The Tao of Steve

(We’re going to continue in the “It worked two years ago, it sure has hell better work now” vein and discuss the movie The Tao of Steve. Seriously, I am reliving Spring Break 2003. Checking my old writer’s journals I wrote about this movie exactly two years ago this week.)

Anyway, The Tao of Steve featuring Donal Logue (who you know from Fox’s Grounded for Life and every other comment on VH-1’s I Love the [Insert Decade Here]). I’ll readily admit to stealing quoted from a number of movies and passing them off as my own. It’s one of the benefits of watching indie films, you get to appear smart with a lot less legwork. The Tao of Steve is different, since I borrow an entire philosophy from this one.

It’s a very simple idea, you must become a Steve as opposed to a Stu. See, Steve’s are cool. You’ve got Steve Austin (in both Six Million Dollar Man and Stone Cold forms). You’ve got take no prisoners pitcher Steve Carlton. And you’ve got Steve McQueen, who was cool and got the girls without even lifting a finger. That is what you are to emulate if you want to be successful in the social arena. And all you need to do is follow three simple steps: Be Desireless, Be Excellent, and Be Gone.

The first part is pure Taoism. You must empty yourself of all desire and learn to want without wanting, seek without seeking and pursuer without pursuing. I know, I know, wax on and wax off and all of that crap. But trust me, if you can cleanse your mind of desire it greatly increases your opportunities.

The other two parts are much more straightforward. Be excellent in the other’s presence. Basically just prove your worth, show that you are worth their oxygen. (Actually, that’s a basic rule of life, always provide evidence that you are doing more for the planet than just sucking oxygen and expelling greenhouse gases.) And the last rule, as someone once yelled at me, is “Stop hovering”.

Why am I writing about this? Or more accurately, why did I watch the movie again tonight? Well, it is first of all a really good movie. Nothing fancy but it is worth checking out just from a cinematic perspective. But really it is because the philosophy works and I’ve forgotten it over the past year or so. And it isn’t a trick about becoming someone who you are not, it’s about becoming the best person you can possibly be. Just three simple rules and some intelligence and you can succeed. So, I think it is time to give the Tao another try. And this time I’m going to follow through until completion.

Next movie review: High Fidelity, also known as “The book I should have written first” and “Who in their right mind cast Lisa Bonet in that role?”