Dragon!

My wife and I went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" today. My suspicion from my previous post was barely confirmed. This movie was not made merely to make us treat "terrorists" better. But you can sure take that away from it if you want to.

I highly recommend this movie. It's cute and fun, a little tense at moments (noted for kiddos' sake), and teaches a number of great life themes. If you're predisposed to feel preachiness, it'll feel preachy, but I got caught up in the story. Some of the themes include being who you are, humility, reconciliation, and perseverance.

I HOPE I'M NOT GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY ALERT:
While the most striking part of the movie for my wife was how relationships were reconciled, the key point for me has to do with fear. The main character, Hiccup, was a nerdy waif of a Viking. He wanted more than anything else to be the best stereotypical Viking dragon fighter. However, with a bit of sensitivity and some dumb fearlessness, he discovers a way to befriend dragons. He is able to end the dragon scourge in an unconventional, yet quite fitting to his person, way. If he had kept trying to kill dragons the conventional way, he would have been a colossal failure. But because he intuitively followed fate's path for him, he became an even bigger hero than he could have imagined. And it might have been mistitled. Much more faithful to the story would have been "How to Befriend a Dragon," but I think "train" fit better for marketing purposes.

Yeah, the movie's a little moralistic, but with the good animation and storyline, it's totally worth it.

Nerdy poetry I wrote today

Chi(li)asm

The millennium
Is it a thousand years long?
Or a metaphor?

It will probably
involve the wedding supper
of the ewe’s Offspring.

What’s all this besides
the consummation of the
kingdom to come?

A place of justice,
mercy, and love abounding;
fullest creation.

Bible images
telling of restoration,
reign of true human.

Spicy foods. Fitting
for a reception? Chili
makes me say, “Mmm-hmmmm.”

If it’s a thousand
or a thousand million years,
it will not matter.