Monday, January 11, 2010

Climb Every Mountain?


Two weeks ago we watched this 60 Minutes segment on "Birdmen". My son was fascinated by it and showed sincere excitement in pretending to be a Birdman (ready to take a leap from my mom's couch)- which led to a 10 minute lecture about gravity, not jumping head first from things, special flying suits, and the use of the phrase "We don't try that at home," about 10 times.

A few days later we saw an IMAX film about the Alps. What I thought would be a scenic film of Alpine beauty mingled with yodeling, was actually a fascinating documentary about a man who climbed to the summit of Mt. Eiger (of the Bernese Alps) 40 years after his father died attempting the same feat. It is 3 days of pure ice climbing- including sleeping on the edges of sheer drop offs and hanging from crumbly ledges with an ice pick. The film reenacts the father's fall to death, and also includes footage of the troubles and near falls that the present climbers encounter. It was pretty intense for my son to watch. So intense, in fact, that towards the end of the movie he leaned over and whispered to me, "I'm never going to be a mountain climber." I assured him that everything would be okay... and then I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

What movie shall we watch next...?

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree!

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  2. we saw the alps imax too! was that guy not nutso?! I would have killed him myself if i was his wife! Putting his life in danger like that just to scale a mountain. i guess it's good i'm not married to greg gardner:) love the quote from your ancestor. maybe he was hoping she heard him from the other side and was showing his appreciation:) maybe i'd better start kissing kevin more and doing laundry less, lest a similar epitaph be hung around my neck:)

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