Gorgeous and I watched Second Hand Lions last night.
If you haven’t seen it, it is a fun movie, rather silly through out. Kind of a boy meets grumpy old men story. The pair of crusty old guys are played by Michael Caine and Robert Duval. The Duval character cracked me up with his over-the-top grouchiness. There were several points that I had to pause the movie because I was laughing too loud for Gorgeous to hear what was going on.
But there was also a fair amount of wisdom given out. For example at one point the Duval character tells the boy
Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.
I’m still noodling over that one.
Should you choose to believe something simply because it is worth believing in, and not sweat whether it’s true or not?
Many folks would say that those of us who follow Jesus are doing exactly that. Of course those of us who do follow Jesus believe that we have actually found the truth and believe in it.
I have this powerful desire to be “right.” And when I encounter someone who thinks differently than I do, my natural instinct is to “prove” that I am “right” and they are “wrong.”
But is that really the important thing? To be right?
I’m not so sure that it is anymore.
When I was poking around this morning I noticed that both Robert Duval and Michael Cain had spent some time in military service. I didn’t realize that they had both been in uniform.
I did some more poking around and found that all of the following actors had spent some time in uniform:
- Michael Cain
- Robert Duval
- Gene Hackman
- Eddie Albert
- Lee Marvin
- Sean Connery
- Richard Burton
- Robert Mitchum
- James Stewart
Jimmy Stewart actually takes the cake when it comes to military service.
He was drafted in WWII but was initially refused due to a weight restriction. He finally convinced the Draft Board to accept him and enlisted in March of 1941. The Army didn’t really want to send famous stars to the front and Stewart had been making movies since 1935. So the Army kept him in the states even after he successfully finished flight school. They posted Stewart to New Mexico as a flight instructor for B-17’s.
But Stewart was not content to be an instructor. He managed to get a transfer to an operational unit and entered combat operations flying bomber missions over Europe in December 1943. He was awarded several medals for actions in combat and by the end of the war Stewart was promoted to Colonel. He was one of the few Americans to rise from Private to Colonel in four years, a rather impressive accomplishment.
Jimmy Stewart was the highest ranking Hollywood actor in the military of all time (after Ronald Regan, of course).
His first movie after the war is my personal favorite of his: It’s a Wonderful Life. Talk about a film that addresses personal beliefs! It’s a great reminder that each of our lives affects far more people than we ever realize.
Who doesn’t remember the moment when George Baily discovers Zuzu’s petals? Or how the town’s folk rallied around him to help him out of his jam? Good stuff for sure.
We could all stand to see more movies like that.
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS Feed.
When the stuff finished its 20 minute download / install / reboot process there was no anti-virus protection at all. I knew I didn’t want to leave the computer for a day with no virus protection with Gorgeous having to use it all day. That could have unrecoverable consequences.
But apparently that is McAfee’s new approach to virus protection. If they completely stop email traffic they are sure to get a good handle on virus propagation. Oh, and after a quick check of 
Most folks screw up like Mel did and they end up hurting their families (Mel’s been married for over 25 years to the same woman and has 7 kids, something unusual in Hollywood, eh?) and the other people around them. It is embarrassing at the very least and hard to face people afterwards. And even while it is going on a part of your brain is telling you that what is happening is “very bad” because it knows there are going to be lawyers, and courts and all sorts of complications coming down the pike as a result. But in the case of a celebrity of Mel’s visibility the effect is magnified unimaginably because the whole world is now completely aware of his complete lapse in judgment.
But they didn’t. I was effectively enslaved to the overpowering pull of drinking. AA does a lot of good for a lot of folks. I’m not knocking it. But it didn’t work for me. One of the things they teach is that you can’t overcome your addiction without the help of a “higher power.”
Anyway as I got into cutting the grass (really just leveling the weeds) I noticed not one or two, but several piles of dog poop along the front edge of our lawn. Now for me it was not that big a deal. We don’t have kids that will be playing in it. I have a pair of old sneakers that I wear only for yard work, so it didn’t even bother me when I stepped in it. Those shoes never get past the garage anyway.
The boys pay close attention too. It is not unusual for Low Rider to run from window to window trying to find a bird he was casing after it flew off. And Fat Boy will go into this weird vocalized convulsion sometimes because he so much wants to get at the birds. Sometimes he sounds like he’s demon possessed. I wish I had a recording of it for you. It truly sounds bizarre.
I knew I wanted to fill up the tank before I turned the car back in because I didn’t want to get soaked paying the rental company $5 a gallon for a less than full tank, or some such. Fortunately on the highway I was on had an 
The trick was the booth at the O’Hare exit. There is no operator at that exit. It is cash only, exact change required. But you have to be a bit of a detective to figure out how much the toll is because the only place it tells you is a little sign on the toll collecting machine itself. It happened to be $0.80 too.
