The term bucket list has become very popular over the last several years. I suppose everyone has things they would love to do before they kick the bucket, fantasies they want to fulfill. I don’t have anything formalized myself, anything written down, but a few weeks ago I saw something on television that I might have to have at the top of the page if I ever were to assemble such a list.
Yell at the moon with Buzz Aldrin.
In a recent episode of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, Liz Lemon, Tina Fey’s character, discovers that her mother in her younger days had been in love with Buzz Aldrin and sets out to reunite them. When Liz finally meets Buzz, he tells her how awful her mother’s life would have been had she stayed with him and that she was lucky to have left. Having always fantasized about marrying her own aerospace hero, the imaginary Astronaut Mike Dexter, Liz is disappointed and seeing this Buzz asks her if she would like to yell at the moon with him.
“I walked on your face!” Aldrin yells as the two stand looking at the moon from a lofty apartment in NYC as the moon hovers in the daylight.
“I own you!”
“Stupid moon!” Liz chimes in.
I know it’s goofy. And even though Aldrin’s delivery is a little stiff and stilted, it reminded me of the way Chief Dan George spoke and acted in Little Big Man. There’s something in it that feels honest and sincere that makes it more endearing. Unreal but real. And the idea of Buzz Aldrin, the wizened old astronaut standing in the window and yelling out at the moon as though it were a living being to him, as though it were a kid he was shooing off his lawn, has an almost mythic quality. This feels magical to me. It would be great to be able to stand, next to Buzz Aldrin, there and tell the moon where it could go.
So, if I ever get down to making a bucket list, that would have to be at the top. Especially since Edmund Hillary is dead. I would have loved yelling at Mt. Everest with him.
Stupid mountain…
+++++++++++++++++++
PS: The painting at the top of this post is a new piece, A Time to Rest, and is about 11″ by 15″ on paper. It will be shown at the Principle Gallery show in June.
Redtree Times 