From the Editor

"Wanna go to a movie tonight?" he asked.
"Sure," I said.  "I wanna see
Cast Away.  Let's go early so we can pick our seats."
And so we did.  The pickin' was good.  The popcorn was dry.  The movie was a winner.  As I said to Allan, "You can't go wrong if Tom Hanks is in the picture."
We've seen most of his work.  Maybe you have, too.  How about
Forest Gump?  "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get."  How about Appollo 13?  And The Green Mile and Saving Private Ryan?  There are others, and now there's Cast Away.
One time in a televised interview I heard Tom Hanks say that he sees his movies as building blocks of his life.  He wants each one to be solid and worthy, because one sets upon the other and together they might culminate in a testimonial to the human spirit, to a legacy, if you will, of his own human spirit. 
The building blocks of Tom Hanks are, indeed, solid and worthy; and they make me forget that I'm sitting in an easy chair at a movie theater.  When I put down my bag of popcorn for a minute, I forget to pick it up again and it's never good the next morning. 
Sometimes I spill my pop when I flail during the scary parts, and sometimes others spill theirs when I scream.  But I don't think anybody can tell when I'm crying, although it's very difficult to hold sniffles really long and I think my nose would be red if the lights were turned on.
My every emotion seems to be turned on by Tom Hanks.
I laughed and learned at the antics and innocence of Forest Gump. 
I busted my buttons and was so proud of the captain and the USA and the ingenuity and perseverance of the crew that brought the stranded Appollo 13 back to earth. 
I faced the extremes of good and evil, then watched an innocent man walk the Green Mile to the electric chair, because it was our only salvation. 
I fought on Omaha Beach and helped to win the war as well as save the life of a soldier who had three brothers already killed on the battlefield.  Saving Private Ryan was demanded by justice and mercy … and his mother.
This past Friday night I survived a plane crash into the ocean and was Cast Away onto an uncharted island for 1,500 days.  I experienced great weakness and great strength of the human spirit - so weak that a noose seemed the only answer, so strong that it surmounted all obstacles and I survived.  "You just gotta keep breathing," he said.  "You never know what the tide is going to bring in."
Watching a good movie is similar to reading a good book, although there are many more good books than good movies, and you can make books last longer and I like the feel of the pages.
But I also like the giant movie screen and the brilliant colors and breathtaking landscapes and phenomenal action shots.  I like to imagine how the photography occurred and how one creates such realistic parched and peeling lips.
I like to see the wrinkled brow and expressioned eyes.  When it's good, I eat it all up and I forget about all the junk and juvenile stuff that is normal fare today. 
We may have a hundred or more channels available to us at the click of our home clickers, but I can seldom find anything worthwhile.  By the time I pass up the infomercials, soap operas, repeats, sick sitcoms, loser movies, televangelists, boring local cable, and biased newscasts, there's not much left - except my country music channel and an occasional night with Tom Hanks.  Oh, yes, and Allan, too.  Allan's the one who helps me with my own building blocks. 
Any way you look at it, life is like a box of chocolates.  Some days it's like being on a shrimp boat in the middle of a freshwater lake.  Some days it's like being on a battlefield and you don't even know who the enemy is.  Some days it's like being in a prison and you're glad it's not for life.  Some days it's like being on an island and you have nothing left to wear. 
But all days begin and end with the sun - did I say Son? - and a human spirit that Tom Hanks captures so artfully in the movies.  You won't go wrong if he's in the picture - even if the popcorn is dry and you can't pick your own seats
.  -- Sue