EPIC SUIT

As over-used as the word epic is these days (used to describe usually mundane victories or failures in people's boring lives), I for one love the word for what it really means. So I'm going to start a new recurring feature, like my ten thoughts o' the day feature. This feature will showcase things of epic nature in all areas of life and the world, and will appear regularly from now on. So, for the inaugural post of the Epic series, I give you:

EPIC SUIT

Top Ten Thoughts O' The Day (9-23-ButTechnically24-10)

10. Danger Days cannot get here soon enough. November 22nd, hurry up.

9. Ke$ha is a piece of trash. I almost don't want to spell her "name" correctly, simply because of the absurdity of it.

8. I now have good health insurance. Load off my mind.

7. 9 songs down. A few more to go.

6. Video games I cannot wait for: Bioshock:Infinite (2012?! Seriously!?), Deadspace 2, Fallout:New Vegas, which actually isn't too far away.

5. Movies that I want to see and I don't care who ridicules me for it: Legend of the Guardians (they should just change the title to That Owl Movie), The Social Network.

4. Movies I wanted to see until I realized they were about vampires: Priest, Let Me In. Priest looked awesome until I realized it was another vampire movie. Apparently that's the only topic that is to be included in science fiction or fantasy films from now on.

3. It needs to stay this time of year forever.

2. 30 Rock and Fringe are back on. This makes life that much better.

1. Due to Bill's attempts at driving me out of my funk this evening, my hate for most pop music has been reaffirmed. Thank you, Bill.

The end.

A New Leaf

Man, it feels like forever since I've just posted something here. Just sat down and started typing what's inside. It's good to have that feeling again. Just me and a blank screen and an imagination full of possibilities.

I've been inspired. I've been sitting here listening to Michael Buble, who I normally don't listen to. But I wanted something classic, something that immediately gives you that sense of place, that slow, jazzy, piano and voice type of music that makes you feel like the world is brighter, reminds you that the people you have in your life are the most precious things you'll ever have, that life is so incredibly good.

I realized sometime within the past week that in order to count the people who I consider the most important in my life, I have to use at least three hands. And that's pushing it. I actually can't bring myself to use anything less than four. How did I become this blessed? What in all of my messed-up, mistake-ridden life does God see that allows Him to give me more love, from him and from my family and from my friends than I could ever contain within my sorry excuse for a heart? It is unbelievable.

Another thing I realized is that I've been hiding a lot of things. Not in a bad way, but just kind of saving them for the right time. I have all these things that I've written that I've been sitting on, or have been laying in a dusty drawer somewhere that I haven't really done anything with. Thoughts, poems, stories, etc. I guess I've been waiting for them to be published. And I realized how silly this was. When I can share them, here, now, today. I don't care about getting published, at least not right now. I can share them with people right now, and that's the whole point, anyway. Right?

So I'm going to start posting some of that stuff here. And to get us started, I will post one of my favorites.

ICARUS

IF I WAS TO FALL

BROKEN AND BURNING FROM THE SKY

IN THE LIGHT AND THE BLAZE

OF A FIERY RELEASE

IF I WAS CONSUMED BY THE FLAME BURNING INSIDE

IF IT CRAWLED AND DUG ITS WAY

THROUGH MY VEINS

AND FOUND ESCAPE THROUGH

THE WINDOWS OF MY EYES

IF YOU COULD SEE IT BURNING THERE...

IF I FELL ONE THOUSAND MILES

THROUGH THE AIR

A GLORIOUS COMET OF HEAT AND LIGHT

MARKED BY THE TRAIL

OF SMOKE THROUGH THE BLUE

FALLING SO SLOWLY YOU COULD

COUNT THE EONS AND THE BREATHS

IN BETWEEN ME AND YOU

IF I EXPLODED A MILE FROM THE SURFACE

AND WITHIN SIGHT OF MY DESTINATION

IF YOU WATCHED MY DESTRUCTION

IN PERFECT SILENCE SO FAR ABOVE YOUR HEAD

AND MY SPARKLING ASHES RAINED DOWN

IN STREAMS ALL ACROSS THE SEA

IF YOU COLLECTED ALL THE PIECES

FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH

AND REASSEMBLED MY SOUL

AND REBUILT MY BODY FROM SCRATCH

I HAVE ONLY A SINGLE WISH...

PLEASE REATTACH MY BROKEN WINGS

SO I CAN FLY AGAIN...

-Andrew J. Clark

The Greatest Stories Ever Told: XIII

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.

Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.

Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes, really. Pressure. And time.

You love your wife. You find out she’s having an affair. Soon after, she turns up murdered, along with her lover. You are then convicted of double homicide, and are sentenced to serve two life sentences, back to back.

How do you retain a sense of yourself when your life is suddenly stripped away? How do you keep hold of your innocence when thrust into a world of criminals, in the midst of corrupt authority? When the system fails, how do carry on? How do you find the strength to continue to hope under the crushing weight of hopeless circumstances?

In The Shawshank Redemption, these questions are put to the test in the life of Andy Dufresne. It’s a simple story. But sometimes those are the ones that stay with us the longest.

The film might be the most successful failure on this list. While containing two landmark performances at the hands of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, the film was a commercial disaster. However, it went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, but had the misfortune of being released the same year as Forrest Gump. In my opinion, Shawshank is, by far, the better film.

Regardless of the kinds of failures or successes the film had, its themes are universal. The trials that Andy faces make me question what I would do if I was presented with the same misfortunes. What do you when you’re the only truly innocent man in a prison full of men who have led lives of violence and crime? At the core, is anyone truly innocent, or is innocence just an illusion? As Andy falls victim to further evils once inside the walls of Shawshank prison, there are few reasons to carry on.

One of them is Morgan Freeman’s character, Red. The two find a rare friendship in one another, and it is Red’s presence in Andy’s life that helps him persevere through blow after blow.

These two men, one guilty, one innocent, one resigned, one hopeful, representing profoundly different outlooks, come together to learn from one another and find some reason to not give up in the face of an unchanging and unforgiving grey world.

There are things that a man possesses, that no matter what happens, no one can take them away. As much as Andy needed a friend to carry him through, ultimately it is Andy’s integrity, unyielding determination, and undying hope that lifts Red out of the mire and shines a light into the bleak world of Shawshank. In Andy, freedom is something that comes from within, not something that can be taken away by walls and bars.

The final straw that could’ve finally broken Andy comes when a young inmate offers proof of Andy’s innocence, only to have it ignored by the scheming and corrupt warden. With this turn of events, Andy sets in motion a plan that has been in the works for the duration of his twenty year stay at Shawshank prison. He refused to be defeated or denied, and finally took matters into his own hands.

Above all, Shawshank is a powerful story about friendship, innocence, and the resilience of hope, and how these things can help a man endure even the heaviest of trials. When all else fails, you have to rely on who you are and what you know to be true to carry you through. And if you’re lucky, others will help and be helped by you along the way. If you continue to hope through hopelessness, that is a light that will never dim, and will light the way for others behind you.

I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.