RIFLE RANGE BOY

Perfect Days (Japanese, 2023) Director: Wim Wenders (Please note: It is plural, not singular. Every day is a perfect day, and there are many!) This is a reminder to recreational cyclists over 60: Just enjoy every opportunity that comes your way. By the twist of fate or alms from karma, you can go out, pedal, and feel the wind whisk by as you zoom downhill. Only some people are gifted with the privilege to do this. There is no need to outdo a fellow cyclist, go all out for a personal record, or invest in a state-of-the-art, spanking-new machine to keep up with the Joneses. Every completed cycling route happens on a perfect day. There will be many perfect days. This beautifully crafted film gets all my thumbs up. It moves very slowly with apparently no definite direction, but that, in essence, that is the message behind the movie. We should find happiness in the things around us.  The protagonist, Hirayama, is a creature of routine. He gets up to the rhythmic pace of a street sweeper...

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) Director, Actor: Ben Stiller We are told that routine is good for us. We as human beings are easily swayed by our primal instincts that we need a laid-out plan and to follow a ritual to explore the fullest of our potential. The path paved by people before us gives the best assurance that our purpose of existence will be met.   Essentially, we are told to lead dull, predictable, mundane lives. Nothing new is bound to come out of this type of arrangement.   But then, life is as usual, not so straightforward. “Carpe diem, Horace had said. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will be dead for eternity”. You have one life to experience everything. Miss this, and you have lost it forever. You cannot step into the same river twice, said Heraclitus.  For that flash-in-the-pan, out-of-the-box idea, one has to be spontaneous. Otherwise, the human race will not have that occasional vertical peaks of scientific and social discoveries that p...