the blues, you might as well be the best that you can be. Maybe that’s why Townes Van Zandt is revered as a Texas Bluesman. Here is a video clip of him playing “Pancho & Lefty” for an intimate group of friends. This song later became a number one country hit in 1983 when Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson adopted it as the title track of their duet album “Pancho & Lefty”.

Van Zandt is remembered as a gifted songwriter who left a legacy of songs that inspired, and continues to inspire, musicians of of much wider acclaim and repute than he; really a musician’s musician. Influential in the sub-genre referred to as “outlaw country”, his style really makes you feel just how big Texas really is (it’s the size of 5 average “other” western states).

“Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best,” he was once quoted in “Zen Guitar.”

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We all could lose a little weight.

Here is an inspirational story that should make you get up off your ass, and re-dedicate yourself to your yoga practice.

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Townes Van Zandt

This is Townes Van Zandt in “Heartworn Highway”, directed by James Szalapski. The song “Waitin’ Around To Die” from “For the Sake of the Song” album.”

“Sometimes I don’t know where this dirty road is taking me // Sometimes I can’t even see the reason why // I guess I keep on gamblin’, lots of booze and lots of ramblin’ // It’s easier than just a-waitin’ ’round to die.”

Fellow country outlaw musician Steve Earle called once called Townes Van Zandt: “the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”