The Island

 

BLM:90 WHM:90 SMN:90 THF:90 WAR:90 DRK:90 RNG:90 PLD:90

I just finished watching "The Island" for the second time with my father. I was not able to watch it all the way through the first time because I had to leave and the fun part of watching it with him is that sometimes I get to explain stuff in the movie that connotes to real life.

And for just a moment let me say WOW, where the hell was this movie when it came out?!! I mean it was epic and fantastic and all the money and effects were there and HOW did I not even know it was out in the theater. It boggles my mind sometimes the kind of low-rent movies that are allowed to be in the theater when at the same time great movies don't even make it.

This was the experience I had with District 9. In Orange Park's  theater, it was not going to be shown even though it has like 24 theaters. I mean this is like an epic movie about aliens and with special effects and a whole lot of money put in it not the least of which was Peter Jackson's paycheck. But they didn't have it there at the time of the premiere so I was forced to go across town to watch it.

So, spoiler alert, I'm gonna tell you all about the movie; so go watch it then come back to this article.

In the movie, it stars Scarlett Johansson and that Ben Kenobi actor I forget his name. Great actors, again where was I when it came out? So it starts off nice enough with people from the future that wear all white clothes but who have to wear and eat what they are told. Not far away are the people that corral them. The men in black as it were. They watch everyone for violence and get in between you when you get too casual with one another. Fast forward to the part where they are all clones and what they are doing there is providing organs for people that "buy organic insurance policies". The whole reason they are alive, they are told, is to one day win the lottery. Btw, they are kept at a 15 year old education level. (see previous blog to find out at what age you can basically function as an adult). And fantastically enough, as is human nature, this GREAT DAY that you win the lottery is when what has really happened is that the "owner" has need of your organs!  Yeah, and then, you are drugged and stripped of the necessary organs the owner of the "insurance policy" needs and it's perpetual life support for you. It is so heinous that the very IDEA of it should have earned someone an Oscar.

OH but I am not done. Because this is not just what being a slave is like, or what being "product" for the 1% is like, no, this is what it is like to be Christian.

People raised in churches are taught to treat each other with dignity and are allowed to have privacy. People not in churches are treated badly not just by the desperate people scrounging for a chance at their next meal but by "gatekeepers" that know how to deal with "possible threats" that may challenge a community. So the real world is very much like this movie in that, users of the rest are in a sort of Gentleman's Agreement, (kudos to Dr. Pordelli, his teachings were not lost on me) where they agree to make use of the "Christians" so that they may squeeze their fellow human beings irrationally and without the necessary level of dignity and privacy that regular people are supposed to have, all the while expecting or even KNOWING that the good christians will forgive them perpetually into infinity; why, because a real community doesn't have people that are ACTUALLY EVIL ON PURPOSE DO THEY?  NO WAY! HEAVEN FORBID!

At the end of the movie, Djimon Honsou I think, crafts his role of bounty hunter into one of revolutionary and delivers the movie's single most important lesson. "So Dr. so and so, when did war turn into a business for you?" And later he said that all war is about business which at my age and level of wisdom, rings true.

And you gotta give it to Sean Bean. He is right on the edge of likable as an actor and yet his characters always end up corrupt. But in the next movie, you like him again. It's strange yet, refreshing. 

YyyyeaaAARRGGGGHHH!!!! THE infAMYYYY!!

So I read Ann Coulter's blog, which I do from time to time and even though she is like struggling to find a worthy cause from the Republican establishment, I at least find her steadfastness inspiring. It's very annoying to watch hardcore Dems like Rachel and Alex Wagner and still read and watch Ann Coulter and SECupp.  Quite hard.  Actually I would like to think of the former as soft core because they speak with a rational mind about things. Sure they have their fun here and there but the amount of work they put into explaining stuff helps me to believe THAT THEY BELIEVE what they are teaching and that makes them worth listening too.

The same goes for Ann Coulter. I would rather believe that she is committed to being Republican, despite that they are better defined as the ROOT of ALL EVIL. And the more I listen, the more I change ever so subtly to her views. Now I watch for BS like anyone else and as soon as it happens I am the first one to change the channel, or er, write a comment. Same goes for SECupp and Julia Ioffe. 

