Carpe Dodgeball
Dodgeball is a cheesy, unsurprising and pedestrian movie that is really quite funny and an excellent rent, on top of the fact that it's also a fantastic teaching tool. Observe.
Rent the movie (step one).
Watch it with the boy (step two).
Drive home with the radio off and mention Lance Armstrong, who does a cameo (third and final step).
Lance Armstrong is of course the teaching tool in question, not dodgeball, though really, having just seen dodgeball (which is nothing more than a story about not quitting) helps. It helps because dodgeball has a plain, unadulterated scene wherein Lance talks about his own desire to quit when he had cancer.
Cancers. All the cancers, practically.
The man got something like three cancers, and instead of giving in said, fuck this, I am going to go on to become the best bicyclist in the known universe. And that's what he did, though perhaps with greater decorum.
This is, I feel, an important life lesson. And it's in the movie Dodgeball. Oh how times have changed. Once upon a time, life taught you lessons when your tribe died, when your igloo melted and fell into the sea, when you ate that last raw scallop. Now it comes to you in movies made from the leftover cast members of Saturday Night Live. Isn't progress grand? Soon we will come pre-installed with Microsoft Wizdom, Fantasia Edition and Linux Inspiration, Lance Armstrong version 23.4 alpha, build 17 (kernal 82, known bugs include lack of support for Martian firmware and Microsoft Word).
I sat in the car in front of my house with the boy relating everything I knew about Lance (took maybe 10 seconds). I told him that Joe Average (a man in the movie) wins in the end because he decided to win. He decided not to give up. It was a case of WWLAD: What Would Lance Armstrong Do?
The real coup de grace (that's french, which is funny because Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. So there's a connection there. Get it?), though, came when we walked inside and I was able to look him in the eye and ask him why he was doing so much better in school than last year. He said because his grades are better (the whole cause and effect thing is a little fuzzy still). I said, no. He said it was because of the summer tutor. I said no. I said it's because you, my boy, have decided to do better. Your near straight A grades are because you choose to do the work and you choose to learn the material. You have chosen to succeed like Lance Armstrong.
In my mind he takes this to heart, and goes forward into the next year or so understanding his success is his choice. He goes forward understanding that he is the captain of his soul and that adventure and happiness are ports of call on his journey, if he chooses to trim the forejib and hoist anchor.
In reality he was probably thinking that dodgeball was funny and wondering why I was blabbing. And really, he was probably hoping this would somehow translate into a raise in allowance.
Time will tell. Oh yes, time will tell.
Rent the movie (step one).
Watch it with the boy (step two).
Drive home with the radio off and mention Lance Armstrong, who does a cameo (third and final step).
Lance Armstrong is of course the teaching tool in question, not dodgeball, though really, having just seen dodgeball (which is nothing more than a story about not quitting) helps. It helps because dodgeball has a plain, unadulterated scene wherein Lance talks about his own desire to quit when he had cancer.
Cancers. All the cancers, practically.
The man got something like three cancers, and instead of giving in said, fuck this, I am going to go on to become the best bicyclist in the known universe. And that's what he did, though perhaps with greater decorum.
This is, I feel, an important life lesson. And it's in the movie Dodgeball. Oh how times have changed. Once upon a time, life taught you lessons when your tribe died, when your igloo melted and fell into the sea, when you ate that last raw scallop. Now it comes to you in movies made from the leftover cast members of Saturday Night Live. Isn't progress grand? Soon we will come pre-installed with Microsoft Wizdom, Fantasia Edition and Linux Inspiration, Lance Armstrong version 23.4 alpha, build 17 (kernal 82, known bugs include lack of support for Martian firmware and Microsoft Word).
I sat in the car in front of my house with the boy relating everything I knew about Lance (took maybe 10 seconds). I told him that Joe Average (a man in the movie) wins in the end because he decided to win. He decided not to give up. It was a case of WWLAD: What Would Lance Armstrong Do?
The real coup de grace (that's french, which is funny because Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. So there's a connection there. Get it?), though, came when we walked inside and I was able to look him in the eye and ask him why he was doing so much better in school than last year. He said because his grades are better (the whole cause and effect thing is a little fuzzy still). I said, no. He said it was because of the summer tutor. I said no. I said it's because you, my boy, have decided to do better. Your near straight A grades are because you choose to do the work and you choose to learn the material. You have chosen to succeed like Lance Armstrong.
In my mind he takes this to heart, and goes forward into the next year or so understanding his success is his choice. He goes forward understanding that he is the captain of his soul and that adventure and happiness are ports of call on his journey, if he chooses to trim the forejib and hoist anchor.
In reality he was probably thinking that dodgeball was funny and wondering why I was blabbing. And really, he was probably hoping this would somehow translate into a raise in allowance.
Time will tell. Oh yes, time will tell.
1 Comments:
Thanks.
Yeah, Lance Armstrong really is a model human in many ways. If one simply remembers his desire to do things before you regret not doing them, I think that's a huge step towards a pretty happy life.
Too bad you have to learn regret before you get to that step. Hmph.
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