Into the sunset?

One of the chief differences between European movies and American movies is that European movies end realistically--which is to say, sadly. What could be more real than the notion that all of us are born but for the grave? When I shared this "insight" with my students, their reaction was laughter. I could not decide whether their laughter was pure nervousness at the inevitability of their own mortality, or whether it was the laughter of wisdom--a reflection that the grave, in fact, does not define us. It may well be that America's ride-off-into-the-sunset mentality may--just may--reflect our deepest reality more accurately than the Europeans' pessimism.