Somehow I graduated, and we got married a week later. Three months later, we were given the keys to our first apartment. It came on the radio while I was driving from Hilliard to Grandview. I watched number two hit while in the electronics department at Target. The collapse happened in my living room, just after I set up the television.
The event became a springboard for our twenty-something decade. Innocence gave way to idealism, which eventually gave way to a very sad reality. Our efforts to recover and rebuild were dominated by fear, manipulation, exploitation, and poverty. Honest self-reflection, lament, and contemplation were not welcome - and still are not, even after war and recession. Our soil is eroded, but we just keep trying to fertilize it with synthetic chemicals rather than thousand year old humus. We have no time to slow down and pray - to walk and meditate. We keep driving around in circles while we update facebook on our phone, then drive in more circles waiting for someone to comment.
A very sad reality, indeed. Just like McDonald's thriving during the recession, or profits made from war.
While Kurosawa's "I Live in Fear" is probably the most appropriate film for an anniversary such as this - I do believe that "Ikiru" and "Red Beard" actually have something hopeful and sustainable to offer in response to such fatalistic times.
...
