Stepping On Dreams

What was the last line of dialogue from a film or book that landed hard with you even if you had trouble immediately identifying why?

"I don't see a lot of money here."

It's been months since I saw "Inside Llewyn Davis". And though I immediately recognized the precision of that line of dialogue above upon hearing it, it's taken me a while to process why it shook me up so much. Like all concise writing, there's a world in those eight simple words. After a promoter listens to one of Llewyn's songs, he offhandedly makes this remark - a soul is crushed, a dream minimized.

At first, it was a short distance from that brief scene in the film to recalling instances when people have wounded me with unthinking words. Then my reflections shifted: How many times have I similarly discouraged others by being insensitive, sometimes in the name of "honesty"? How many times have you? In my experience, when something lingers like this, and turns up in my dreams, the work to be done is probably mine.