I got to the stopover city with no problem, but then found that there was a problem.  The flight was delayed.  Apparently, one of the stewardesses was late getting to the flight, so it delayed my flight, which was supposed to leave around 7pm.

Then, when we finally got on the plane at 8:45pm, the pilot announced that a few of the bags had been mis-tagged (or something ridiculous) and they had to pull the bags off the plane to re-tag them.

Then they had to pull more bags off.

Then they had to come back and do more things with the bags, but nobody is sure what they were doing.

Finally, at about 9:50pm, we were off and running, but somehow a 55 minute flight took 85 minutes…but we made it!

Now, I know the Internet is full of rants about the airline industry, and I won’t add too much to that.  I guess my only point is that flying has become such an awful experience, it seems to generate its own negative energy.

Seriously.

It’s come to the point where everything is so intense, late, expensive, and annoying, that it really does become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I tried to make every moment in that plane a meditation.  I tried to induce relaxation instead of reaction.  It was hard…and I failed on multiple occasions, but the important thing is that when I failed, I felt myself failing.  I was aware of the failure, and I tried to get myself back on track.

Meditation…relaxation…failure…awareness…meditation…

It became somewhat of an internal mantra…something to which I could cling while my day drowned in a sea of frustration.

But I’m here.  It’s all good.  It’s just a memory…

But how I got here?  Well, I’ll try to keep that mantra going.

It was nice!

We played with Matchbox cars.  You know the last time I did that?

Years ago.

We played today with cars, trucks, convertibles…and they rode up and down a little construction lot.  It brought back some great memories.  There was innocence and focus, intensity and laughter.

It was all there, and all so simple!

All the cars I used to play with are somewhere in storage, I think.  No idea where .  It’s funny…when I was young, I couldn’t get enough of them, and now, I couldn’t even find them.

Is that tragic?

I’m not sure.  I’ve moved on to more complex toys and forms of entertainment.  I don’t want to knock those things, but I can’t help but remember there was a time when a one dollar car was just as fun as a Wii…When wooden blocks brought the same smile as an iPhone…And when a slide was just as thrilling as a drive north.

I’m not sure what happened between “way back when” and “right now”…Is there a fundamental difference?  Am I the same person?  What really matters to me today?

We can all ask these questions, I think.  As we age, we are more and more pressed by responsibility and, possibly, a growing angst around the meaning of life.

Where are we?  Who are we?

Maybe those answers can be found by going back into memory and re-discovering who we were…or what we used to play with.

-josh

It’s a nice word.  But what is it?

It is an origin.  A beginning of sorts.  The start.

Now, it will be defined as a cinematic masterpiece by Christopher Nolan.  And well it should.

Nolan’s Inception is a journey through the deepest levels of the mind and reality…a rare event that will unite scientist, science fiction buff, action lover, and spiritualist alike.  Indeed, these groups, as well as the casual viewer, can sit side-by-side in the theater, drawn into this insane tale of chaos and perfect sense.

Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, an elusive man with an even more elusive past, who carries a briefcase that holds the secret to entering your mind…and your dreams.  Once inside, he can take what he wants, or, in this case, leave what he wants.  Flanked by on-the-spot help including the surprisingly appropriate Ellen Page as Ariadne, and cool-as-a-cuke Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb is on one last mission that could make or break him.  Literally.

The audience is left dangling off the high cliffs of reality, and I believe that is the key to Inception’s masterful touch.  We are often as disoriented as the characters, often not privy to information they are not.  Robbed of the usual in-the-know attitude, we sit on the edge of our seats as solid drama plays out in levels of reality normally reserved for a good night’s sleep or the deep subconscious.

The stakes are high and the action is real.  DiCaprio’s performance is a masterful blend of blank expression that masks deep secrets, and an intensity and passion for inception.  What he keeps out of public view cannot help but seep in while “on the job,” and his unintended disregard for his compatriots only adds to a character complexity rarely seen on the big screen these days.

I could tell you about Inception from start to finish.  I could describe each scene in detail and let you in on the twists and turns.  I could give away the beginning, middle, and end.

And it wouldn’t make a difference.  You would still be lost.  You would still enjoy the movie.  Trust me.

For those of you who meditate, explore the subconscious, study particle physics, or just love to be challenged and entertained, Inception is your imaginary cup of tea.  But make sure you grip your popcorn tight…it’s the one thing that will keep you anchored to reality.

-josh

I am.

I went to school in St. Andrews for a while and it is simply wonderful to watch the Open Championship and see a lot of the places I used to go.  If you look carefully in some of the shots, you can see my old dorm.

Really.

I could see the 18th hole and the sea from the bathroom.

Really.

I still remember where some of the pubs are where I used to hang out, and I see landmarks that I used to pass on my way to class.  Those were some good days and there are lots of good memories of that time, I can tell you.

I took a lot of it for granted, I’m sure.  I didn’t always appreciate it when I was there, I’m sure.  So much of it passed so quickly like scenery on the road.

I met a lot of people that wonderful semester and I have lost touch with so many of them.  But I guess, in the end, that’s really the sum total of so much we do.  It’s not really about who we met along the way, but how we remember them down the road.

And I have good memories.  I have photo albums.  I have funny stories.

I’ll be in front of the TV tomorrow watching golf in Scotland.  But is that all I’ll be doing?

Nah…I’ll be traveling there in my mind and re-living a good time in my life.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

-josh

Have you seen it yet?  Have you seen the wind?  The gusting?  The blowing?  The players who teed off early had such an advantage.  Their scores are pretty stable.  But the people who came later in the day?  Well, not so much.

Take, for example, Rory McIlroy.  63 yesterday.  80 today.

Ugh.

