Impossible

Clearly, this won't end well

After a taxing first full week back to work (hence my week-long absence from the Den), Friday night could not come soon enough for the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and me. That could only mean a long-delayed and most welcome date night.

We had dinner at a small Italian place in town. As we were catching a 730PM movie, we got there before the dinner rush.  When I say small, I mean maybe twelve tables and when we got there, one, count 'em, one table was occupied. The waitress/hostess/busboy grabbed her clipboard and asked if we had a reservation. She was kidding, right? After a few minutes of internal debate, she gave us our choice of two tables. Dinner was fine, not a home run by any stretch but the company, being with my wife, was great.

From there, it was off to the movies. Nothing says 'Let's take a load off!' by watching a gripping, terrifying, and stunning unbelievably true story of survival from the massively destructive tsunami that wreaked utter destruction throughout southeast Asia in December 2004. We saw "The Impossible." It is gut-wrenching. It is raw. It will leave you worn out and it's worth every minute you spend watching it.

I'm not kidding. Since you know the deadly wave is coming, you are braced for its arrival and once it does, you do not relax until the final scene. This is a powerful film and I don't say that simply because of how it captures nature's incredible fury. The human emotion is just as powerful, if not more so. It will make you think. It will make you count your blessings.

After we collected ourselves at the film's end and found the strength to get up, we walked to the car quietly contemplating what we'd just seen. The family's survival truly was impossible, given what they faced. As we drove home, we questioned some of the choices the characters had made and wondered what we might have done in the face of, and I'll say it again, impossible odds. Our conclusion, made from the warmth of our ecologically offensive four-wheel drive, as we drove home on the rainy road, was that we'd never let go. To do otherwise would be impossible.

This family of mine is far from perfect. We've got opportunity to improve each and every day and while there is no magic formula, although we've found tremendous peace and guidance here, we've managed to hold on, to not let go. It is something I do not take for granted. And now, with our first grandchild - a BOY (read here for the official word from his parents) - on the way, never letting go is all the more important.

Whether the wave is real or metaphorical, I'm not letting go.