I’ve been waiting to see “The Dark Knight Rises” since... well, since I saw “The Dark Knight” back in 2008. The Batman has long been my favorite superhero. “Batman Begins” has been one of my favorite films since its debut in 2005. Here’s a character that used the unimaginable pain of losing his parents and turned it into something heroic. He honed himself mentally and physically until he became The Batman.
When the title for Christopher Nolan’s third and final Batman film was announced, I smiled. “The Dark Knight Rises”. Perfect. The Batman rises from the ashes and once again saves Gotham. I kept track of the film as it progressed... casting announcements, production stories, trailers, you name it.
The day of the premiere drew closer and anticipation built. Reviews came trickling, then flooding in, from all corners of the internet. Despite a few naysayers (mostly those who felt “The Dark Knight” was still a bit better) the consensus was that “The Dark Knight Rises” was a spectacular, stirring and emotional climax to Nolan’s trilogy.
My good friend (and fitness trainer extraordinaire), William Appelquist, informed me that he was going to a marathon of all three films; leading up to, of course, the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises”. Yes, I seethed with jealousy, but the vagaries of fatherhood and authorhood conspired to keep me away. Oh well. I have the first two on DVD anyway.
I got up this morning to be greeted with a horrific story out of Aurora, Colorado. A lone gunman, armed and armored, opened fire during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises”. The death toll as I type this stands at 12, with 38 injured. The alleged gunman, James Holmes, entered the theater about 30 minutes into the movie and opened fire.
A couple dear friends of mine live in Colorado and posted updates about the shooting throughout the morning. One was a picture of James Holmes... young, smiling, clean cut... not the sullen, crazed loner I had expected. This was the face of the boy next door. Chilling.
The story that so far has affected me the most was that of Jessica Redfield. She narrowly missed being a victim in Toronto mall shooting just weeks ago. She wrote eloquently of this experience on her blog...
"I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.
I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given."
Jessica was one of those who died in the shooting last night.
So we mourn. We get angry that someone would end the lives of so many in such a cruel fashion. We’ll talk about this senseless tragedy for the next few days, shake our collective fist at this psychopath with his guns, smoke bombs and body armor. Then what? We’ll move on. We’ll watch the recap a year from today, bow our heads and once again go back to our lives.
Those lives will still be lost. The gifts those people could have given the world, wiped out in a hail of gunfire. Sounds like the bad guy won, doesn’t it?
Not if you and I have anything to say about it.
Let’s do this over the next few days... Live your life 100%, full-throttle. Do it for Jessica, who was just at the start of her dream career. Do it for all those people who were killed, all of whom I’m sure harbored dreams that will never be realized.
A few suggestions, if I may...
Chase that dream. With a vengeance.
Hug your kids.
Stand up for yourself.
Workout like a warrior.
Fix that relationship that needs fixing.
Write that book.
Apply for that job.
Walk away from the people that bring you down.
Sign up for that class.
Don’t give up.
The Batman rose from one of the worst personal tragedies imaginable and made himself a better man from it... a hero, in fact. We can also get something out of this tragedy. We can, in our own small ways, ensure that the bad guy doesn’t win this time.
We can be heroes.
We can RISE.
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