To divert from my usual entry on writing, I wanted to share my thoughts on time: it's passage, and what it entails for us all. This was triggered by the rather untimely death of actor Paul Walker, who died this November 30, 2013, doing what he loved, which was sharing his love for motorsports.
Now I didn't know Paul personally, nor could I even claim to know what kind of individual he was. By all accounts he was a very humble and respected individual, not just in Hollywood, but also in the motorsports community. I am not discounting the feelings that must be going through the hearts and minds of actors that knew him, but the fact that an entirely different community, one that has no obligation to express sympathies in this instance, feels the need to share publicly that Paul was a good person says a lot to me.
Paul was 40 years old. He was not young. He was not old. He simply was, and then he wasn't. Killed riding as a passenger in a high powered supercar, being driven by someone who has experiencing on race tracks. It's not something which the mind easily wraps around. But people die everyday in cars, so why is this one significant?
To explain that, I should point out that one of my passions, one of my great loves in life, is driving, modifying, and enjoying Japanese sports cars. I have a third generation Toyota Supra twin turbo in my garage, and another frame with a roll cage on the side of the house that's patiently waiting for me to find time to finish her. It's safe to say that as a boy growing up, I was sucked into the culture portrayed in films such as The Fast and the Furious, which to this day I can quote line for line at the drop of a hat.
The movie series itself has its share of faults and triumphs. The first one smacks of adolescence, but when I watched it I was adolescent, and so I love it. Other films in the series were actually quite good action movies, with great stunts and plenty of eye candy. I think it's foolish for people to tear into a film that's not trying to be Shakespeare, not trying to be anything other than what it is. The films were sincere and pure, and spoke to me as a car crazed half-man. That sincerity is something that I think is greatly lacking from many artists and authors. I write cyberpunk/gritty sci-fi because it's what I love and what I know, and I don't pretend to be any kind of Gibson or Stephenson. I don't have the time for that.
Time is, ultimately, what this is all about. In time we lose people. Some of these people will have had an impact on your life, especially when growing up. Family and pets will be gone before you realize it. Other figures, people you have never met, will also die, sometimes before we expect it, sometimes in ways we couldn't imagine. It would be easy to feel that Paul was a victim to time, snatched away before he got his fill, but Paul died after spending his time doing what he loved, knowing what was important to him and chasing after it. Yes, he died too young, but we should all be as lucky to experience so much before our flash of existence is gone.
A.C. Harrison
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Now I didn't know Paul personally, nor could I even claim to know what kind of individual he was. By all accounts he was a very humble and respected individual, not just in Hollywood, but also in the motorsports community. I am not discounting the feelings that must be going through the hearts and minds of actors that knew him, but the fact that an entirely different community, one that has no obligation to express sympathies in this instance, feels the need to share publicly that Paul was a good person says a lot to me.
Paul was 40 years old. He was not young. He was not old. He simply was, and then he wasn't. Killed riding as a passenger in a high powered supercar, being driven by someone who has experiencing on race tracks. It's not something which the mind easily wraps around. But people die everyday in cars, so why is this one significant?
To explain that, I should point out that one of my passions, one of my great loves in life, is driving, modifying, and enjoying Japanese sports cars. I have a third generation Toyota Supra twin turbo in my garage, and another frame with a roll cage on the side of the house that's patiently waiting for me to find time to finish her. It's safe to say that as a boy growing up, I was sucked into the culture portrayed in films such as The Fast and the Furious, which to this day I can quote line for line at the drop of a hat.
The movie series itself has its share of faults and triumphs. The first one smacks of adolescence, but when I watched it I was adolescent, and so I love it. Other films in the series were actually quite good action movies, with great stunts and plenty of eye candy. I think it's foolish for people to tear into a film that's not trying to be Shakespeare, not trying to be anything other than what it is. The films were sincere and pure, and spoke to me as a car crazed half-man. That sincerity is something that I think is greatly lacking from many artists and authors. I write cyberpunk/gritty sci-fi because it's what I love and what I know, and I don't pretend to be any kind of Gibson or Stephenson. I don't have the time for that.
Time is, ultimately, what this is all about. In time we lose people. Some of these people will have had an impact on your life, especially when growing up. Family and pets will be gone before you realize it. Other figures, people you have never met, will also die, sometimes before we expect it, sometimes in ways we couldn't imagine. It would be easy to feel that Paul was a victim to time, snatched away before he got his fill, but Paul died after spending his time doing what he loved, knowing what was important to him and chasing after it. Yes, he died too young, but we should all be as lucky to experience so much before our flash of existence is gone.
A.C. Harrison
Support indie authors! Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
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