Just say Yes

I went to the movies last night with a friend and while we’d originally wanted to see Bride Wars, it wasn’t playing at a convenient time so we settled for Jim Carrey’s new movie Yes Man.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Dumb and Dumber (which is a little odd since the other is Gone with the Wind) but I haven’t really liked Jim Carrey in recent movies because he seems to always play the same campy, slapsticky character just with a different name.

So I wasn’t expecting too much of Yes Man…which is always a good indicator I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Sure enough, I really liked this movie, both Jim Carrey’s acting and the premise, which in a nutshell is to say yes to life.

I don’t want to give too much away - especially because I highly recommend you go see it – but the movie begins with Jim Carrey’s character, Carl, turning down invitations and trying to find  excuses for not committing to do anything out of his routine.

After attending a seminar about living life more fully, Carl’s arm-twisted into agreeing to say yes to everything that’s asked of him. Some of the scenes that result are hilarious, some sad and one in particular absolutely disgusting – trust me, you’ll know which one when you see the movie - but all of them expose him to new situations and opportunities.

I was so intrigued by the movie I looked it up on IMDB today and according to the trivia, it’s based on a biographical book by British writer Danny Wallace who spent six months saying “yes” to any given question or proposal and recording the results.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see a little bit of Carl’s pre-epiphany character in me. Which got me thinking,  what if I said yes to every invitation that came my way?

Just for a week, mind you, not a lifetime and only for social invitations not every single question like in the movie. But seriously, what would happen and would it enrich and expand my life?

Would I meet new and interesting people I normally wouldn’t even talk to because I felt they were too different? Would I learn a hobby, find a new hangout, go on a spontaneous trip? Or on the potential downside, end up in jail or on a date with a creepy guy?

I’m still mulling over whether or not to actually do this as an experiment, but no worries, if I do you’ll be the first to know!

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