Just As You Are

Don’t you hate it when a movie that you love comes on television just as you are about to call it a night? Enter Bridget Jones’s Diary last night. Consequently, I’m sipping Diet Coke number three today because I just had to stay up for my favorite part.

My favorite part, of course, is when Mark Darcy tells Bridget that, despite her many flaws and quirks, that he likes her…just as she is. Sigh. It’s my opinion that the “just as you are” concept is the stuff that love (and like) is made of. Not romantic dinners out, flower deliveries, trips, etc. (Although, I will keep it real here, those things do help.) It’s about seeing the other person for who they are – who they truly are – and loving them for that. If you can do that, surely you can make it through most anything. Surely.

The scene:

Bridget Jones: “Look, are you and Cosmo in on this together? Because every time I see you, you seem to go out of your way to make me feel like a COMPLETE idiot. And you really needn’t bother: I already feel like an idiot most of the time anyway.”

Mark Darcy: “I don’t think you’re an idiot at all. I mean, there are elements of the ridiculous about you. Your mother’s pretty interesting. And you really are an appallingly bad public speaker. And, um, you tend to let whatever’s in your head come out of your mouth without much consideration of the consequences…But the thing is, um, what I’m trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you.”

Bridget Jones: “Apart from the smoking and the drinking, the vulgar mother and…ah, the verbal diarrhea.”

Mark Darcy:
“No. I like you very much. Just as you are.”