How to Shoot Somebody Who Outdrew You

Well, this is the last blog post from home for a little while. I will be heading back to Abilene for the Spring Semester tomorrow. This semester should be filled with a lot of things that I am planning on experiencing, but the exciting thing is that there will be a myriad of events, people, and places that will come out of nowhere. This is always the way that my life has been, and that is what makes it invigorating to wake up in the morning.

We watched "Troy" tonight as a family. One of the themes that the movie hammers away at is the idea of pursuing glory. When Achilles is summoned out of his tent to fight the Thesselonian champion at the beginning of the movie, the young messenger boy warns him about the size of the man he is going to face. He proceeds to tell Achilles that he is going out to battle the largest man he has ever seen, and that he would not fight the man if he were Achilles. Achilles quickly tells the boy," and that is why no one will ever know your name."

Our societal pantheon is filled with those who rise into our consciousness on a mercurial trajectory and then are gone long before their time. People like James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, Robert F. Kennedy, and Steve Prefontaine are viewed with a special air of nostalgia, and perhaps that is because we saw them at their absolute apex, and the process of returning to a hum-drum existence is never part of their equation.