:: Perspective ::

:: a good many years ago i remember in science class learning about 'frame of reference'. it's really just the idea of how perspective applies to observations. a simple example is for us, it feels as if the earth is a solid non-moving mass (just the life on it is whizzing by). in reality, the earth is rotating about itself, the sun, the milky way, and so on. to the point that it could be moving at thousands of miles an hour or more. so back to the story already in progress: every weekend the usual suspects gather to throw the gauntlet. it's always intended to be in good fun, but we all take the preparation very seriously and when things get cattywhompus in the hour of power it ends up affecting us pretty severely in the following week. each day we are away we plot and plan and struggle with our inner-self, reliving each second on the hour and analyzing. there's a screening party in our minds and siskel and ebert are giving two thumbs down (each). such was this week. personally i was frustrated over loosing the tyre which, for this week at least, i blame for missing the top50 placing i had been hoping for. another of my endorphine craving cohorts was not fairing even as well as i in the cinema of the mind. we gathered around him in word and spirit trying to revive his passion because we see true genius. this was the week: licking our wounds and helping pals bandage theirs. and then it hits. the moment when the frame of reference for life is shifted, skewed, twisted, and warped. suddenly things are in the proper perspective: one of our gang has been diagnosed with lung cancer. that vile creature that has taken the life from, or out of, someone that we all know. and as it sometimes does, from a person with a clean life, embracing every day. someone who never saw it coming. we gather together this weekend not to improve ourselves but to lift our comrade. come monday, let's screen a different movie. ::