"A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world."

18 May, 2010

Robin Hood Revamped

Saw Robin Hood tonight, and for what it's worth, I thought it was everything I expected it to be: a Gladiator/Braveheart mix, but without all the fluff and empathy of Disney's classic animated Robin Hood. Idk, it was alright. (And yes, I do spoil the movie, so go see it and then read this, or just keep reading and see if you actually wanna see it after, just a heads-up.)

Set right before the classic Robin Hood tale of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, Russell Crowe plays Robin Hood, fresh from the Crusades and bound by a blood pact to return a sword to a kindly old lord in Nottingham. When the King is betrayed, it is Robin Hood who rallies the people around the Magna Carta to demand their rights, in return for fighting for the king. Anyone with any sense of European history knows the tale from here, how King John was forced to sign it at sword-point, then tore it up once the emergency passed.

All in all, I found the film amusing. As a fan of Gladiator, Russell Crowe was truly in his element: trained for battle, Robin Hood (or was it Maximus Decimus? Can't really tell at points....) is forced to deal with a psychotic king, but in Hood he fights for him, not against him. Braveheart occurred barely 50 years later, so the tactics and style of warfare are pretty similar to Robin Hood, but more than that, Robin Hood has been graced with a style of oration from another mysterious elder, his father (even though he never knew him, but his adopted father did? wth?), which Uncle Argyle taught young William the ways of the world. Small world, huh?

To wrap it up, this aint your classic disney Robin Hood. Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott combine to tell the tale of how Robin Longstride went Hood, how his defense of the rights of commoners became important, and even how he got mixed up with Friar Tuck. Expect the story, with a quick dose of pre-Enlightenment-era political theory, set against old-school medieval warfare, oh, and I forgot to mention, an amphibious assault that could use a little coaching from the guys who put together either Saving Private Ryan or Troy. Worth it if you're into this type of thing, but not worth it if you're not.

13 May, 2010

On Love

Love is such an awesome thing. Just as the Eskimos have 20 words for snow, so too do I wish we had 20 words for love. Love has reduced me to tears twice in my life: way back when I learned I was to be entrusted with the spiritual supervision of a child as his Godfather, and again on a Leap retreat this past November. Love is what kept my hall at SMC together, what keeps Kev Muench coming back to visit, what reunites my high school friends. Love is how I know my parents will always care for me, no matter how bad I fuck shit up. I can feel love in the warm fur of my dog, and in the warmth of a grill cooking steamers we just picked up in front of the Cape house. I find loev in the warmth of my bed on a cold winter night, but also in the warmth of a batch of Grammy's cookies, fresh from the oven. Love is why you care for a friend, puking, late on a Saturday night, and love is what unites friends around a meal in the cafeteria the morning after to laugh about that Saturday night. Love is being given much, and seeking to give it all back to those less fortunate. Love is caring about someone you've never met, but would do anything for. Lose is patient, love is kind. Love is sympathy, love is mercy. Love is simple, love is complicated, love is unknowable, yet constantly known. Such is love.

10 May, 2010

On War

I just watched the 9th and almost final (whats the word for second to last? anyone have Mr. Gurrall should know this.....) and it changed the war I've thought about the human aspect of war. Sure it's grueling, a dark, difficult aspect of life, but it's been complicated in this past century. World War I saw the rise of the "Hun," a notorious, baby-bayoneting savage. World War II saw the "Jap" rise as a slant-eyed monkey of untold brutality. Vietnam saw the faceless "Charlie" rise out of the paddies to hit the Americans wherever they were. In the past two decades, "towel-heads" "A-rags" and a whole host of other defamities have risen to beat down those who oppose us on the battlefield.

War is about dehumanizing your opponent to make them kill-able.

But last Sunday's episode changed the way I viewed humanity in the context of war. True, one must dehumanize the enemy, but in the process, one must not lose their own humanity. For every man, there is a human. For ever human, there is a body. In life, to seek death on another man is unnatural, and to kill is to strike at the very soul of yourself, to threaten your own humanity. To survive a war, yes, you must dehumanize your opponent, but at the same time, you must not lose touch with your own humanity.

End the eloquence. Begin speculation.

The types of wars conducted today are unlike any the world has seen in it's history. Man no longer finds his opponent lined up in rows to be mowed down, but hiding, burying bombs in the roads and waiting, watching for the moment to strike. Man no longer has an enemy to shoot at, to dehumanize, as every person you see could be a potential insurgent. In those God-forsaken areas I can only read about, those areas I see muzzle-mounted videos of and pray for the protection of those soldiers, those areas so awash with weapons that their mere presence is routine and non-incriminating.... It is these areas that we fight in. Every farmer, every herder, every civil servant can be a potential spy, a potential fighter. You can't sort through them. You don't even know who they are.

This new type of warfare is even more savage in that the escape of the insurgent occurs more often than your own ability to shoot at them. The frustrations that occur, the inability to shoot back, compounds the difficulty of war. The more difficult war becomes, the greater the ability to sacrifice one's humanity in its exploits.

This is the world we live in, and this is the world we will have to deal with. One in which countless young men come back as a shell of their former selves, dealing with what we dub "post-traumatic stress disorder," the latest in the line of soldier diseases that have dulled their humanity. If, by chance, any soldier, former soldier, or future soldier reads this, just know that from the very depths of my heart, I appreciate the sacrifices you've made for this country. Godspeed, and God bless.