Did you have a good world when you died? enough to base a movie on?
I was happily working this morning, listening to a country CD because my co-worker in the kitchen can not listen to anything BUT country first thing in the morning, when the co-worker came in and told me about a plane crash that was mentioned on the news. He tried to tell me what happened, but him being of short memory and old in body, made for interesting recounting of the tale but this is what I gleaned from his words. Apparently a passenger plane was taking off, had a possible mechanical problem and crashed into a cement wall after leaving the runway. Not sure exactly where it went down. He said it happened in Russia but there are news articles about a plane going down in Venezuela. The thing that he did mentoin was that there were 152 people on the plane and all but 9 (not sure if these are in stable or critical condition as of yet) people died in the crash.
My first thought was that those 9 people that survived are probably going to be going through some interesting times ahead. Figure that they have one of three possible ways to live their life from now on. Either they will have one extreme where they will now realize the glory of the moment in that your entire life can be snuffed out in a second without you having any control over it and therefore they wont wait til a special occassion to use the good china, or they will not wait for that special occassion to surprise the person they love with a hug, a kiss or a romantic moment under the moonlight. Perhaps these 9 people will perhaps live the rest of their lives like the guy does in "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw.
On the other hand, perhaps these 9 people will go the total other way of thinking and say that their life can be snuffed out in a second without any control and therefore will heighten their method of self preservation to the point that they might not do anything. They will never leave their house again, sit on a chair for the rest of their lives and be so scared to move out of the house because at any second, their life will be over and they dont want their life to be over. Though never really realizing that by living a sheltered and hidden life from all the wonderful things life has to offer, they really did die in that plane crash that their bodies survived from, but it just so happens that their body did not lie down and expire.
Then there could be the middle road where the survivors will walk away and shrug it off and say "whoa, this is gonna make a nice beer drinking story" and then go to work, go home, eat their dinner and sleep with their spouces and never really change their life style in the least. They could treat this like any other bad thing that has ever happened in their life but perhaps will have a slightly better self confidence because when they are asked to present a speech at a gathering they will sit back and think "hell, I survived a huge plane crash and did not die...what is a speech in front of 20 people going to do to me that a fireball wreckage failed to do?"
Those thought went through my head in about 10 seconds and then my co-worker said something else that got me thinking more about my life. "When you are going to die, they say your life flashes before your eyes in 2 seconds. Can you just imagine?" I sort of looked at him when he said that and jokingly said with a shudder "damn, my 2 seconds would be pretty boring" He laughed at that and then he walked away. Though he did not realize it, his words got me thinking about the quote from the doors CD that is in the title of this entry. Could I imagine the two seconds that would flash before my eyes, my entire life and what I have done. What would those images be?
So, I took a second and went to the back of the camp into the store room and got me a chair. I sat down in it and then tried to imagine flying in the plane. I felt the seats around me, the smell of the fuselage, the sounds of other passengers, the rumble of the plane and then I felt the plane take off. I then threw in the lurge of the plane that obviously felt that something was wrong, the feel of the plane going down and tried to imagine my impending death coming at me in a few seconds. I then let my mind free and images flashed in my head. I did not time them but just let them go til they finished. Here are a few of those images that I experienced:
Walking to school with my brother when I was 7 years old in Burnaby, seeing my mom at the door and waving good bye to her as my brother and I walked to school; walking home with my brother and him swinging a baseball bat by accident and smacking me in the nose and then trying to tell me the story I was to tell to cover his tracks so he would not get in trouble, all the while my nose was throbbing and I swear was bleeding; walking along a high wall (to my eyes at least 20 feet high, but really only 4-5 feet high) at 3-4 years old and then falling off of it; walking through a park when I was 7 with my dog, Tiger, when a bully picked on me and for the first time in my life watching Tiger actually growl, bark and then attack the bully protecting me; moving to Inuvik and seeing the new place and being so happy running around the new place until I stubbed my toe on the couch leg and then crying to my parents that I wanted to go home to Kamloops; winning the science fair in grade 5 but not really caring about it because when I got my ribbon my brother was taken to the hospital the night before the judging and no one would tell me what he was in for or what was being done to him (to this day I still do not know); my job interview with Judy at the Farside Lounge and her reluctance in hiring me but then repeated flashes of me working for her and even coming in on my one hour break between classes and have her say "we need a hand" and I was behind the counter working happily; winning the 'honourable mention' award for student involvement for my work at the Farside and winning the 'student contribution award' later the next year for my dedication to the Farside job and then being told that I would have won it again another year but because I had already won it they felt it should go to another student to be fair; seeing EeWei for the first time as she walked through the door at the hotel in 2002 where I was staying and how shy and reserved she looked; walking through Sentosa and the beach at Sentosa and how mad she got when I used her towel to dry my feet after we washed them coming out of the water; our nights together....
I am sure that they would have continued on for a lot longer but figured my 2 seconds of self reflection were up and got up out of the chair. I then took all those thoughts and considered them and came to the conclusion that while I may not have had enough happen in my life to base a movie on that anyone would gladly pay $13 these days to go and see. I feel that I have had a good world to date and I believe that with my upcoming marriage in Decemeber of 2006, it can only get better. While the memories that I have had in my life are good ones and the people and things I have done are memorable to me, that does not mean that I have done all that there is to do and that there will not be more memories to make.
After all, as Peter Pan said "ahhh, to live...now THAT would be an interesting adventure to come!"
