In the middle of the journey of my life, I am--as always--a woman on a bike. Although I do not know where this road will lead, the way is not lost, for I have arrived here. And I am on my bicycle, again.
Well, now we know why studios employ stunt-doubles. You know, they're those folks who do flips, get into crashes and put themselves in all manner of actual or configured peril so as not to risk scarring the pretty (and highly bankable) faces. I mean, do you really think Hugh Jackman knows any more how to fight than I know how to fish for lobsters? Why do you think Richard Bradshaw doubled for him in X-Men: Days of Future Passed? Surely the fact that Bradshaw is Jackman's brother-in-law could not have been the only reason! For every Hugh Jackman, there is at least one other actor who should have a stunt double. I am thinking now of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He played a bike messenger in Premium Rush. Although six years have passed since that movie's release, one might expect that his work in it would have prepared him for scenes in which he rides a bike for his latest flick, Power.
During the filming, which is going on as of this writing, he landed in the ER after flipping over his handlebars. He says, "I have bad luck shooting on bikes," a reference to another mishap during the filming of Premium Rush.
B Surely, there must be some retired mountain bike racer who could use a payday.
Yesterday was the "real" Veterans' Day--which is the anniversary of the Armistice. Since it fell on a Sunday, VD is being observed today. Observed by whom? I had to go to work. In one way, I can't complain: After all, I am off on holidays I don't celebrate. On the other hand, I am sure there are a number of veterans among the staff and faculty of my college, and the university of which it is a part. Not to mention that some of my students have been veterans, or were even active military personnel while they took my classes.
Anyway, my ride yesterday included a tribute. On a gorgeous but chilly autumn day, I decided to ride to Connecticut. I normally don't do the ride with much, if any, of a rationale, but I did have one, sort of, yesterday.
Of course, if I only wanted to go to a veterans' memorial, there are plenty of those in the city where I live. But at least I knew that if I rode to Greenwich, I could spend some time at its memorial, right in the middle of its common.
The trees, the light, the color all seemed perfect for my moment of silence and meditation. I never knew any of the people whose names are inscribed on the memorial, but I could offer them a remembrance, however small and brief. I guess we can't do much more for anyone, however he or she dies.
Oh, and I could be thankful--as I was--that I could ride home again. They couldn't.
The other day, I commemorated the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht: the night when anti-Semitism descended from harassment to violence and, ultimately, to death. It was also the night of the first mass deportations of Jews to the Nazi death camps. Today is the centennial of the event that was supposed to prevent the war into which the world descended not long after Kristallnacht. (Some would argue that the war was already underway; I wouldn't disagree.) I am talking, of course, about the Armistice. As we all heard in school, "on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" in 1918, the Armistice--which was supposed to end hostilities, not only between the Allies and the Central Powers, but throughout the world--was signed. Would it have worked if the United States had agreed to join a worldwide organization--one whose founders included the American President, no less--created for the purpose of fostering cooperation? We will never know. I could not, however, help but to note the irony of this photo: It's the 1940 Armistice Day parade in Yakima, Washington. At that very moment, Europe was at war again: During the fourteen months that preceded the scene in the photo, Germany had invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia and Greece. Less than thirteen months after that photo was taken, the US would also be drawn into that war. Nobody has ever celebrated an "Armistice" to end World War II, or any war since then. And, in the US, this day has been turned into "Veterans' Day" --a holiday I wholeheartedly endorse, as much as I abhor war-- which will be commemorated tomorrow. (About Veterans' Day: As much as I'm in favor of this holiday, I wish its emphasis was on the ones who gave their limbs, senses, bodies and even lives, rather than on the glorification of their "victories." I also would favor calling it "Remembrance Day," as it's known in Canada and the UK.)
