I’m going through all of the stuff I’ve stuffed into bags and boxes that chronicles my life — photos, published articles — and lots of stuff from my kids’ past. I”m winding up with a pile of photos I’m going to toss out, and most of them are of scenery from vacations etc. I can see why I took the photos in the first place –something about the esthetics of the sandy vistas, the roiling surfs, the craggy drops, the abstract lines of the masts of the houseboat.
But I find that what’s meaningful to me now are the photos of people, including myself, that trigger the memories that I want to keep. Here are two of my favorites: my son (b!X) at about five years old on our family trip to Washington D.C., when his career goal was to drive an intergalactic garbage scow; and me at Versailles. I have plenty of photos of the palace and grounds that I’m tossing away. Seeing me there, wearing the leather jacket I had (the week before) bought on London’s Carnaby St. and the jeans I bought on the Left Bank in Paris, brings back sensory memories of that rainy day and the excitement of that once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

I wonder if other people my age have that same reaction — it’s the images of faces, not just simply places, that re-awaken the sweet details of memory.

On New Year’s Day I went to the movies see Lord of the Rings and watched as good battled evil in a mythic fantasy universe where the lines between good and evil are not always clear cut — where fictionally fantastic beings struggle to make the right decisions, struggle to understand who they are in relation to others, struggle to overcome less-than-noble inclinations in themselves as well as to battle the evil machinations of their fellow creatures.
On New Year’s Eve, I watched a movie (online) on Trinity Broadcasting Network called Megiddo, in which good battled evil in the ?real? world and in which the lines between good and evil were very clear cut. I went to see Lord of the Rings for all of the reasons why everyone goes to see it. I watched Megiddo because I was curious about how the religious right is presenting that ultimate good vs evil battle.
As one might expect, in Megiddo, the individual who rises to power — for the EXPRESSED purpose of uniting the world so that there would be peace and prosperity for all — is the anti-Christ who really only wants to rule and manipulate the world’s ppulation for his own ultimately evil ends. And, of course, the United States and its president are the good guys, battling that ultimate evil.
I couldn’t help but compare the two stories — a total fantasy that reflected many truths of the human heart and soul and that stirred as many questions as answers; and the other, a supposedly realistic projection into the future of this actual world that was clearly manipulative propaganda designed to define what is evil and what is good. No questions. Just very definitive answers. And one of the answers is that the United States is always on the side of good. The other, of course, is that God is on the side of the United States.
The one thing both movies have in common, however, is the idea that there comes a time when fighting back and killing others is unavoidable. And that’-s what scares me, makes me feel trapped in a time and a world that is taking me along with it toward a future I don’t want.
Armageddon.

A real-life good friend of mine buried his mother yesterday. The father of a blog friend died today. After such a loss during the holidays, those holidays will always bring with them a touch of great sadness. I know. My Dad died the day after Christmas eighteen years ago.
New offspring come into the world; aged parents leave it. We are lucky when their journeys overlap, which is how it was with Gary Turner

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