Open Ice

Here's something that you should know about me. As thoughtful, sensitive, and caring as I might be, there is one area where I tend to walk first and look later- and that is with the area of movie spoilers. At any given moment, I am prone to start talking or writing about a movie with the assumption that you have seen it. As part of the 2011 Jason Parks upgrades, I'm trying to get better in this area. So I'm letting you know now- SPOILERS.

Last night, we had a friend come over. We watched a movie. It was awesome, a wonderful time- one of those magical evenings that you just don't want to end- and no, it has nothing to do with the fact that we are parents of young children and are pretty much recluse shut-ins. The movie was Robin Hood: Men in Tights. It's a great movie!

So after it was over, we were hungry for more. So we scoured Netflix Instant, looking for the One Movie that could sate our appetite. And we found....well, we found a movie. Frozen. It was pretty intense, like a labor contraction after you've had an epideral. Think Open Water, but instead of the vast expanse of ocean, our threesome is trapped on a ski-lift somewhere in the mountains. And the sharks are wolves.

I'm not going to tell you much about the movie in terms of a synopsis- there will be no analysis of character development here, or discussion of the plot. What I am going to tell you is the basic life principles that I learned from this movie, that I immediately integrated into Jason Parks 2.011.

Actually, before I get into that, there is one little thing that bothers me. The dude that played Iceman in the X-Men movies, Shawn Ashmore, was in this movie. Why couldn't he conjure some of that mutant magic? Or sent a psychic distress signal to Professor X? I would have thought a guy that spent time as Iceman could have handled this situation much better than he did. Is it because those powers don't transfer between roles? If so, then I'll have to rethink my desire to reprise the role of Totally Cool And Popular Awesome Man.

Okay. Here's what I learned.
1) Don't go skiing. EVER. But I knew that already.

2) If you decide to go skiing, purchase a legitimate lift ticket. If you con your girlfriend into getting you onto the lift for a discounted price, you will get stuck on the lift, and you will die. Also, adhere to the rules of the slopes. If you try and talk the lift operator into taking one last run right before close, he will probably cave and give you what you want. But then he will leave you stranded there, and you will die.

3) If your friends girlfriend is a terrible snowboarder, and you spend most of your time on the bunny hill- be okay with that. Because all of your skiing prowess will be useless when you are forced to sled down the hill on a snowboard while you are being chased by hungry wolves. Wolves that, by the way, will catch you and eat you off screen.

4) If you are in an intense arctic climate, and have to choose between covering your face and your hand- choose your face. Because even if you rip skin clean off of your hand, it will obviously regenerate at a rapid rate.

5) When mulling over your chances to survive, choose the survival option that is least likely to leave you lying helpless on the ground with multiple compound fractures while a pack of wolves catches your scent. I mean, chances are 2 to 1 that you are going to die anyways- but at least this way, you have at least a glimmer of hope before it is torn away by the jaws of a wild animal.

6) If you are watching multiple movies in one night, it is best to save the light hearted comedy for the end, instead of the psychological thriller. Especially if your movie night swaths a path right to 3 in the morning.

But it was a movie night that was well worth it, and there were no repercussions of sleeping in- in no way did Delaney get glue all over the table. And Shane definitely did not wet through his pull-up all over the futon. So...all is well. Yes, yes- all is well.

The avatar of capitalist conservative heteronormative patriarchal Brito-America...or you probably know him as Superman

I was studying tonight and...well, who am I kidding. I was sort of studying, but also catching up on my HCRealms reading. For those of you who don't know, HCRealms is a forum where people who play Heroclix get together on-line and talk about Heroclix. Is it nerdy? Yes. Do I love it? YES.

There was a thread about Superman, and I came across this quote from one of the members of HCRealms about the Big Blue Boy Scout: he's "the avatar of capitalist conservative heteronormative patriarchal Brito-America".

And of course I'm up at 2:30 in the morning writing about this, because A) the kids have been trying to shake off this dang cold, and so obviously they were up coughing and woke me up, and B) I love the idea behind this quote.

I guess what I love is these terms- Capitalist. Conservative. Heteronormative. Patriarchal. They get my mind racing. When I went back to school, the very first class I took at Northern was a sociology class, and I haven't looked at things the same way since.

In social work, we talk about systems theory, and how everyone is immersed in multiple systems at multiple (macro/mezzo/micro) levels, and how these systems interact together to make us into the people that we are.

It got me thinking about something that I frequently chew on, and that is the idea of human beings as social beings...some say social animals. Whatever the case, we were born to be social.

And that means that there has to be a social order. Think of a wolf pack- from the Alpha to the Omega, there are norms that they follow in order to keep things humming along, like a fine tuned machine. Without order, it's just a bunch of dogs, running around, hoping to stumble on some scraps or a sick animal. Together, they can take down a moose.



Do some live as "lone wolves"? Yes. But their existence is not nearly what it could be. They might be stronger and more dangerous- but they'll never really be all that they could be.

Every society, every culture on our planet has some sort of "system" in place. Obviously the USA looks much much much different than say, a tribe of Amazons. But in many ways, they are not so different- there is hierarchy, there is some division of labor, there are rules, there are customs, there are ceremonies- and without these things, I'm honestly not sure how we as people would function in society.

I'm sure we all get mad at the system every once in a while, and we want to fight the system, to overthrow the system...but what is going to happen is that another system is just going to be put into place. It might not be called a "system"...and it might not even conventionally (or explicitly) look like a system. But trust me- it will be a system.

You know, several years ago, the idea of relativism was brought into my head, and rejected out of hand. Years later, while I still reject the idea in it's purest form, it has helped me to reframe the human experience. See, it's so easy to think that the way we do things is the right way, and to instantly look at the way another society runs and to judge it as "wrong".

But what is right? What is wrong? Can these concepts really, legitimately be made across cultural contexts? Look at Native Americans. European settlers and missionaries came over to this country so eager to quash a way of life and replace it with a "superior" one. How has that turned out? From your point of view, it's "savage". It's "barbaric". For them, it's "life". It's "survival". Who are we to be the judge of mankind?

So what can we deduce from all this? Hopefully something. Honestly, at this hour, I'm not sure I'm doing much more than emptying my brain so that (hopefully) I can get some sleep. I know that there is much more about these ideas that could be said. I hope that there is some interesting food for thought. At the very least, I'm tired enough to go to bed. If that's all this article has accomplished, then it is worth it.

In completely unrelated news, just a week and a half before my last undergrad Spring Break ever! I have several blog ideas on the burner...I know I say that all the time and then never come through. But I'm motivated and inspired and by the time the ides of March have come, you'll have no idea what hit you! Until next time, God bless!

PIC: http://www.worldofwallpapers.nuche.org/content/animal/canines/1024/pack-of-wolves-wolf-pack-wild-dogs-wallpaper.jpg
QUOTE: http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4554348#post4554348