And it has nothing to do with his talent, but all to do with conditions.

And isn’t that the lesson here?  Sometimes, there are situations beyond our control.  There are situations that we cannot change.  We find ourselves in something big…  something full of history or with the weight of immensity upon us.

Rory is on the world’s biggest golf stage at St. Andrews in Scotland.  He is at the home of golf.  He shot an unbelievable score the first day.  It looked like there could be some history for the 21-year-old.

And then, the winds of change blew in.  Literally.  And he is just one of the pack again.

What do you do when life hands you potential greatness and a great obstacle?  What is your approach?

Do you rise above?  Or blow away?

-josh

________________________________________

I stood in silence tonight and watched the fireworks.

I get a private show!

Where I live, I can stand in my backyard and see four shows at once.  Pretty amazing.  The sound travels so far.  I can hear fireworks from shows that are probably 20-30 miles away to the west, south, and east.

It was so quiet outside.  Just booming.  Booming.  Booming.

I thought about something as I was standing out there.  What if I lived in a country where, on the fourth of July, I heard booms?  Loud booms in the distance.  But they weren’t fireworks.

Maybe they are bombs.

Maybe it’s gunfire.

Some countries celebrate their freedom from bombs with booms.  Some people just want to be free of the booms.

I picture a mother holding a small child in her arms.  Maybe she is standing as I was, watching the sky light up in many directions.  It is red, orange, yellow.  There is flashing and crackling.  Rat-tat-tat.  But they aren’t fireworks.  She won’t go back into her house and grab an ice cream before running back outside.  She won’t have a TV on in the background with reruns of other booms, like the Boston Pops fireworks show.  Instead, she’ll pray the booms stay away.  Far away.  After all, it’s not safe in the backyard.  This is her third backyard in as many months.  The booms were too close in the last one.  And the one before.

Booming.  Booming.  Booming.

Maybe she’ll pray at her child’s bedside.  She’ll pray quietly to the same God the boomers are using to justify the booms.

I don’t live in those other countries.  But I see them on the news.  I read about them in the newspaper.  I keep them in my prayers.

And I think about them as I stand in my backyard.  Where I have the show I wait all year for.

Where I stand in silence and watch the fireworks.  Where I listen to the booms.

Where it’s safe.

-josh

A good day!

Today, was wonderful and stereotypical.  We took Dad to a movie and an early dinner, then came back and watched golf.

Nice, huh?

The only thing missing was the tie!

Actually, I don’t remember the last time I bought Dad a tie.  Actually, I’m not sure I ever have!

Maybe that’s why we have such a good time every year.

It’s worth thinking about!

-josh

Really hot.

My friend referred to it as the surface of the sun, to which I added, “Yeah, it’s like we’re on a sun that has another sun blazing down on it!”

But it’s really not that bad.  Honest.  We’re inside most of the time, and even outside, a lot of businesses have water misters, and there’s shade.  The heat is a small price for being able to go out without a jacket 98% of the year.

There are things blooming outside.  Full bloom.  Big, bright cactus flowers, trees in a full splay of yellow.  There are animals running around, and we even had bobcats in the yard…A while family.  That was quite a treat.

In other words, the outside doesn’t complain!  It just sits quietly in the shade when it’s hot, or blooms when it ought.  It goes on its merry way.

We create artificial shade, put in misters, use precious water resources, muck up the Gulf with oil, and countless other awful things.  I guess we forget that sometimes, things are best how they are…no change or complaint necessary!

It’s hot.  But there’s always been heat.  There just hasn’t always been me complaining about it.

-josh

So, we compromised on a cut and paste, and you know?  It’s probably gonna look really good.

And isn’t that how it goes with memories?  They really are that cut and paste job.  And if we want, we can make them as nice as we want.  Even the bad ones, with enough time, get the power of perspective behind them and turn out pretty nice!

So, it was a fun exercise tonight.  I may go through some old pics just to see what I have.  You don’t need permission for nostalgia.

Maybe I’ll go through them with a lifelong friend…

We can search for that one perfect pic that doesn’t exist!

1) Do you see a sequel because you think it’s gonna knock your socks off?

2) Do you see a sequel because you have high hopes?

3) Do you see a sequel because you think it will reveal new truths to you that the first did not provide?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above…c’mon.  Unless you’re talking about The Empire Strikes Back, then admit it…you’ll see Iron Man 2 simply because Robert Downey, Jr. IS Tony Stark.

I’m right, and you know it.

Iron Man 2 is that not-so-rare sequel that we know, out of the gate, will not be the mind-bending thrill-ride of its predecessor.  However, that in no way detracts from the fun.  We are again taken into the bizarre world of Downey’s Stark – now out of the closet as Iron Man – as he continues his quest for meaning in a life previously filled only with mindless materialism.

And he seems to be doing pretty well…Until a new nemesis in the form of Ivan Vanko (are those Mickey Rourke’s real teeth?) develops similar technology to Stark’s and sets out on a path of revenge with his iron suit and…light whip thingies.

Old standby Pepper Potts provides the familiar anchor, and new face Don Cheadle performs admirably as sidekick War Machine.

And, the same great message is ever-present – one person can make a difference.  Yes, even through the veneer of Scarlett Johansson’s rockin’ leather suit and Samuel L. Jackson’s creepy come-and-go mystery, the audience hears loud and clear that any life worth living must, on some level, be lived for others.  And isn’t that what the hero’s journey is all about?

If your socks were knocked off with Iron Man 1, check out Iron Man 2.  If you are looking for equal par with the first, you will leave disappointed.  If you are looking for a feel-good two hours with a man on a mission, then it’s money well spent.

You’ll keep your socks on, but you’ll still have that warm feeling inside.

-josh