****
Update
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060709/plane_crash_060709/20060709?hub=TopStories
apparently it has been downgraded to 120 people dead, 40 or so in hospital. Strange how they mention that "no canadians were on board". Am I, as a Canadian, now supposed to say "whew, what a relief...if Canadians had died then THAT would be terrible"??? why do we care only when our own nationality seems to die?
My first thought was that those 9 people that survived are probably going to be going through some interesting times ahead. Figure that they have one of three possible ways to live their life from now on. Either they will have one extreme where they will now realize the glory of the moment in that your entire life can be snuffed out in a second without you having any control over it and therefore they wont wait til a special occassion to use the good china, or they will not wait for that special occassion to surprise the person they love with a hug, a kiss or a romantic moment under the moonlight. Perhaps these 9 people will perhaps live the rest of their lives like the guy does in "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw.
On the other hand, perhaps these 9 people will go the total other way of thinking and say that their life can be snuffed out in a second without any control and therefore will heighten their method of self preservation to the point that they might not do anything. They will never leave their house again, sit on a chair for the rest of their lives and be so scared to move out of the house because at any second, their life will be over and they dont want their life to be over. Though never really realizing that by living a sheltered and hidden life from all the wonderful things life has to offer, they really did die in that plane crash that their bodies survived from, but it just so happens that their body did not lie down and expire.
Then there could be the middle road where the survivors will walk away and shrug it off and say "whoa, this is gonna make a nice beer drinking story" and then go to work, go home, eat their dinner and sleep with their spouces and never really change their life style in the least. They could treat this like any other bad thing that has ever happened in their life but perhaps will have a slightly better self confidence because when they are asked to present a speech at a gathering they will sit back and think "hell, I survived a huge plane crash and did not die...what is a speech in front of 20 people going to do to me that a fireball wreckage failed to do?"
Those thought went through my head in about 10 seconds and then my co-worker said something else that got me thinking more about my life. "When you are going to die, they say your life flashes before your eyes in 2 seconds. Can you just imagine?" I sort of looked at him when he said that and jokingly said with a shudder "damn, my 2 seconds would be pretty boring" He laughed at that and then he walked away. Though he did not realize it, his words got me thinking about the quote from the doors CD that is in the title of this entry. Could I imagine the two seconds that would flash before my eyes, my entire life and what I have done. What would those images be?
So, I took a second and went to the back of the camp into the store room and got me a chair. I sat down in it and then tried to imagine flying in the plane. I felt the seats around me, the smell of the fuselage, the sounds of other passengers, the rumble of the plane and then I felt the plane take off. I then threw in the lurge of the plane that obviously felt that something was wrong, the feel of the plane going down and tried to imagine my impending death coming at me in a few seconds. I then let my mind free and images flashed in my head. I did not time them but just let them go til they finished. Here are a few of those images that I experienced:
Walking to school with my brother when I was 7 years old in Burnaby, seeing my mom at the door and waving good bye to her as my brother and I walked to school; walking home with my brother and him swinging a baseball bat by accident and smacking me in the nose and then trying to tell me the story I was to tell to cover his tracks so he would not get in trouble, all the while my nose was throbbing and I swear was bleeding; walking along a high wall (to my eyes at least 20 feet high, but really only 4-5 feet high) at 3-4 years old and then falling off of it; walking through a park when I was 7 with my dog, Tiger, when a bully picked on me and for the first time in my life watching Tiger actually growl, bark and then attack the bully protecting me; moving to Inuvik and seeing the new place and being so happy running around the new place until I stubbed my toe on the couch leg and then crying to my parents that I wanted to go home to Kamloops; winning the science fair in grade 5 but not really caring about it because when I got my ribbon my brother was taken to the hospital the night before the judging and no one would tell me what he was in for or what was being done to him (to this day I still do not know); my job interview with Judy at the Farside Lounge and her reluctance in hiring me but then repeated flashes of me working for her and even coming in on my one hour break between classes and have her say "we need a hand" and I was behind the counter working happily; winning the 'honourable mention' award for student involvement for my work at the Farside and winning the 'student contribution award' later the next year for my dedication to the Farside job and then being told that I would have won it again another year but because I had already won it they felt it should go to another student to be fair; seeing EeWei for the first time as she walked through the door at the hotel in 2002 where I was staying and how shy and reserved she looked; walking through Sentosa and the beach at Sentosa and how mad she got when I used her towel to dry my feet after we washed them coming out of the water; our nights together....
I am sure that they would have continued on for a lot longer but figured my 2 seconds of self reflection were up and got up out of the chair. I then took all those thoughts and considered them and came to the conclusion that while I may not have had enough happen in my life to base a movie on that anyone would gladly pay $13 these days to go and see. I feel that I have had a good world to date and I believe that with my upcoming marriage in Decemeber of 2006, it can only get better. While the memories that I have had in my life are good ones and the people and things I have done are memorable to me, that does not mean that I have done all that there is to do and that there will not be more memories to make.
After all, as Peter Pan said "ahhh, to live...now THAT would be an interesting adventure to come!"
****
Update
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060709/plane_crash_060709/20060709?hub=TopStories
apparently it has been downgraded to 120 people dead, 40 or so in hospital. Strange how they mention that "no canadians were on board". Am I, as a Canadian, now supposed to say "whew, what a relief...if Canadians had died then THAT would be terrible"??? why do we care only when our own nationality seems to die?
posted by Capt_Canuck at 1:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home