Posted: Dec 30, 07
3:55pm
The other night I saw Juno, the new comedy about a pregnant 16-year-old who chooses Mark and Vanessa, a suburban professional couple, to adopt the baby. Complications arise when Mark gets cold feet and bails on the marriage. A former punk rocker now writing ad jingles, Mark announces that he is planning to move to a loft in Soho and “work on his music.” Vanessa looks at him with pity and says, “Mark, you will never be Kurt Cobain, no matter what you do.”
No, he won’t and neither will you. I won’t be a country music star, either. This secret ambition of mine is all the more absurd because I can’t sing. At all. (I don’t care what the scientists are now saying, some people are just plain tone deaf.) Still, I think the lifestyle would suit me – I can see myself in one of those nicely decorated Loretta Lynn-style tour buses, with a cute bass player for company. Other secret ambitions: Egyptian archeologist, scuba instructor, bartender, major philanthropist. All in all, I’m happy with the way things turned out. One of my secret ambitions is now my profession. But it’s still fun to imagine an alternate life, in which I would be coming to work in a pith helmet, a wet suit or a spangled gown. Any other secret ambitions out there?