Skip to main content
At the end of Back to the Future, Marty wakes to find that life has changed. His dad isn’t bent over and scared of the world. His mom is, well, cute and happy. His brother is wearing a suit instead of a fast food uniform. His sister is less… slutty.

His dream car is in the garage. Good old Biff is outside waxing George’s car instead of thwapping George on the head.

In the theater, we are all thinking, “yeah!” Life has returned to the path it was originally on, before Marty’s parents were brought together by mistakes and guilt and cowardice. This is the way life was supposed to be.

But that, of course, assumes that there is a plan. That the universe wants us to have a better life, that our mistakes and evil deeds and, yes, teetering on a branch with binoculars outside the pretty girl’s house - that all these things interfere with what the universe intends for us. That there is a right path.

Apparently the universe also wants us to drive cool four-wheel-drive trucks.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

This was in the mail: Life’s Too Short To Clean Your Own House. A lovely brochure, featuring a lovely couple, with two lovely blond children, sitting in a lovely family room. The dad is reading a book with one of the daughters. The mom is laughing over a laptop with the other daughter. A pretty picture. Short answer portion of the quiz: 1. Why did the advertising folks choose to put two girls in the picture instead of a girl and a boy? 2. Why did they choose to have the mom pose with the laptop? 3. Who cleans the housecleaners’ houses? Bonus question: are the perky college students pictured on the inside of the brochure real housecleaners or just models?
I have to confess something. I enjoy reading Anne Lamott. Okay, okay, I know that makes me more touchy-feely than I usually admit. She is very lovey. She talks about mystical things. She freely admits to praying (although she uses the F-word frequently in her books about “faith”. I like this in a person.) She talks about breathing. She is very real, and I admire this. She talks about her parents and her son with a mix of love and frustration and grumpiness. She admits, in public, in her writing, to sometimes being angry, sometimes disliking her loved ones, to having to work very hard to forgive them. I like to think I’m like her in a lot of ways, but I don’t share this ability. I can’t easily look at someone I love, look them in the eyes, and say “I’m really angry with you.” “I am mad.” “That was a bad thing you did. To me.” Instead, I’m the sort that says, “Oh, gosh, I’m sure you didn’t mean to run over my dog. It’s okay. I was meaning to get rid of that old thing soo...
Censorship update : According to Em's civics assignment: " Inappropriate news topics will not be accepted. If you are unsure of what is considered appropriate, please consult your teacher or your parents." (The assignment sheet printed that sentence in bold type.) Her entire summary: Source : Washingtonpost.com Headline : House Defeats Gay Marriage Amendment Main Idea : Debating whether or not gay marriages should be banned Summary : People in the House of Representatives debate about banning gay marriage, and it turns out they won't be. :) (Penciled smiley.) Connection : This connects to civics because it has to do with making laws and debating which are big parts of the government. Now, besides the fact that this is a danged sketchy summary and I'd like to throttle her for that, the only opinion she offers is the little smiley. She is brief and matter-of-fact. Practically boring! If anything, the article that she summarized is even ...