Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Slope


There are two things on my mind. One's good, and one's sad. Both are about life.

The first is a movie I watched called Cash Back. It's British and has Oliver Wood from Harry Potter as the main character.

There's a lot of nudity in it. It's about beauty though, and claiming the moment. It's pretty Bohemian, but it's definitely an inspiring movie - inspiring in the way I like it to be. Not in the Seabiscuit or Radio way, where they might as well put it in the "inspiring" genre, but something that lulls you in and makes you care about the characters, and then tells a human story.

I had to put that one first, because the second makes it seem trite. Someone that was a good friend of mine in high school, I just found out, was diagnosed with colon cancer in June. Apparently he has a fairly high chance of survival, but it's just so strange. Anyone past some certain point in life, I would think, would sympathize with this sentiment - but it is not quite scary and not quite sad to me...but just an altogether wordless feeling, to be confronted with death in such a real and immediate way.

I don't know if I've written this before, I may have, but it's worth repeating. It's both horribly tragic and terribly interesting that we should grow to know that we are - and to build relationships with people, to have love, and to have things we build, and accomplish, and overcome - and die. If we live long enough we will see everyone we love die, and die ourselves. And this is certain. That we would pass thru life like a blip on a radar screen, like a vapor, and we know, we know that everything will end. That we could understand this, and still slip toward it completely unable to stop it. Humanity is actually a tragedy.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

about your friend with the colon cancer, and not feeling sad abuot it.
It reminds me of when I was thinking to myself.
People, good good, friends of mine, close people I love, would confront me with problems, and I would just be so apathetic to it.
It's not that, i didn't care, but it was like I didn't care.
you know, what i mean?
i dont know,
it just reminded me.

Amy T Schubert said...

who is it?

miss you.

Anonymous said...

i don't know you, just searching through blogs, and yours appealed to me
:)

Maeg O'Donoghue-Williams Sukarwanto said...

I think this is exactly why we do things-fall in love, go for long walks, make art, challenge ourselves, experience pain-

precisely because we know it will end.


if it went on forever we would never leave our beds

NanAZ said...

Sounds like Ecclesiastes to me. The older I get, the more precious every moment of each relationship is to me because I realize more and more that we never know how much longer we have to spend on this earth and with those we love.

Love you!

Miranda said...

Thanks for the complement on the tan. Although no Vietnam trip has occurred I have discovered something better... wait for it... I have discovered that it is SUNNY right here in Arizona. So, in essence if I spend time outside for an extended period of time out in this SUN, I could essentially get... wait for it again... a tan. Genius. Way to go God, another great plan. (please refrain from a evolutionary based come back... i'm not trying to convert you). hehe.