Inconceivable

Back in the early 70’s, Debbie and I had been a steady couple for almost a year, and we were madly in love. We had made big plans for the future which included a wedding in August of 1973.

One night we decided to go see the movie "The Graduate". As we waited for the show to begin, we couldn’t help but wonder what the movie would be about. From looking at the billboard in the lobby we decided it must be a story about passion and seduction. Since it was rated “PG” we were not overly concerned about it being too graphic.

Ben, the main character played by Dustin Hoffman, was a 20-year-old college student who had just graduated with honors. Contrary to his parents’ wishes, he planned to stay home and relax for the summer. Therefore, Ben spent most of the next few months relaxing on an air mattress sunning himself in the backyard pool.

During his graduation party thrown by his parents, Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner, asked Ben for a ride home in his new car. He was reluctant at first, but finally gave in. When they arrived at her home, Mrs. Robinson approached Ben with hopes of seducing him.

Even though, she wasn’t someone easily trifled with, Ben successfully weaseled his way out of this seductive situation, but he didn’t avoid her for long. Mrs. Robinson, using her high-class intimidation soon became a temptation that Ben sadly couldn’t resist. To her delight she and Ben rendezvous for the first of many times at a nearby hotel.

As I was sitting there in the movie theater watching this cleverly concocted story, thoughts from my past began to flood my mind. Memories of a seductive affair with a senior girl at my high school caused me to grip the sides of my chair.

These unwelcome thoughts were forcing their way into my head like a thief in the night. Even though this girl was completely out of my life at the time, I was still feeling a bit awkward as I sat there beside my future wife. I thought I had buried that chapter of my existence and was a bit alarmed when it resurfaced. Oddly enough, this movie "The Graduate", had brought them back to life once again, and it disturbed me.

I was a Junior in High School and I found myself lured into a short but steamy relationship with an older girl. She was the “Mrs. Robinson” of our relationship, and of course I was Ben, the naive and unsuspecting casualty. My seductress wasn’t married, like Mrs. Robinson, but she was engaged. What made it even worse, I was going steady with a girl named Lora and had been for a year.

As I sat glued to my theater chair, beside Debbie, I witnessed this young man making bad choices at such a vulnerable time in his life, and I could easily relate.

Once I had called it quits with Grace, I thought for sure it would be behind me. I assumed this indulgence of sexual pleasure at such a young age would be easily forgotten, but I found out sitting here tonight that it wasn’t. I was between a rock and a hard spot, between my bride-to-be and the memory of Grace.

As each moment of the movie inched by, I grew more and more uncomfortable. When I thought about how I felt, I wondered if what I had done, less than a year before, would continue to cause problems throughout my life.

As I sat in this comfortable seat, I was enjoying the music of the movie’s soundtrack, but even that seemed to steer my thoughts in the wrong direction. It reminded me of my darker side. The side that lured me into accepting my temptresses temptations in the first place. “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again, because a vision softly creeping, left it’s seeds while I was sleeping, and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within in the sounds of silence”.

I met Debbie, my Cinderella girl, in Algebra II class that same Junior year. She came along just in time. My attraction for her pulled me back on track and we were planning to ride off into the sunset together. It was much like Ben, in the movie, he also had a girl come into his life and save him as well, her name was Elaine. But, here’s the problem; she just happened to be the daughter of Mrs. Robinson. What a twist to the story. While watching Ben and Elaine, it was like seeing Debbie at the Pizza Inn on the Friday night that changed everything. Ben somehow knew that Elaine was the one for him, from the very beginning, just as I knew Debbie was the one for me on our very first date.

After Ben and Elaine had fallen in love, Elaine discovered Ben’s recent affair with her mother and that was all she wrote., well almost. The fact that Ben would have done something like that devastated Elaine and halted their relationship. And that's the part that made me once again think back to only one year before. Just when the relationship between Debbie and I began to get serious, she discovered my "Mrs. Robinson". But, how she discovered it was the real kicker. I thought for sure it was going to end this "fairytale" love that was just getting under way. But, God had a better idea.