How to Train Your Dragon

As a pre-side note, I have now doubled the list of favorite movies I have to now include Up and the title of this post, How to Train Your Dragon.

I've grown soft (and a few pounds heavier (maybe 5, which means I no longer have a six pack)). My life is not a legitimate challenge (in the hunter-gather sense of the word). All I have to do is show up to work, teach kids, and go home. Drones will be able to do this in 40 years. Every meal is available at a convenient store if I so choose, and there are two to choose from within 1/4 mile from my apartment.

Last Saturday, I found myself staring at articles about other people doing awesome things. For hours I was reading them on a device countless times more powerful than those used to get astronauts to the moon, turn nuclear power into reality, or handle the intricacies of a modern fuel-injected car. I read about paragliding and its history (and the <1 mm thick cords they use), and about the two Australian men who just skied to the South Pole unsupported ("Cas" and "Jonesy"). Theirs is a tale of survival. The pilot of a paraglider knows freedom in ways I can only speculate on. What I knew was only that the room was a bit drafty, and that I continually feel like my adventures in cycling are forever ago and behind me.

I just finished watching How to Train Your Dragon for the third time this week. At the end, Hiccup finds himself with one leg fewer. He takes a moment to sigh, look at himself, and then look at Toothless (his dragon, which, as a side note, is the most awesome pet idea). What does he do next? Does he weep? Does he break down? Does he curse, scream, and completely lose it? No. Instead of these things, the very next thing he does is put both "feet" on the ground and try to start again. Right after that, he falls, but immediately tries again.

The basic premise of many animated movies seems to be, "You can do it if you want it enough." The question is: what do you want? The next question, which brings back thoughts of a scene behind a convenient store in Fight Club is: how bad do you want it?

"Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K Hessel's life." - Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)

Here I am in a heated apartment, headphones around my neck, food in my refrigerator, and computer on my desk. I have both legs.

HotD:
Q: What do you call a Japanese businessman on a train going home at 7:00 PM?
A: A part-time worker.

QotD:
See above quote from Fight Club.