A Viking Sword and Hope for the Future, by David Bax
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The other day, a hiker in Norway found a 1,200 year old Viking sword. He wasn’t looking for it, or anything like it. He’d been fishing and sat on a log for a rest when he noticed it under some rocks near the mountain trail. The cold conditions and lack of humidity had kept it well preserved for more than a millennium. While the world went on, generations were born and died, kingdoms rose and were toppled, great cities were built, mankind traveled to space and billions and billions of people fell in and out of love, this sword waited to be found.
Sometimes it can feel like we, the human race, are near the end of something. It seems like all information has been catalogued, privacy has been obliterated and the global community has shrunk down so that it all fits at the end of your fingertip. In short, it feels like there are no secrets left. As movie fans, it seems like we know everything about a film before we ever get to experience it. We’ve seen every trailer, TV spot and poster and, as soon as early screenings start, every possible reaction has been processed and filed for us to access.
But we didn’t know this sword was out there and we don’t know what else is yet to be unearthed. There are things that have traveled through time to tell us about our past and there are things from our future that have yet to be discovered. There are hidden treasures yet. Hard as it is to believe, there are mysteries still. There are movies we can’t even imagine yet to be made. They’re all waiting for us out there on a mountainside.
This essay is kind of the flip-side of a comment sportswriter Joe Posnanski made last week:
“[I]t just seems so strange to me that in a game as ancient as baseball, players can still do things that stun you. I mean, shouldn’t we have seen it all by now? How often do any of us go to the movies — where writers and directors can do anything their imagination can invent and they have access to every sort of green screen magic they like — and say, ‘Huh, never saw anything like that before.’ ”
It is nice to be reminded that there are still mysteries and surprises around.
This essay is kind of the flip-side of a comment sportswriter Joe Posnanski made last week:
“[I]t just seems so strange to me that in a game as ancient as baseball, players can still do things that stun you. I mean, shouldn’t we have seen it all by now? How often do any of us go to the movies — where writers and directors can do anything their imagination can invent and they have access to every sort of green screen magic they like — and say, ‘Huh, never saw anything like that before.’ ”
It is nice to be reminded that there are still mysteries and surprises around.