12 May 2010

Humpday Happenings...
Well, it's a wonderfully FOGGY morning here in Dunstable, Bedfordshire...I mean Ft. Wayne.
Sorry, had a waking dream moment there.
Thought I awoke somewhere BETTER than my current neighborhood....silly me.
There is a good side to mornings like this.
The "neighbors" don't seem to take to FOG (maybe it's a John Carpenter thing).
I, on the other hand find a foggy morning nice...AND quiet.
The only sounds heard are the birds.
It's mornings like this that do hearken me back to an old TV show episode, however.
The old OUTER LIMITS show had an episode regarding a similar "foggy morning".
It was entitled "A Feasibility Study".
Here's two links to the episode info:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667805/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Feasibility_Study
They did a remake of this episode in 1997 as well:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667890/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feasibility_Study_(The_Outer_Limits)
The show was about a town where everything started off normally, but a bit "different". People couldn't start their cars, the sun looked "odd", and there was no TV or radio reception.
And aside from a misty, foggy morning, everything seemed relatively typical...just another day.
Eventually, the cars start and people leave for work, but the show focused on couples that had personal issues, and were sometimes at odds with one another. But, they soldiered on, because that was expected of them.
It's when they see a stranger in the neighborhood that things take a turn for the worse.
The people in this six square block of "Everytown, USA" begin to feel that there's more here than just the fog.
And they're correct.
Their part of town was somehow transported to another planet, and the native inhabitants of that planet can no longer breed future generations, are turning to stone, and seek to find an alternative "work force". This planet is not the most hospitable for humans outside the "influence" of that six block area, and they will most likely die off, as the atmosphere is toxic, but these aliens have to at least see if their "plan" is viable.
One person even becomes "infected" when he comes in contact with one of the aliens.
The people start to panic, but realize the intentions of these aliens, and come together with a level of solidarity never before seen in the neighborhood. They meet at the church, and purposely "infect" each other, to render the "experiment" by the aliens NOT feasible.
The only remnants of this abduction back on Earth is a huge hole in the ground where the neighborhood used to be, with a high fence and warning signs around it. Feasibility study concluded.
Yeah, it sounds kind of corny, but that show stuck with me whenever I drove into a fog bank...never knew if I'd wind up somewhere other than were I was intending to go.
But that show was one of a few that presented a damn good "morality play".
Don't see that many today, sadly.
I think with all the "drama", the core values become muddled in the screenplays. Used to be a time when episodic TV focused more on "the moral to the story" as opposed to solving the crime in an hour.
Sure, the Lone Ranger solved the problem in a mere 30 minutes, but we KNEW that he was there representing the GOOD GUYS, and that the people that interacted with him (and Tonto) were the focus of the story.
Then again, those were simpler times, when a June Cleaver or Donna Reed household was SOP (standard operating procedure).
Those were the days of the NUCLEAR FAMILY.
All we had to worry about in THOSE days was having a damn atom bomb dumped on our heads from the nasty old USSR.
We learned that doing something BAD had consequences, and that doing something GOOD netted a reward along the way.
And, I suppose that some of that has carried forward into our living rooms on TV today, just not as much, and certainly NOT as pronounced.
We find that it's OK to be bad (everybody has flaws, so why fight it?), and that many times, the old saying rings in our ears: "No good deed ever goes unpunished". We might fore go being good to become that which we detest, in order to achieve the same goal we used to be able to reach without sacrificing our values.
We might find that just "bucking the system" isn't good enough these days, and that we need to tear the crap out of it instead.
That might work for some folks, and others might actually succeed, after a fashion.
But, it's those that hold true to principles that matter; values that mean something, and a morality that recognizes our human foibles, and yet perseveres to attain that which often seems unattainable. Now, who would have known you could get all this from old TV shows?
Well, you can.
And you can also find it in books...the REAL kind that you open and READ, word for word.
Life is way too brief to meander about, without purpose, without direction, and with no real sense of right or wrong.
And it gets more difficult should you encounter a "storm at sea", as we all will in our lives.
Sometimes, it all comes down to being able to tune out the world for a bit...and listen.
We need to pay attention to US once in a while, because we're saying more than we know, yet we're not focused.
That indomitable spirit in each of us bears closer scrutiny, because from that, we become better people. And if there's one thing this old Earth can always use...it's a lot more BETTER people.
"We now return control of your personal computer to you...until next time..."
Be well, make a difference to someone today, and...
Stay safe out there, America.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
((Almost forgot - If you want to read a FANTASIC post regarding guns and WHY good people own them, bop on over to the WAITING FOR GOD blog - link at left. It's YESTERDAY'S post, and it IS worth a read, trust me on this!))

6 comments:

Ann T. said...

Dear Bob,
I think my comment got lost in error 503! Try again.

When I lived in Rivertown, the fog would cling to the lake. If you came to Lake Drive, you would think you were driving along the edge of the world. Just magic.

As for Donna Reed, I also miss the sense of right and wrong, and I know a lot of people who yearn for those days again. But I don't want to be Donna or June Cleaver.

We do, however, sometimes seem to be on another planet . .

LOL,
Ann T.

Bob G. said...

Ann:
I was getting errors earlier as well (blogspot brain farts?)

I love fog on a lake in the early dawn....something so damn serene about it.

ANd although the DAYS of June & Donna were great, I dunno if I ever wanted my mom to LOOK and ACT EXACTLY like 'em...
(it's the core value thing for me)

When it came to MY Mom, she could cuss up a storm if you crossed her, and knew right from wrong where "I" was concenred...lol.

She never failed to apply some needed EDUCATION to MY "seat of knowledge"...when warranted.

ANd was just as quick to give out those "attaboys".

We MUST be on a parallel "Earth", because this one here SURE ain't the one I remember growing up on...!

Perhaps it's another "feasibility study"...so where's my hamster wheel and food pellets? LOL.

Thanks for stopping by.

Slamdunk said...

Clever post Bob and I remember that episode.

One of my favorite quotes is "No good deed goes unpunished" and we use it frequently here.

Bob G. said...

Slamdunk:
It's amazing how some sayings never seem to go out of vogue...
Especially in today's world.

Makes me wish I keep notes of ALL myDad used to say. I'm sure there are SO many I just can't recollect.

And remember, if at first you DON'T succeed...you're doin' about average...LOL.
(and in good company)

Thanks for stopping on over.

gadfly said...

Aha! So you are one of the 8% who are driving up my trash collection costs.

Read the next quotation carefully. It is written by Professor Kunihiko Takeda, one of the world's leading authorities on recycling:

"Recycling is rubbish: It eats more energy and creates more waste than burning our garbage in high-tech incinerators."

But I suspect that you probably agree more with Monty Python:

"I think that all good, right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not, and I'm sick and tired of being told that I am."

Bob G. said...

Gadfly:
Well, I'm one of those that believe that we (and everything else) came from the earth, and that we (and the other stuff) will once again RETURN to the earth.

I feel the cost is only high because we aren't doing enough of it in the right manner.

And sooner or later, we WILL run out of landfill space.
But then again, there IS an alternative...
We could ALWAYS do TRASH-TO-STEAM power plants...pretty clean way of getting energy.
But that's another post for another day, eh?

Hey, thanks for swinging on by.
(now, go recycle something...LOL)