Be Fearless

I saw the movie Julie and Julia last week. Twice. I enjoyed the stories of cooking legend Julia Child and blogger Julie Powell so much that when M suggested we see it on Friday, I didn't mention that I had already seen it on Wednesday. I think more than anything, I was enthralled by the sheer enthusiasm of Julia Child leaping off the screen. It's hard not to love someone who revels in not just a joy for cooking, but a joy for life. And watching Meryl Streep give a virtuoso performance is simply frosting on the cake.

I didn't know much about Julia Child before seeing the movie. Like most, I knew her from her cooking shows and her cookbooks. I knew her very distinctive high pitched voice that caused many people to assume she was British. I had certainly heard of the legendary "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I had seen Dan Ackroyd lampooning her in that infamous blood-soaked Saturday Night Live skit. But I had no idea she was a role model for every person who has reached a certain point in their life, looked around and wondered "What should I do?"

Julia Child was nearly 40 years old when she first began to teach cooking. She was 49 when Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published and 51 when she first appeared on camera for her TV show "The French Chef". There doesn't seem to have been a moment when she told herself she was too old to do something or past the point of attempting something new. Instead, it seems she threw herself into new projects for the sheer joy of giving it a try. There was a quote she was known for. It was about cooking, but I think it also sums up the way she seemed to feel about life "...learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all, have fun."

I wish, like Julia, I could learn to be fearless. Or more accurately, learn how to be as fearless as I used to be. When I was in my 20's, I announced "I'm moving to New York" and threw all of my belongings into the back of a U-Haul. I had no job, no New York friends and no plan and yet somehow everything worked out. In my 40's, it feels I'm often so busy weighing the pros and cons before trying something new, that being cautious comes dangerously close to being immobile.There has to be a happy medium in here somewhere. I don't want to be one of those people referred to as "set in their ways", yet I also don't want to be some fortysomething who tries to be twentysomething again. I'd like to be able to combine the experience of the middle aged man that I am, with the bravado of the younger man I used to be. In short, I want to be Julia Child, enthusiasm and fearlessness intact. Only with a deeper voice.

Who knows if Julia Child was really so approachable and upbeat. It's very possible that the real life Julia was different than the Meryl-Streep-as-Julia film version. I'm sure that in her day to day life Julia Child didn't always utter those high-pitched joyful "oohs" and smile at everyone she met. Like all of us, I'm sure she had cranky days and threw an occasional fit. I'm sure she even had her moments of self-doubt and worry. But Julia Child did what she advised most of us to do. She learned from her mistakes, she was fearless and there's absolutely no doubt that she was having fun.