You know I have to hand it to Lawrence because if not for him I would not have found Julia and I like Julia. She is a Russian and, as is my norm, I wanna understand the enemy. I wanna explore the final frontier much like Capt. Kirk.  So she gives me a bird's eye view of what an upper class Russian would act like... if there were such a thing. And isn't it incredibly Romeo&Juliet to want one of THEIR women, with ME as their host? No? Anyone? Think about it?(insert Alec Baldwin's look of dismay)

Right about now, Lawrence is stirring in his chair prepared to ask the question that made him the man he is today.

What is wrong with you?

With me? Well lessee, I grew up with a dad that spent a third of his time away from home. When he came home he always had lots of money and by the time he blew it all on us and was done liking my mother, he went away again. Small wonder then that in like fashion I tend to USE UP my friends. But always, right before he left, there would be fighting and yelling and amazing terrible things said and we as children forced to PARENT THEM. But now that I am older, I am quite shocked at how difficult their lives were and how much effort it took to keep the marriage together.   I studied much harder than they did as children I'm sure but my adult life was much easier than I remember theirs being.  I could claim child abuse, but no, I claim lessons and I claim them as REAL EXAMPLES so that others, my children, can learn why you should and should not do things based on things that I have actually experienced and not just because I said so, which was my parents favorite explanation.

But as in real life as opposed to what I remember of them, they were very different people before they met.   My father frequented bars and never told my mother until she was married that he was of that sort. My mother, a virgin at the time of marriage, was from a very large family and thought she was coming to America to raise nobility. She had struggled with being the oldest raising her younger siblings all her life on her farm and when it came to us, she did it no different I expect.  She told me a story one time of when they had found a mountain lion nearby and her father was forced to hunt it down with the help of some neighbors.  After that I understood better that in her view, takin' a beating was not quite as bad as getting eaten by a lion, and that perhaps her idea of strict was not because it gave her pleasure but because that was how she was brought up.   

My father was a very trusting fellow. I don't doubt he has taken many risks and has impressed a great many people throughout his life. He once saved a man's life in a hurricane and we have the article to prove it. He is completely meticulous about things and when I am meticulous I honor him. His younger brother has told us stories about how he was when he grew up and I guess it goes in line with how much he loves Friday Night Fights, which I don't particularly see the point of.  You would think these two personalities compatible yes?

But the truth is in the details. My father is very humble. My mother is quite noble. My father believes in good times and trusting people and taking the time to do things correctly albeit more slowly. My mother is driven by faith and honors God in everything she does. She likes to be careless sometimes and I find myself careless often and think about her when it happens. It's hard to do everything right ALL of the time. Carelessness must be a balance to that I guess.

An example of this carelessness came when I was about 26.  I had just finished earning my Bachelor's Degree while at the same time as working full-time.  I was already a muck up when it came to dating so to fill the void of extra time on my hands, I thought I would just work 2 jobs.  Yup, for no reason at all.  I figured I needed to be in shape for when that magical girl came calling.(I know right, did I REALLY EXPECT a girl to pop in one day and be the one?) One of my first jobs was at a restaurant, and I had done maintenance work before so I applied that day and was asked to show up the next day. So I opened the restaurant at 5AM, worked until 2pm and traveled to Citibank and worked there from 3pm til 12am.  And what then you ask? Then I had just enough time to go to the bar for an hour I thought, though usually on nights that I didn't have to work the next day.  Well the big turning point, and that's not the only one, occurred when I attracted this girl from the bar and we went back to her hotel.  She wanted me to demand she stay and I wanted her to agree to stay first before I got a hotel room, but she just wouldn't do it.  So after a long night of kissing and no sex, I left.  This was at about 4am.  About an hour later, CRASH!  3 cars later, my credit bureau was ruined.  Quite careless yes?  I was trying to do it all.  I had not drank anything since 2am and the fact was I was totally drained of energy.  Even though I was falling asleep early on during the drive and wanted to pull over and sleep, I knew I was almost home.  But, I didn't make it. 

If there is a RIGHT way to pick up a woman at the bar, to this day, I have not learned it. 

I have had to live my life balancing my parents two sides and explaining each to the other's actions and it is their example of working so hard, and knowing so, little that makes me believe in the human race in general because it's easy to have prejudice against stupidity or ignorance or even inferior color or gender, and my parents represent all of that; but without their hard work, I would not be here and I would not be as BALANCED a thinker as I know that I am. 

I believe that they are proud of us, their children, and I believe that when they are gone, despite being able to lead the world... I won't know what to do.

My mother is visiting her father at this time and he is soon to pass away.  I hope for the best.