Indiana Jones

Tonight I am going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've been following the evolution of this film for several years now, from long-running rumor, to protracted script re-writes, and finally to actual shooting. And now today is the day. I can hardly wait.

I remember when Raiders of the Lost Ark first came out. I was almost 9 years old. My parents went to see it first and afterwards, I vividly remember my mom recounting the propeller scene and how gruesome it was. In my mind, I pictured it much worse than it actually was, but that's imagination for you. They took me to see it and I was hooked. Before long I was looking up the Ark of the Covenant, as well as archeology, in our World Book Encyclopedia. I also put some "treasures" in a cigar box, carefully buried it in the woods in our back yard, and then, starting on the far side of the woods, trekked through the jungle, occasionally checking my tattered map, until I arrived at the treasure. Ah, the good old days. When kids actually pretended, and acted out scenes like their heroes. Now, they just play the video game. But I digress...

In the pre-video days of Raiders, when movies were re-released a few times, it was very common to go see a movie several times in the theater. Especially if you were a kid. But that didn't mean there was always an available parent or adult willing to take you. About 10 months after the original release of Raiders, it was playing in re-release at a small theater relatively close to our house. I just knew that, at 9 1/2, I was mature enough to handle going to see it by myself, since I figured no one would want to take me again. So I wrote my mom a letter asking for permission and put it in our mailbox.


Amazingly, I still have the letter. I recently found it in a file folder of short stories and drawings that I made around the same time. As persuasive writing, it's quite good, if I say so myself.


And the good news is my parents let me go see Raiders of the Lost Ark, for the third time...by myself. I don't remember who took me or picked me up. But I'll always remember how cool it was to spend 2 hours in a dark theater with my hero.

And tonight, 27 years later, I get to do it again.

Words of Wisdom

I've been jotting down little bits and pieces of self-advice, words to live by. I thought I'd post a few. If you have any of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

There is no such thing as perfection. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying. It’s a slippery slope, though. Striving for perfection, while knowing that it can never really be reached, is healthy. Yearning for perfection and feeling bad because you don’t reach it is destructive.

If you don’t like all the sex and violence on TV, you have the power to change it. It’s called the on/off button. There is one truth in television: they will produce what people will watch. If people only tuned in to shows without sex and violence, believe me…that’s all that would be on the air.

Customer service employees never deserve to be yelled at. Remember that we customers don’t always have the whole story. Also remember that all customer service employees have a manager. If the employee has erred, talk to the manager. Even then, though, be civil. If you’re prone to blowing your top in public, acknowledge that you’ve got the problem, not them.

People are not meant to live in the same place all their lives. You know that expression “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?” Ever experienced that feeling that things just seem better, or more appealing, somewhere else? I think the urge to go somewhere else is instinctive. There’s always an exception to the rule, and most people suppress the instinct, but I think somewhere deep down it’s in all of us. Ever been at a museum and they’re theorizing about why a certain group of ancient people left their homes or disappeared? They always have the same theories. The river dried up. The food source disappeared. The winter was too cold. But maybe they just wanted a change of scenery!

Don’t get angry at people who walk really slowly through a crosswalk, forcing drivers to wait. Have you ever been about to turn at an intersection, and waited for a person who was crossing the street, only for the person to walk intentionally slow, even holding up traffic? Sometimes they don’t even have a “walk” sign when they’re crossing. Sometimes they slow down even more when they realize a car is waiting. I used to get really bothered by this. We all know the point they’re trying to make: I hurry for no one because I am a slave to no one. But I realize now that anyone whose psyche is so injured that they feel compelled to make that kind of point in the path of a vehicle that weighs several thousand pounds should be pitied, not detested.

There are some foods that should be enjoyed, even if they are not healthy. Life is too short to eat fat free sour cream. God made chocolate delicious for a reason. We should, however, take full responsibility for our health and practice moderation. Movie theater popcorn every day is foolish. But occasional movie theater popcorn feeds the soul.

Angry people are usually just scared of something. No one likes a mean person, but if you understand that most angry or mean people are that way because they are afraid, it might be easier to avoid getting angry back at them. Look at the animal world for confirmation of this. I was once accosted by an angry squirrel on the balcony of our apartment. I couldn’t figure out what had gotten into this crazy squirrel. Without fully understanding, I hated that squirrel for jumping out of my potted fern and scaring me, and then hanging around, chattering nosily at me. But when I found the baby squirrels inside the plant pot, I realized that the squirrel wasn’t crazy or angry or rabid. She was just scared that I was going to kill her babies. We don’t always have the whole picture. In fact, we rarely do. Remember that before reacting.

It is not difficult to make a good cup of coffee. “Barrista” is just a fancy word to make you feel better about paying too much for a cup of coffee that you could have made equally well at home.

Hanging clothes

I got home from work yesterday. Cristina took my briefcase and kissed me. I sat down in the immaculate living room to look at the newspaper. Sofia was reading a book on the couch and Alex and Bella were quietly playing a game on the floor. "Smells good!" I said. "What's for dinner?" Cristina had whipped up a nutritious but tasty dish with whole wheat pasta, tofu, and vegetables. She brought me a cup of tea, and I almost dozed off with the paper until dinner was ready...

Yes, that's a dream. I'm realizing more and more how the concept of a quiet, peaceful house is an elusive one. Life is busy. Everyone has a schedule of things they need to do. And then there's the massive list of things we want to do, but can't get to because there's not enough time in the day. There's never enough money to do what we want to do, and to attempt to do what we want to do, we work more, which gives us less time to do the things we want or need to do. It's like a whirling vortex of busyness, which no doubt has undesirable results on everyone. I'm tired and grumpy. Cristina's tired. No one wants to cook. There's a backlog of chores. The kids fight. We yell at the kids because they're fighting. They tune us out because we're yelling. The dog just pooped on the carpet again. There's cat hair on everything. Gotta get everyone to bed so the process can repeat the next day. The vortex swirls.

As I walked to my classroom this morning, I glanced at a house near my school. There were clothes hanging on a line. My first thought was how fast clothes on a line must dry here in Arizona. But then I thought of Costa Rica, and Ramon and Maritza's little house in Pavas. In the middle of their house is an open courtyard with several lines to hang clothes on. It was part of the daily ritual while we were there. Wash a load or two of clothes and hang them up to dry. And the simplicity of our time there, where your main obligation of the day was to maybe hang some clothes and take them down when dry, seemed so peaceful and...simple. The simple life. Hanging clothes to dry. Just the task alone denotes patience. There's no buzzer announcing that the clothes are done and now you must fold. Just clothes, hanging quietly in a pretty courtyard, slowly drying, encouraging us to do the same and take a break.