Ok! Your going to have to stick with me on the blog. This weekend everything seemed to be tied together in a weird way. So here goes:
The grandsons were at our house Friday through Saturday Afternoon. Avery, Age 6, is Totally into Star Wars Movies, Star Wars action figures, and Star Wars Legos. Addison, Age 3 is totally into Lawnmowers, Leaf Blowers, Chain Saws, and other tools. On the way to our house we asked what they would like to do? Avery asked if there were any new movies? (I don't know why he thinks I would know!) I told him about "Cloudy with the Chance of Meatballs 3D". Avery did not like that. He doesn't do 3-D. At the house we do our one planned activity in the form of an old fashioned wiener and marshmallow roast on the back patio. It was a laid back time around the fire, Avery talking about light sabers and Addison checking the moisture content of the grass for a mow on Saturday. I surprised Avery with a new Wii game that I bought last week at Wally World (Lego Star Wars!) After dark his attention was only that. Addison brought his play lawnmower and mowed the back yard, but after dark he asked for a flash light so he could go out to the yard a get his mower. I marvel that one is drawn to the virtual world of make believe and the other is drawn to the "role up your sleeves and do something" world.
Saturday at lunch, movies came up again and Avery wondered why they had to do 3D. He hates the glasses. Addison asked, "PAPA is there any movies about Lawn Mowing?" Avery roled his eyes and wondered who would want that? The answer was setting in front of him. I did know of one movie about lawn mowing, but kept it to myself. It was a scary sci-fi.
We had a great weekend with the boys.
Today was a full day: Church, Fin & Feather Craft Fair, NASCAR race on TV and then a movie.
There aren't many movies we haven't seen so we went to see "Surrogates" starring Bruce Willis. The reviews hadn't been good and it was called hokey. But so what?
The movie ended up being a very, very good cautionary tale that seemed to relate well to my weekend.
"Surrogates" is about a time in the future when everyone buys a life-like robot to do the actual interaction with the world while we stay home where it's safe in the recliner and live, love and interact through our surrogates. These robots have none of our flaws and we can feel pleasure but not pain! It is a thriller, which means that things go very wrong. Bruce to the rescue!
It is in fact a good movie and for me a very real movie! It reminded me of another movie about virtual reality which was of all things Stephen King's "The Lawn Mower Man" starring Pierce Brosnan as a scientist that invents a virtual reality chair where you can set a visualize experiences. He uses the guy that mows his lawn as the test case and of course everything goes very wrong! It was the first movie on the subject.
Since then there has been "Matrix" and others. Of course such things are crazy fiction. Who wants to live like that? Except you and me.
Let's revisit my weekend. Wiener Roast(real). Star Wars Wii (Virtual Reality). Church (real except when our "Surrogate Missionary" spoke to us about our mission in South Dakota showed many of us our virtual mission.) Fin & Feather Crafts. (Real) NASCAR/NFL on TV. (virtual) Movie (Virtual).
More and more of our life experiences are not about flesh and blood but a few steps removed. It is safer that way.
I think of Facebook, again. I keep up with a lot of virtual friends and they send me messages and if I want to I respond. I "like", "ignore" or "Comment" and they don't know what is really on my mind. I can make a "surrogate self" on the Wii and do all kinds of things that I am otherwise too lazy to do.
Don't tell me that "Surrogates" is a stupid story. It is exactly where we are headed!
I hope Addison sticks with his lawn mowers!
It was strange but I give it *** stars.
2009 movie #64
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