Finally viewed "Sully" but not for the last time !
"Pretty good" - my Mommy's mommies would say - translation: spectacular ! Remembering the incident, all this time later, I felt compelled to buy the video. YES. Even if you know every detail of the story, the retelling is a worthy experience and full of food for thought and inspiration.
Every one of us, before we finish our lives on earth may need to deal with a "Sully Event" - what will we need , inside of us, to handle it even half as well as he did? Wow!
The technical skill in the film making was wonderful - artful, but not intrusive and, in some ways, you could say they had an easy job - no need to embellish - the story was one for a movie, from the moment it evolved and played out. I remembered the photos and videos in the news at the time of the crash on the Hudson....images of the people standing on the wing of the plane were captured in the movie with nearly pixel for pixel accuracy ....well done!
Some things in the film prod me to resume an old project - getting aero basics up to speed for the third millennium -
1. A bird should not be able to stop a plane....really dumb. Today, every day, new dynamics for fuel and propulsion are being evolved to end this nightmare. SOON please.
2. Occupant safety and escape technology is wayyyyyy backward. Really closed minded thinking on the subject. NO ONE needs to risk their lives to fly, and am aging now and the older I get the dumber it looks.
The SECOND the plane was definitely endangered, there ought to be passenger pods that release, then land passengers , enclosed , safe onto land or sea, with GPS for rescuers, food and medical provisions in case rescue was delayed....etc....meditation, prayer, distractions to help keep everyone calm. Power nap? Works.
I SAW these plans as girl on Dad's kitchen table with his aero friends - engineers - at the time they began to do up the escape chutes we saw in the movie.....over 50 years ago..and nothing much since. With the rest of today's technology being so advanced, that chute system looked so futile and sad? In that scenario, they worked and helped, except for that exposure might have been fatal - except for the luck o' the Irish and the angels and SULLY.
Every time i hear of a building fire or collapse or plane crash, I am reminded of what Occupant Safety and Escape tech ought to be, but is not. EVIL of us. Praying for grace that will open our eyes on the subject finally.
ENOUGH. Back to hero worship - yes - valid...but as an old redcrosslady with her moments to remember, even really small moments contain the reality refresher. It is not a heroes' parade to be a hero - it's a nightmare and a marvel to have won thru it. I feel proud of the tiny moments of real help I brought but then, as Sully did in the bar, when recollection got toooo clear for moment, I cave at the evil in it and how the story could have ended reallllly badly!
All the passengers in the plane who could - did. As Sully himself said: It was not just me. Or folk would have died. Many passsengers helped in every way..
"Needs must" they say , sure...but many can't. Praise for all who did, and no shame on those who could not.
We are all challenged in life before it's done with us - how do we do thru it? "BFG", a Walt Disney movie hero said it best: "At least we does SOMETHING" Lots and lots of people have that instinct in them, to get up and help, to DO something and not be a victim of the moment: saving a party from boredom, or a friend from hurt feelings, or a child from frustration, or a neighbor struggling with too many packages - or someone really in pain or danger. This movie reminded me , most of all, of that instinct , to do do the good thing.
SULLY is, "extraordinary" for this reason too - the message it shares.
The good thing ... May it be that we be ready for it, but that we can do our days competently, but without needing to be a superhero.
