Washing away the filth

Jared and Audrey often watched their VHS copy of the 1998 movie, Antz.

In it, the manipulative and cunning ant General Mandible gives a powerful speech to the colony about how he wants to “wash away” their history and start anew.

He says:

Today is the realization of a dream. A dream of a proud colony. A pure colony. A colony reborn.

Moments from now this tunnel will open. The past will be washed away and a new day will dawn.

At other points, he talks about “rinsing away the filth” from their “gutters.”

For a child, it was a striking and effective message to introduce concepts of power, corruption, and eugenics.

Jared, however, took away a different message. There was something he loved about washing or rinsing away the filth. Starting fresh. Starting “crisp and clean,” so to speak. Being pure.

He never related the words to cleansing people or groups. He wanted to wash away “the filth” of everything going on in his own life, like bad habits, dumb decisions, or embarrassing behavior. Whenever he'd watch or remember the movie, he was reinvigorated with the feeling, which he would always scream out to Audrey.

Sometimes, Jared's desire to wash away the filth was as simple and literal as wanting to take a shower, get a haircut, clean his room, or throw out old, ill-fitting clothing.

Other times, he wanted to crumple up a bad drawing and start with a fresh sheet of paper or delete a bad piece of writing and try again with a new document.

The movie may have ignited his lifelong passion with the concepts of starting fresh, keeping things crisp and/or clean, and using the word “pure” where it wasn't needed.

The most Audrey would do was imitate his voice as he expressed these desires.  ❐

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