Jason, Caesar and Superman do Friday the 13th

Written on Friday, March 13, 2009.

It's Friday the 13th! It's the day to look over your shoulder, just a split second too late, to see a madman wearing a hockey goalie mask brandishing a huge butcher knife. Can you see it? Hear it? Listen. Violins screech wildly! A tragically cute blonde screams! Her hot red blood splatters! Yeah, I can still hear it, too.

(pic) - Goalie masked Jason caught in the act. This is definitely high-sticking and he'll get a double minor (4 minutes) for drawing blood.

But don't forget the rest of the story (may Paul Harvey also rest in peace. Good day.). The hockey mask man is mad, crazy-killer-slasher mad, for vengeance because he's come back from the dead. Because he was a helpless little kid left to drown in Crystal Lake while the teenage camp counselors were bonking in the bunk house all those summers ago... I really hate to say it, but I now know exactly how Jason feels. Yeah, that's right. Better look behind you.


(pic) - Jason on-shore. The tables turned.

But that's only a tale from Hollyworld. In the real world, today also being called "Pink Friday" here in Santa Cruz County as the pink slips go out today to thousands of public school teachers being cut due to the economic crisis and California's pathetic budget woes. Folks are wearing pink in solidarity of the teachers being let go. It is one sad state of affairs. Charlie's favorite color was pink. Every time I see the color I think of him and his pink Chuck Taylor converse. Makes it even sadder.

(pic) - Pink Friday logo. (source: http://pinkfriday.ning.com/)

Two days after Friday the 13th it will be the ominous Ides of March. Julius Caesar was warned to beware the Ides of March, but he had just declared himself Roman Emperor for Life and wasn't afraid of anything. Well, after the dramatic act of tyrannicide took him down, we learn that no matter how in control we may seem (Emperor of the World for Life. - not enough), maybe we should be afraid. Very afraid.

(pic) - Tyrannicide of Caesar, 44 BC.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not superstitious at all. I'm just paranoid. This past week the sea claimed a 30 year old man and a local teenager. The 17 year old 's memory is being honored by his friends and family. Los Gatos High School tragically lost three students this year. One boy collapsed and died on campus. Another in a car accident. The school community is in shock with grief and there are memorials and counselors at hand. I actually know Los Gatos HS well. Their track is home to the infamous Dammit Run , a 5 miler that runs up the face of the Lexington reservoir dam, over a mountain and back to the HS. Charlie won first place in the Boy's 13 and Under Division in 2003, crushing the Impey brothers by over 2 minutes.

(pic) - Charlie with his first place medal from the 2003 Dammit Run in Los Gatos.

The rough year at LGHS reminds that during my senior year at Springfield HS we lost a classmate in a car accident. Her name is Karen Sargent. I knew her, but didn't know her well; just knew she had brilliant black hair and a big bright white smile. At the time, I honestly had no clue of the pain some of my classmates and her family were suffering. I am really very sorry for that. I am really sorry for their loss. I don't remember anyone at school talking to us about it. A real-life learning lesson was lost on me. In retrospect, a lesson I dearly could have used. So as my 30th HS reunion approaches and then when I blogged about Cosmos #22, I dug out my HS yearbook. There is a full page tribute to Karen.



(pic) - Karen's memoriam. (source: SHS Yearbook 1979)

(pic) - Charlie's memoriam. (source Santa Cruz HS Yearbook 2005)

I also glanced through the Senior Quotes printed below the pictures of each one of the graduating class of 1979. Terry Barton, a close friend of Karen's, senior quote grabs me. It says it all:
"All the wealth in the world could not buy a friend or pay for the loss of one." Amen.

(pic) - Terry Barton. (source: SHS Yearbook 1979)

My own Senior quote?
"Any day you don't get killed is a good one."
I cringe. How would Karen's friends and family have taken that? After the events of my life thus far, it takes my breath away. I cringe again.


(pic) - Scott Harrison. Why so serious? you might ask (source: SHS Yearbook 1979)

My senior quote is taken word-for-word from a techno-thriller novel called "Weather War". I remember reading those words and the feeling of simple truth in them. They hit a chord inside and stuck with me, so I stuck them in the yearbook. Primarily, I chose that quote because I had some rough times of my own in HS and made some incredibly stupid mistakes and had some of my own near-miss car accidents that could have easily killed me and / or my closest friends. But we somehow survived each day, and so we better just count it as a 'good' and be thankful for that.

If you don't agree that "Any day you don't get killed is a good one." then you must be a very lucky person. A local young man Charlie must have run against in cross country, Jerry Maccallister, is a C4 quadriplegic since Jan 2, 2009. But he is alive and there is hope. And ultimately that is all that is needed to sustain us: life and hope. This week I just finished listening to an audio book that I plan to give to the Maccallisters. It's called, Nothing Is Impossible, written and read by vent-dependent, C2 quadriplegic Christopher Reeve. The book covers the range of emotions: depression, suicide, despair, gratitude, helplessness, progress, love, fight and hope. It is also a political plea to allow embryonic stem cell research to help find a way to regenerate spinal tissue. It is sobering and realistic, too, and I sometimes wonder if the gift will not be wanted. The last chapter starts with this quote:

""Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.""
- Samuel Johnson

Yep, there's some tough love in this book.

The final paragraph of the book is superb. So I will just leave you with Hollyworld's own Superman's words, and assure you I will pass it on to Jerry. Read them slow and think about the meaning of each word:

""When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is Hope. Once we find it, we must cling to it with absolute determination... Hope must be as real, and built on the same solid foundation, as a lighthouse; in that way it is different from optimism or wishful thinking. When we have Hope, we discover powers within ourselves we may have never known - the power to make sacrifices, to endure, to heal, and to love. Once we choose Hope, everything is possible. We are all on this sea together. But the lighthouse is always there, ready to show us the way home.""
-- Christoper Reeve

(pic) - The cover of the audiobook by Christopher Reeve quoted above. If you look closely you can see the ventilator tube sticking out of his throat. The hardest part of this book is readin it knowing that Reeve died on October 10, 2004, two years after it was written. Nothing and nobody lasts forever, but as long as there is hope...

Posted March 16, 2009.