Hell no, we won't go!

This phrase originated during a 1967 parade at the Armed Forces Induction Center in New York City. Protesters participated in a week long, nationwide "stop the draft week" demonstration.

Number one, please, VietNam vets, know we love you, we bless you and we thank your for your service. We're all ashamed at the treatment, "no thanks" you received for this horrific war. Please bear with me here, as that "hell no" isn't meant to align with this blog - it's more the mindset of the age.

I've been waiting forever (it seems) for the movie "Leisure Seeker" to make it to local theaters.. it finally has. It includes two of my alltime favorites - Donald Sutherland, a retired English professor suffering from dementia, and Helen Mirren, his wife who has recently learned she has Stage 4 cancer. They jump into their old RV in Boston, bound for a trip she's proudly arranged to show him Ernest Hemingway's home in Key West, FL.

The film, admittedly, isn't getting great revues.

I'm an intense lover of emotion - and what better than two people, in their closing moments of life. I figure a tear will happen, and I'm really really ok with that.. in fact, I kinda look forward to it.

I do not have any idea where the phrase "bone to pick" came from - but I have one with Mick Lasalle, a film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

I know, in the past, I have spouted about things, then I might reread later and thought to myself "Victor, you need to shut the hell up, for you have no idea what you're talking about.. there is absolutely no way you can put yourself in that person's shoes." Yes, I've been guilty.

Lasalle said the movie has a beginning and an end, but can have no middle. "There is no possibility for development in their relationship - he's pretty much gone. THERE'S REALLY NOWHERE FOR THE MOVIE TO GO, BECAUSE THERE IS NOWHERE FOR THE CHARACTERS TO GO."

This is where I insert "Hell no, we won't go!"

I wonder, if Mr. Lasalle would answer "No" to the question "Do you want to live to be 90?".. Well, if so, how would he answer that if he were asked that at age 89 years, 364 days old?

We've all witnessed, firsthand, the love and emotion of family dealing with dementia, cancer, ends. Those of us with parents/loved ones gone, I believe would mostly answer hell to the yes when asked "would you take your parent (loved one) back even if it meant they had dementia?" I know I would.

72 days in a row to St. Lukes Hospital, my sister lay terminally ill with cancer. NOWHERE FOR THE CHARACTER TO GO. Patooey. Those were some of the most precious days of my life - and I believe they were for many others.

I honestly don't write this in dislike of Mr. Lasalle, know he didn't mean anything personal, and he's certainly entitled to his opinion - I just believe some things can't be learned without aging.

What better than conversations in the bottom of the 9th inning of life?

Throw out the Royals, the Chiefs, Repubs, Dems, crossword puzzles, "did you see Roseanne?", memorized recipes, light bills, mowing the grass.. TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE.. WHAT CAN YOU TEACH ME? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU? WHAT ARE AMONG THE FAVORITE MOMENTS OF YOUR LIFE? YOU WANNA SING?

Hell no, we won't go.. because it's perhaps the most important time in life to listen.. to be.. to share.. to enjoy.

"There's a beauty here - Virzi (the Director) is too humane to make a movie without beautiful moments. But the scattered eight or ten minutes of splendor just aren't worth the almost two-hour investment of time."

Mr. Lasalle do me this favor.. come back to this in the winter of your life and re-visit (Much like my admitted egg on my face from above.) Aging/dying and sweeping under the carpet simply don't go together.

Maybe I'm too emotional. Hell no, I don't care.

Love, Victurd