Remembering to live rather than live to remember: ...

2009-06-03T01:58:31.361+01:00

Remembering to live rather than live to remember: an eloquent summation. The professorial acumen with which your partner helped tie together the discussion comes as no surprise; the two of you complement (and I trust compliment) each other so well!

Not sure where to post this observation as a postscript, speaking of long wars and long memories in the media, but I just watched an intriguing if bizarre season finale to a show on Spike (truly a guy's cable channel for XYs who like to watch things explode!) in "Deadliest Warrior"-- it pits, say, Shao-lin monk vs. Maori warrior, or gladiator vs. Apache, with computer mock-ups climaxing analyses of weaponry and strategy by each opponent. A military buff-meets-computer gamer's dream. My sixteen-year-old son naturally told me about this series! A small disclaimer separates Spike from any sponsorship of any enacted tactic or depicted ideology!

The finale: "Taliban vs IRA." Two four-man squads squared off, after much build-up commentary by the two guest experts, both wielding weaponry in the lab and on the range with deadly accuracy albeit in simulation: Skoti Collins (great-nephew of Mick, "historian") and, with cloth cap, Peter Crowe, "IRA Weapons Expert." With not only armalite and nail bomb, but a flamethrower and slingshot against the Taliban's RPG, AK-47, and bayonet, the battle was waged. I will not give away the winner. But, seeing the Taliban and the bhoyos square off amidst a dusty parking lot full of RVs, buses, and cars and trucks did make it look like a sequel to "Mad Max."

Notes of interest: as featured in the promos, Collins repeatedly claims the 'ra has never been defeated. No past tense. The narrator also mentioned a phrase I never heard before on air which made me wonder about Great-Uncle Mick: "After the Irish lost the War of Independence..." The giant graffito on the wall of the firing range read "CIRA," by the way, preceding "Brits Out," the "C" turned into a letter with an arrow from the top pointing towards IRA.

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Remembering to live rather than live to remember: ...