This is not just a gushy tribute to Harold Ramis and his work.  This is a commentary on an article I read in the wake of Ramis' passing at the young age of 69.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/harold-ramis-bill-murray-inside-groundhog-day-duo-154846006.html

The article speaks about the rift that developed between Ramis and his longtime comedy partner, the legendary Bill Murray resulting from their work on the movie Groundhog Day and from the sounds of it, from the effects of their personal lives.

Murray and Ramis collaborated on such great comedy classics such as Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters and then finally Groundhog Day, before their relationship took a turn for the worse that was never...and now will never be resolved.  The breakdown of this relationship was interesting to me at a number of levels.  As a big fan of both movies in general and the work of these comedic geniuses, I read with interest at how the rift developed during the production of Groundhog Day, a movie I felt to be really cool.  It seems Murray was experiencing the end of his marriage and wanted Groundhog Day to be extremely philosophical, while Ramis, perhaps understanding where their success had come, wanted the movie to focus upon the slapstick and the one-liners that had always generated such success..

I believe what they ended up with, while not a comedic classic, is a truly great movie that encapsules the conflict of its two creators and has enough elements of both of their objectives to truly present its viewers with a film that is both thought-provoking, mature and still funny and entertaining.

With regards to their real-life situation, how tragic is it that two people who were once friends and brilliant collaborators, will now never have an opportunity to move past whatever differences truly spiraled them into different universes.

When I spoke at my Dad's funeral, I spoke specifically about our relationship and how we had found a common path of resolution to walk down, even if it wasn't what many fathers and sons enjoy.  Even if it wasn't verbally mapped out, it was a place of decency and appreciation for the things we had given each other, even if it wasn't entirely what we might have ideally expected or hoped for.  I spoke about how we were lucky that we had time to work that out, and how not everybody is so lucky.  I have a wonderful and incredibly close family, but there were specific challenges and relationships in the room that were clearly being referenced.  Some have since been resolved, some are still being worked on.

I spoke about how sometimes there are things that get in between us that are petty, and how sometimes the things that get between us are not so petty.  No matter how big or small the things that damage our relationships are, we should weigh the prospects of how our lives (and more importantly the lives of our loved ones) would be without those relationships compared to if we fought through and resolved those relationships as best we could.  If I had dug my heels in and stood on principal, my son, daughter and wife would never have had the loving relationship with my dad that they did.  It doesn't mean that it would have been wrong if I hadn't allowed for the reconciliation, just that me and my family wouldn't have been better off.

We only have so many years, so many days, so many hours...and then we're gone.

We truly should use them to our greatest advantage.

Watch Groundhog Day, it is a movie with a tremendous amount of heart.