Legacies

Every day people die.  Actually every minute of every hour.  As the year goes by the Entertainment section of Google News will have a story about a different celebrity that has passed on.  For me , some of the older ones that have died (Florence Henderson for example), didn't have quite the impact as when Robin Williams died.  That one and ironically Dan Haggerty (He was known for the show The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams back in the seventies).  Robin Williams was one of my all time favorite comedians and the first actor I grew up watching to pass away.  I had that moment where I'll never forget where I was.  On vacation, in Gaylord, Michigan, getting ready to get into a car.  Dan Haggerty, known as Grizzly Adams, was the origin of my email address.   I was also dubbed Grizzly Adams by my cousin because I had grown a beard so I had a kinship with him.  Heck,  even  when The Force Awakens came out and Han Solo died (Oops.  Spoiler alert) I felt as though I'd lost a friend.  But I digress.

 This week Alan Thicke passed away.  He was sixty-nine.  Five years older then my parents and twenty-five years older than me.  I grew up watching Growing Pains.  He was an actor I "knew" well.  A friend.  Or at least his character was.   I'm at the age (forty-two) where the actors I grew up watching are starting to take get to an age where they are more likely to leave this world.  In watching the news feed surrounding Alan Thicke's death what has been so cool to see is to see the positive mark he left on the world.  How cool is it that the last thing he was doing was playing a pick-up game of hockey with his son?  Spending time with family.  What a way to go.  Almost like going in your sleep.  I only hope that I can leave behind that kind of legacy.  My hope for him though is that when he entered the next world he was ready because if he wasn't then all the positive things he did here, while great, would mean nothing.  However, that is not for us to know.

An Adventure into the Past, A Journey to the Present

 

 The last few days have taken me on a trip back in time.  So much so that at one point  I felt trapped between times.  Stuck in some sort of space/time continuum.  It was down right odd.  When opportunities like this present themselves it can be very rewarding to see how we grew up.

As I've looked back I've found things that are very consistent.  If I were to do write a resume based on my life I would be an outdoorsman. :-)

Way back in 1976 I was skipping stones in the park and bothering the animals.  I was two!  In fairness to the swan or whatever that is I think it was a staring contest.  Ironically, I had a similar encounter with a bear a many years later.  Thankfully we weren't this close and it wasn't a staring contest!  But that is another story for another time.    

Over our lives we tend to do certain things.  I have a tendency to climb things.  

I started early and it hasn't stopped.  From skipping stones, encounters with wildlife, and climbing trees I'm guessing my childhood wasn't much different then any other boy's.  Granted, there were five other kids that came after me and thousands of hours or adventures, stories, bumps bruises, and the like but we all have our beginnings somewhere.  For me, it was these two people.  That house in the first picture is the house they brought me home to.  Dad told me once that without me they wouldn't be a family.  He's right.  Without them we wouldn't be a family.  In looking back I've seen how important family is.  I've seen pictures of people I never knew, hardly knew, and know very well.  t's been really good.  I'm looking forward to sharing more as I sort through all these pictures I have.  This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Reflections on Star Wars

SPOILERS!!!!!

                                                                                                                    

 Walt Disney DIS -0.86% sent out an “It’s official!” press release Wednesday at around 4:30 p.m. PT,  but in case you need hard confirmation, Wednesday’s $6.2 million gross for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has indeed pushed the Walt Disney film past the $760.5m domestic gross of James Cameron’s Avatar.J.J. Abrams’s sci-fi sequel is now the biggest grossing movie ever in America — if you don’t adjust for inflation, the 3D bump and the IMAX/PLF bumps. For the first time in 18 years, a James Cameron movie is not at the top of the charts, and for the first time in forty years, a film not helmed by James Cameron, George Lucas, or Steven Spielberg is the biggest movie ever in America. It really is the end of an era.

So here it is.    The "Star Wars" of this generation.   I finally saw it this past week.  I'll say this.  With all the money it's made the hype going in was there whether I wanted it to be or not and I'll be honest. Initially, there was a bit of a let down.  It really wasn't an amazing movie.  It was a really good movie.  That was about it.  However, the inclusion of Han Solo, Princess Leia (I think she's a General or something now) and Luke Skywalker (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill) was brilliant.  Oh yeah.  Chewy too.  :-)  Can't forget him.  R2d2 and  C3PO show up as well.    Bringing back all those guys (and girl) connected this movie to the original three.  This one takes place thirty years later.   As these different characters started showing up I started seeing my childhood.   When I was seventeen I had brain surgery and as a result I don't remember a lot before my surgery.  Interestingly enough though, the one memory I do have is Star Wars.  Way back in the day...the early 80s...I was 8 or so, there were two times a year we could stay up.  CBS would play The Sound of Music and Star Wars annually.  I'm not sure how many years they did it.  It might've only been once.  All I know is I remember people being interviewed about how many times they'd seen Star Wars.  This church choir had seen it 222 times I think.  But I remember it.  I don't remember a lot from my childhood but I remember that.  It amazes me how much you grow to think of a movie character as family.   Specifically, Han Solo. He really stood out in all three movies and then Harrison Ford's career took off afterward.  Of course I followed it.  I grew up watching him.  He's been Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, the  President of the United States, a Fugitive on the run, and now once again, Han Solo.    

So I sat there last week watching Episode Seven "The Force Awakens"  and it gets to the end where Han Solo calls out to his son to try and to get him to come home.  They meet on a bridge over a huge chasm.  Kylo Ren, Han and Leia's son has a face to face encounter with his father and kills him.  At that moment I felt I'd lost a family member. The guy I grew up with.  Now, when I watch a movie really become a part of it.   The fact that something as simple as a movie character/actor had such a 

such a profound influence on my life that when he was gone I did a double take.   

The generation of today is so different then mine  For my generation (and those before me as well), 

we saw it before it became a phenomenon.  When it was just a fun story about a ragtag group of 

people who end up fighting for a common cause.  Now it's this Universe.  I had a guy shocked that 

when I went to see it I wasn't just awestruck at how amazing it was.  Discussions on who is related to 

who and why sis this person this and that and the list goes on and on and on.  I was happy with my 

action figures, the few space ships I got and the Star Wars lunch box.  Now granted, movies and tv 

are a huge part of my life but if just seeing the loss of a character I grew up has such an impact on 

me what other parts in my life am I danger of losing and if I lose them will I be prepared?  Will I 

know?   These are questions I'm asking myself.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/01/07/box-office-star
-wars-the-force-awakens-zooms-past-avatar-soars-to-764m-cume/