the reel world

When a movie ends and the credits roll we are left with a false sense of hope, a happy ending when the last two survivors roll off into the sunset never to be unhappy again. But what happens the next day? Do they go out for brunch and discuss their narrow escape from the jaws of death over a mimosa and some eggs benedict? Do they immediately seek therapy and reel over their traumatic and unbelievable adventure, fighting masked killers and frantically leaping from the ocean seconds before a giant shark rises to the surface? How would you begin to explain that yesterday you were dangling over the Grand Canyon trying to save three billion dollars while helicopters launched missiles at you and your daughter who was clutching a bomb big enough to bring down Vegas? Which path would you choose to express your concern for all the other victims of the hijacked airplane you plunged from when trying to save Los Angeles from catastrophe? Society accepts that the end is fortunate and spares no time to think of the consequences. Maybe this could be said about life in general? Quite often people can`t see far enough ahead to deliberate the consequences, and most of us can probably think of a time when we had to make a split decision. But how can we possibly know what the outcome will be if we are not familiar with the situation? I remember once I had to make a life or death decision and I had absolutely no time to think about it, I didn`t even have time to be scared or ponder the fact that I could be seriously injured, I had to act and I had to act right now. One thing I did learn from the experience is that a single second can change a whole lifetime, we just don`t know what is around the next corner. Life is like an unpredictable volcano, it simmers and bubbles until one day it POPS! Sometimes it never pops, infact sometimes it never even simmers. But that is what makes it unpredictable, we are aware of the potential power but we just don`t know when it will be unleashed, if ever, if at all. How do we know which day is our last? How do we know when to say goodbye? How do we know if we will survive to be one hundred years old? Because no body `lives` to be 100, they `survive` one hundred years amongst the human race. In England when you celebrate your 100th birthday, Queen Elizabeth sends you a personal letter to congratulate you. Surviving that amount of time against so many unpredictable social and natural factors really is an achievement, who would ever imagine being 100 and driving off into the sunset? That sunset is more real than anybody thinks, because to ride off into the sunset represents the achievement of surving an entire time either on-screen or in real life. Just as the movie is over for the actors, life ends for all of us too at some point. Then and only then when we have achieved a life long of achievements do we get to be those wealthy actors, content with where we have been and what we done, we finally get to drive into the sunset. Nanna, you drove that Harley all the way. RIP.