Okay, I'm busy and haven't had time to write anything up. But I saw this a few weeks ago and had a good laugh while watching it. Note: I've watched many a Merchant Ivory film--thank you! :)
« May 2006 | Main | July 2006 »
June 2006
June 30, 2006
June 28, 2006
June 27, 2006
June 26, 2006
June 23, 2006
The End and a Beginning
Our vacation at the shore house in Ocean City is coming to an end. Tomorrow we're headed out of Ocean City. We're headed to another shore point, but it'll be sad to leave here. It's a great shore house and you can't beat being only 1 1/2 blocks from the beach. But I don't want to focus on just endings.
Six years ago today my wife and I were married. I can't believe how much time has passed since then and how much our lives have changed. Our son is almost three years old and I look at those who have passed on (we've lost five close family members in the last six years and had 2 births)--I can't believe how much we've accomplished and where we've been and what we've done.
Yet at the end of the day, I simply want to say that I'm so happy that my wife is my best friend and partner. She's been with me through thick and thin. We've seen some amazing and some downright horrible times. Although vacation is coming to an end, today is a celebration of our life together. Six years ago, the weather was in the high '90s, we were hot, tired, and overwhelmed. But when you walk into your family and friends, hearing your names announced to the world for the first time, it's a bit of a shocker. You realize that you're a couple. You're a team. You'll make it or not on your own effort.
With career stress, writing problems, family issues, it's an extremely wild time of so much going on. But at the end of the day, it's my wife who has been my biggest supporter. I love her for who she is and want to thank her for six wonderful years of marriage. I'm looking forward to the future. Je t'aime. Take care and enjoy!
Superman Returns
While watching Superman Returns, I wished that Superman could save us--could save us all. Filled to the brim with Christ-like savior themes, the new Superman movie not only revives a classic comic book character on the big screen, but the film has a soul in which we're meant to ask ourselves: Would we want a savior to rescue us? Or could we ordinary folk get by on our own, saving ourselves? Seeing Superman on the big screen, saving people, helping out, fighting injustice, made me wish that we as a country could get our heads out of the sand and right our wrongs. Superman has always stood for truth, justice, and the American way. How can you not think of America when seeing Superman's costume? Or of the iconic scene in which Reeve, in Superman II, returns the American flag back to the top of the White House?
Memories of the first two films back in the late '70s washed over me and I had a moment in which I felt transported back to my youth. You see, I remember seeing the movie and looking up to Superman, hoping that we all could be a little like him. Somewhere my mother has a photo of my brother and I standing in front of a Superman poster from back in the late '70s. Wearing Superman underoos both my brother and I pose flexing our muscles. I must have been about 7 years old at the time and my brother about 3 years of age.
And now at 35, I see life a bit more jaded. I see all the sins and wrongs I have committed and what my country has done, realizing that "doing good" and "spreading freedom" can be twisted into an evil beyond compare. But I do believe that there is hope not only for me, but for all of us.
There's a point in the movie in which Superman rescues people from a holdup at a local convenient store but then is also seen in Thailand, France, and Egypt. Superman isn't out to help only America but the world. And maybe that's a good point for us all to take in: We're Americans but we can't save the world. We don't have super powers in which we can stop wars and save people. We don't have that type of power. Instead, maybe we need to begin coming back down to the table and working with our fellow citizens of the Earth. Maybe we need to return to our roots and realize that why our ancestors left England was for religious freedom and not to force feed a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint down everyone's throats. Maybe it's time we look in the mirror and see ourselves, becoming our own Superman. For as Clark Kent looks at the world around him, seeing and hearing all the world's problems, he cannot be at every place at the same time. He can only help so much. Those he can't help need help from others. Yet the fine line is deciding when to help and when to teach others to help themselves. Or harder yet, to learn when to leave well enough alone.
There are no absolutes in life and no easy answers. But by watching something as inane as a man flying in blue and red tights, a spark of life burned in me. Fantasy, science fiction, and all other sorts of speculation have always been my salvation in the most difficult of times. Maybe, too, we can each work at bringing our own fantasies to life to help others and ourselves.
Go see this movie and keep an open mind. For me, I see political and personal messages in the film. Others will see different religious and sexual orientation messages. But whatever you do, open the door to your heart and believe, if only for a moment, that a man could fly and that he could do super feats to help humanity. And when you come back down from such flights of fancy, ask yourself this: What can you do to help someone? Trust me, I've learned the hard way that it's impossible to save anyone. But to lend a hand or an ear to another in need: Such simple gifts can be priceless. Be a Superman or Superwoman in your life, even if it means that if only for a day you see the world through a different set of eyes, to help others or even yourself.
Posted at 03:41 PM in Commentaries | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Reblog (0) | | Digg This | |