Hindsight is 20/20

A horrific thing happened early this morning. One of the most highly anticipated movies is out today. The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion of Chris Nolan’s movie adaptation of the Batman story has been something that Batman fans have been waiting for years to finally come out.  As per usual, there were midnight showing all over the country. People dress in costumes wait in line for hours and go see the movie in the middle of the night. My own children (20 and 15) would have been there had they thought ahead and bought tickets. But they didn’t so they decided it would have to wait for another day.

And just like theaters in my part of country, the theaters in Aurora, Colorado were all packed as well. It’s fun. The dressing up and the full theater with fans just like you. Except that in Denver, a very disturbed young man, loaded to the gills with automatic weapons and all other kinds of deadly ammunition that I don’t even know the names of walked into a theater and killed at this point 10 people and injured over 70.

Senseless tragedies happen more and more. And in this case, there were all walks of life at the movie. Children and adults. I’ve read some peoples comments on social media criticizing the parents for having their children in the theater in a violent movie at midnight. And while it isn’t something that I would do with my children, hindsight certainly is 20/20 isn’t it? I bet you that those parents wish that they didn’t pick the midnight movie to go to. And for the people who feel the need to judge and criticize these parents I ask them to kindly sit down and shut the fuck up.

These parents are already criticizing and judging themselves and I certainly don’t have the right to do so. Because I can’t even imagine the pain and horror that they are enduring. I hope to never have to.

And commentary, in my own humble opinion, because after all, this is my blog and therefore my own opinion, pointing blame to the parents, rather than the true cause, the fact that this guy was able to LEGALLY FUCKING BUY all of these weapons is really the bigger problem.  People wanting to blame the violence of a film, I say the same thing. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for guns being available, handguns and hunting rifles etc. But the weapons he had? Yea, those should be banned. Completely. But that’s another blog post altogether.

I can’t make sense of this, but I’m not supposed to. I’m also not supposed to be judge, jury and executioner. All I can do, is pray for the families affected by this tragedy.

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Fever Pitch (not the Drew Barrymore movie)

 

I’ve been reading this book for over a week now. This amount of time, for me, is an eternity to spend on a book. I usually devour books, reading two and sometimes three in one week. So why am I taking so long with this book. Written by Nick Hornby ( you know him, About A Boy and High Infidelity–Just look above at the picture) this book is a memoir of his life as a soccer fan. Or as the rest of the world calls it, football. Something I’ve watched every four years, but have decided that no proper anglophile can be without consistent footy viewing on a regular basis. Please forgive the redundancy of that sentence. Back to the book. It’s written in a style that is almost epistolary in that each chapter has the name of a game as it’s sub-header along with the date of said game, making it seem like a letter or an entry in a diary of his. (Remember that England uses the day/month/year format unlike the US) I think I love this book for that feature alone as I love, love, love epistolary novels. The fact that this is a true story makes it even better.

 

So what is going with me that it’s taking me forever (over a week is forever in my reading world) to finish this book. Usually, this would mean that I’m just not that into it. And usually, if that is the case, I put the book down and get another one. However, I think this is the first time in a long time that I am reading slow because I want to savor every word. I reread sentences because they have such impact and give you such a sense of his surroundings and experiences. Hornby gives us an insight into a boy’s mind and their football obsessions. I think I totally have fallen in love with him and want to marry him. What? He’s married already. Ah well, probably a lofty aspiration on my part. I’ll think I’ll just be like Rebecca from The Booklady’s Blog and just toss my panties at his awesomeness.

 

Because half-way through this book and I can tell you, that it’s totally awesome. Seriously guys, I’m doing muppet arm flails at this book and every other cliche that you can think of to express how good it is.

 

And I am only half-way through.

 

So, I’ll keep going and hopefully I’ll finish it by the time the English football season starts. What? You didn’t think I pick any other league to follow did you?

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