Is it safe?

Old advice to a fellow entering the workforce was, "Never talk about money, politics or religion." The subjects were seen as divisive; sand in the commercial gearbox. And making waves at work was no way to get ahead.

Until recently, it was OK to bar certain subjects from the cubes, hallways and lunch tables because there was so much else we could easily agree to discuss. Areas of cultural consent or genial disagreement were not so rare as they are today that they need to be labeled "events." Sports, highway construction projects, automobiles, vacation spots, the lives of famous people and, of course, the movies all qualified.

Over time, the taboo trio have seeped from the cabinet in which they have been kept to affect and shorten that list. Money, politics and religion have become contentious elements of most everything we do, say, hear or see. Witness Terrell Owens (sports), Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" (highway construction), the Prius and the Hummer (automobiles), Acheh and Cuba (vacation spots)and Mel Gibson and Angelina Jolie (the lives of famous people). We don't even have the movies anymore.

When Laurence Olivier maliciously drilled Dustin Hoffman's tooth in the search for an answer to the simple question: "Is it safe?," we all felt the pain. When Humphrey Bogart told Dooley Wilson, "You played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it," we all felt his anger. And when Paul Newman said to Robert Redford, "I got 20/20 and the world wears bifocals," we all felt equally underappreciated.

The financial reports on who and how many of us go to the movies is evidence of the hypothesis that they are less and less of a bond. Instead of venturing out with a crowd of citizen strangers, we are more likely to hunker down at home. More than further squeezing the potential for serendipity out of our lives, it makes the experience more "mine" and less "ours." It makes us less willing to start a conversation with anyone we are not sure shares our views and more likely to take offense when we hear something other than is in our own heads. Even if you are willing to take the plunge, like Olivier, you likely ask yourself, "Is it safe?"

What does this leave us with as the source of a cultural event? It may be that the only thing left which does not immediately label or polarize us is the weather. It affects us all; yet none of us can do anything about it. It is not a plot; nor is it a campaign. It has no social agenda and is without political goal. True, it can be leveraged for profit or political gain, but it is not predictible enough to bank on.

The weather. The rain, the snow, the heat, the humidity. All safe, for now.