14:11 - 14.12.08
Redemption
-37 degrees celsius with the windchill. That was the temperature yesterday when I joined my two sons and A+ for a birthday dinner at our local Pho house. Yes that's right, three Sagittarians all with their birthdays in the same week. There truly is something extraordinary about Sagittarian men, while I really admire all the women that I know of a Sagittarius persuasion. The compatibility might come from the fact that my astrological ascendant is that sign - right? My two oldest grandbabies joined us as well to celebrate with their Dad. Their first time in a "grown-up" restaurant and introduced to the use of chopsticks as well. They managed pretty well, all things considered. It was the first meeting of my family members with A+ and I admit I was stressed as a result. I just wanted everyone to find common interests and to feel comfortable with each other. Guess, like any relationship, it all takes time to build a solid foundation.
My oldest headed off to work after that, while my youngest took the grandbabies back home for a sleepover. I waited with A+ for the bus, which was a good thing, since it never showed up even after we verified the time it was supposed to arrive. Since I knew the other buses available, it was possible to find another way for him to travel home. We had tried to find a cab first, but all the taxi companys' lines were dead or busy. The forecast is for things to warm up by Tuesday, but as one US air force wag put it - weather forecasting is like horoscopes, but with numbers. Uh huh. Or maybe like economic forecasts ... as clearly demonstrated the past few months. The upshot was that I think we were probably standing outside in the cold for nearly an hour. A+ held me close in his arms and sang to me while we waited. After a while I didn't even notice the cold. Well hardly.
Shivered dinner off I guess, as well as the 10 course meal I had enjoyed the evening before at the company Christmas party. It was a wonderful experience to spend time with a group of people I truly like at one of the largest restaurants in Chinatown. The storm that had brought the cold started a few hours before that party was due to start. Meant that travelling even a few blocks could take an hour, just because of the blowing snow and ice. Some of my co-workers found they had to drive for nearly two hours for a journey that normally lasted a quarter of that time. At least they had the full moon to steer by, eh? They still thought it was worth the effort though.
When I finally arrived home last night my grandbabies were happily ensconced in front of the television, with the requisite mugs of hot chocolate to chase away the sniffles, watching "Horton Hears a Who". They've since run through "The Chronicles of Narnia" and some seasonal children's Christmas movies. Not even they want to spend too much time outside right now, you see. Movies were one of the topics for discussion at the dinner at the Pho house. "Religulous", "Tropic Thunder" and the "Dark Knight", as part of the discussion, as well as the commentary offered on the Colbert Report and the Daily Show. Hmmmm.
Thursday A+ and I went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. He chose "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man" as gifts. We had just watched "Iron Man" together before joining my guys for their birthday supper, so a lot of the material was still very fresh in our minds. We are still chewing "Iron Man" over. I was surprised that I actually liked a lot of the movie, even though comic book themes mixed with a James Bond-like story are not usually all that attractive choices as far as I'm concerned. With "The Dark Knight" the movie was redeemed by Heath Ledger's interpretation of his character. It was a truly masterful performance. What was interesting about "Iron Man", as A+ observed, was that it was about the "Hero's Journey". I had to qualify that by saying, in my view, that the hero theme was fairly superficial. "Iron Man" does approach some redemption when he chooses to stop his weapons development, because he sees soldiers of his own country being killed by them, but goes no further in his understanding of or reparations for all the other victims and casualties inflicted by his creations. Having volunteered in local schools where some of the children I was assigned to work with had seen members of their own families disfigured, dismembered, decapitated, and/or shredded to death before their eyes or tortured by the same type of renegade forces that capture the movie hero, I was waiting for the movie hero to come to terms with the fact that he was also responsible, through his weapons development and sales, for the limbless children who were the "collateral" damage in real time fire fights. I was hoping that redemption would include the understanding that a lifetime of service to those innocent victims of the arms trade - legal and illicit - would need to be part of the story. A+ said that there were sequels to come that would expand on that and several other themes of loss and redemption on a number of levels. That's some comfort, I guess. Yes, and I do want peace on earth too. Hmmm "'tis the Season" and the coming of the "Prince of Peace". Back to Bill Maher's observations in "Religulous" aren't we? Sigh.
Anyway my youngest just popped "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" into the DVD player and the music is calling me to join them. Good bye for now dear diary.
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