Why So Serious?

Today is Sadie Hawkin's day. Not necessarily every November 3, but the first Saturday in November. So, happy that.

I'm not going to write about that today though. I never did the Sadie Hawkins thing as a teenager. When I was young, I was worried about making and keeping friendships, what friends I'd be playing with, or at whose house, and all that good childhood stuff.

As I got a little older I was aware, ever so vaguely, of things greater than me. I knew who the president was, if pressed to answer. I remember going to a rally in downtown Walnut Creek once where Jimmy Carter was doing some stumping. I also remember going to a rally where then-mayor of San Francisco Diane Feinstein was giving some speech about something. Mostly what I remember about that is that neither my mom or I were impressed with her. We figured that anyone who was surrounded by staff members who couldn't tell their boss her skirt was tucked up into her slip was probably someone who couldn't really be trusted. True story.

I was 12-13 in 1979 when the Iran hostage crisis started. I knew about it because it was on the news all the time. But I didn't KNOW anything about it. I was a kid worried about ending intermediate school and starting high school, caught up in my own teen politics.

Watching the movie "Argo" was very fascinating, educational and informative. It's the "based on actual events" cinematic approach about how six hostages were essentially smuggled out of Iran during those very trying times. The account was declassified by President Clinton when he was in office, so the public can now know the actual events of how it all went down. And while its true that Canada played a very important part in it (thank you, Canada!), the real hero was a CIA operative named Tony Mendez.

I did some careful research to see why it had the R rating before I decided to go. The trade off of hearing the F-word a few times was worth it. There was no sex or nudity- which is always a no-go for me. In other words, I don't recommend it for everyone, and you know who you are. And you others who will enjoy it also know who you are.

I was alternately shocked, tense, amused, nervous, awed, intrigued and fascinated - all good,things to be during a great movie.

Above all, I'm in awe of all those people who were involved. A lot goes on in high offices and we, the general public, have no idea what goes into making decisions. We just see the outcome and make our puny, uninformed judgments based on limited knowledge and facts.

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I promise that not all the posts this month will be this serious! So here's a post-Halloween joke for you:

What do you call a pumpkin that's thrown out a window?

Squash!