We’re debating/discussing possible cast for Rock Bottom, a difficult task under the best of circumstances but the fire across the way and the Waldo Pepper atmosphere outside make it hard to concentrate. For those of you that don’t remember, Waldo Pepper is still one of the greatest airplane/flying movies ever made. Starring Robert Redford, check it out.
The sounds outside creep in. High-powered airplane engines roar their demands for attention. Police boat sirens wail as they try to keep the jet skis from crossing in front of the planes. While a 15,000 foot plume of smoke rises from the forest fire burning just a long lens shot away. A hundred million bits of ash that I can’t help but think were part of a forest just yesterday.
Jake’s our hero in Rock Bottom. A man you’d “ride the river with”. Yeah he’s got some problems, big ones but he’s the kinda guy you’d leave your six year old with if you were diagnosed with inoperable pink eye.
So we mix a little fiction with reality tonight. Faceless heroes outside our door are risking their lives to save the homes and lives of others, people they don’t even know. To truly connect on an emotional level with a hero, that hero has to be either someone we’d love to be or someone we’d never ever want to be. Most importantly they have to be flawed. Why? Because we’re flawed and deep down every one of us wants to be a hero.
Tonight we watch…and we wait. Eventually we’ll sleep but not really. Subconsciously we thank every one of those firefighters, whether on the ground or in the air for their efforts. Every one of them is flawed in some way I’d bet, but every one of them I’d ride the river with.
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