I have been thinking about one of the best scenes in The Dark Knight. It is a conversation between Alfred and Bruce Wayne where Alfred shares insight that I believe is applicable today and probably always has been.
“…some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
You can watch the full clip of that scene by clicking here.
If you ask if it is connected to Another Friday Night At Urgent Care I’ll happily answer it is not. I’ll also add that I am cautiously optimistic that I didn’t tear my bicep.
A nasty looking bruise has developed on my inner forearm but I retain solid mobility and range of motion with limited pain. It barks at me if I push harder than it wants to be pushed so I am trying to avoid doing so.
It is not easy being patient, especially when I cant help but wonder if I can just power through this. In my head I see the 25-year-old I was but the reflection and some exercises demonstrate it is as long ago as the calendar says.
What He Didn’t Know
Sometimes the young guys at the gym give me a hard time about my age. I usually smile and shrug my shoulders at them. Sometimes I tell them I had more cuts in my stomach than they do now and say I can get that back.
That might be part ego and part wishful thinking. I don’t need pictures to remember as I can kind of see them resting under some extra skin.
I look at that guy on the right and ask how 39 years have passed and think about what he dreamt of and what he never accomplished alongside of what he has done.
Ask myself if some of those dreams still matter and whether I feel a need to chase them still. And if so, what do I need to do to get there.
Some of that is connected to why I got an Apple Watch. I stopped wearing watches years ago and only picked one up again so that I could better track how much exercise I get.
Establish benchmarks and you can figure out the steps you need to take to get where you want to go.
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Part of why I have been thinking about the Dark Knight quote above is connected to the numerous posts I have come across from people who say they want to see the U.S. and Israel destroyed.
There is a chunk of the burn it down crowd who are privileged individuals who haven’t a clue about how thin the ties of civil society are and how it has protected them.
They don’t see the seams and cracks that exist or the people that exist in them. They don’t go hungry or worry about basic needs like clothes and housing.
It’s an idealized theory in their head, this burning it down where what rises is magically better than what exists.
It is especially galling to me to see some complain about ICE and think that burning it all down improves things.
But I also wonder about the people who are like the bandit Alfred described who just want to see it all burn.
The lack of thought, compassion and consideration for the millions who could be effected troubles me. A real breakdown can impact every level of society and that is the kind of chaos most of us don’t ever want to have to face.
Riots, Fires, Earthquakes & EMS
If we roll through the last 40 years of my life I have been evacuated from a forest fire, lived through the LA Riots, several large earthquakes and been rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
If you are among the long time readers you know that ambulance trip is only a few months ago and that it made an impression upon me.
Some of you have said I am dismissive about almost dying and there is truth to that. Docs said I almost died and my response is a simple, “I didn’t.”
Doesn’t mean I don’t take it seriously or recognize it could have gone another way. I lost half my blood and spent four days in an “Airbnb” I give zero stars to.
Ask me about it and I might tell you that when my father went into hospice one of the nurses told me he must be incredibly strong because they were surprised by how long he was holding up.
It is part of why I held his hand and told him it was ok, that he could let go and I would keep an eye on everyone. That is a story in itself.
But what is relevant to this is I figured if Dad could hold on that tightly in hospice I could do my time. Because when I made the choice to live it wasn’t a question of if I would, there was no doubt.
My situation was a freak accident, I wasn’t fighting pancreatic cancer and Wilner men are made of sterner stuff.
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There is a bit of an ache in my arm now and I wonder where some of these events are leading us. I wonder how much of what I read and see online is real and what isn’t.
I don’t think some of what is going on will be fully resolved in my lifetime and expect that my grand kids will have to deal with some of the fallout.
But I do believe we’ll get beyond where we are at today and end up in a better, more stable place than now.
What it takes to get there is a big question and one that won’t try speculating on here. Instead I’ll focus on our controlling the controllable and focus on not buying trouble before it comes.
We’re not without influence upon our lives and the lives of those around us. When you beat death as I did it provides a certain amount of confidence.
It may not always be easy, but I will greet every dawn with vigor and smile at each sunset I get to see.
I am a fire dancer, storm walker and sailor of stormy seas. We have got this.
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