Stop, collaborate and listen.
Can anybody within a very small (and by small I mean small, and small) window muse on the word "ice" and not spawn an earworm? Watch out... Ice, ice, baby... bhernt, bhernt, bhernt, bhernt, bhernt, bher-bhernt...
You're welcome.
If that did nothing to you then you weren't listening to the radio and/or going to (lame) dances in 1990. Twenty-three years ago? Time can do a lot of things (one look at the skin integrity on my neck can testify to that), and yet it has not erased the power of Vanilla Ice's hook. Crazy.
On the topic of time passing -- seasons coming and going -- today from the bus window we saw that the dinosaurs outside of the natural history museum are about to disappear for a while.
Today we also had a science lesson taught by James Balog. If you've seen Chasing Ice you know that it's not hyperbole to state that it is shocking -- for its beauty and its message.
A friend sent me an email with the subject line: "did you take your kids to chasing ice?" I'll be honest, we've been so busy around here with Groucho et. al, Chasing Ice wasn't even on my radar. How grateful I am to that friend for that email. (Note: please keep the suggestions coming! If you're a friend of a friend don't be shy -- send me your ideas (hellpigs101@gmail.com))
I'm also grateful for the usher at the Lincoln Center Film Society where the movie is currently playing. We handed him our tickets and he said something that expressed his approval.
"So worthwhile for a science lesson?" I asked.
"Definitely. Especially for you two." He pointed to the kids. "You're the ones who it's for. It will be up to you."
Man. It totally takes a village. I could have told my offspring to pay attention because the material in the movie was important, but having some random man (in a uniform of movie-theatre-authority) tell them made the moment poignant and meaningful. And empowering. He made eye-contact with them. Pointed at them. Told them that it was up to them -- implying that they have it within them to make a difference. Man. I know that I sound like a broken record, but I am insanely grateful for this universe full of teachers. I'm so not doing this alone.
So apparently this ice melting business isn't part of an enormous pattern that will eventually right itself. Looks like it's not part of a season that is natural and will cycle back around. Even crazier, it might not even be something made up to support an evil liberal agenda. It's a big stinking casualty of the law of unintended consequences. There are ice core samples that show how carbon is directly linked to ice melting, and in all the ancient air bubbles trapped in that ice there's never been so much carbon. The ice has never receded at the rate it is receding and it could -- very soon, in fact -- pass a point of no return. And there will be consequences of the melting, namely the increased impact of natural disasters. It was eerie to watch the footage of the recent consistency of horrific storms, and know that since the movie was finished Sandy came and did exactly what was predicted.
Science aside, the visuals of the movie are stunning. As is the tenacity of Balog and his team. I asked the kids after: "What did Balog have in common with Hershey?" And they knew -- he tried and failed and tried again (you'll recall that our vast Hershey wisdom came from this trip).
And so we keep trying. Last year I went with a friend to the rush ticket lottery for Book of Mormon. No dice. This evening, The Girl, Judd the Red Chicken, The Sister, and I stood in line for the Peter and the Starcatcher lottery. It's going off Broadway in a couple of weeks and while our little family saw it several months ago, we really wanted The Sister to see it. Thanks to a kind lottery attendant who increased our odds by letting all four of us put our names in (it was The Girl's name that awarded The Sister and I our tickets -- she was proud of herself and earned herself a Levain's cookie), we got to go and hear Molly Aster say: "Things are only worth what you're willing to give up for them." Repeatedly her character champions the idea of starting over when you've failed if what you're after is important. Protecting the environment will take sacrifices, and in so many ways we are on trajectories that are headed for failure. And yet, it's so important to at least acknowledge that a) we have agency -- so we are empowered to keep trying and b) ultimately we will need to take accountability. There are things like the Christmas dinosaurs that leave, but come back. And then there are some things, like that g-d- Vanilla Ice song that once the damage is done, it can't be undone.
I'm really happy that we were exposed to these principles today: empowerment, agency, accountability, friendship, trying again after failing, and sacrifice. Not too shabby.
We were also exposed to a lovely, if haunting song during the credits of the movie (before we had to tick off the elderly people in the theatre by climbing over them because both kids were frantically whispering that all the melting ice had made them have to go to the bathroom "baaaaaaad"). "Before My Time" is up for an Academy Award -- and it's slightly better than Ice Ice Baby.
(Yo, VIP, let's kick it.)
