Brief movie review: Pushing Tin (1999)

Billy Bob Thornton continues to blow me away in this role as in the others I've seen: The Afflicted, A Simple Plan, The Apostle, Slingblade, and Primary Colors.  So the surprise in this one was John Cusack.  I mean, who knew he could act?

It's a movie about macho competition: the drive to be the best and how it can lead straight to hell and back.  It was one of those movies my life partner found more amusing than I did, so I know it was a "guy movie", but it was well-done and offered some minor insights into the working of the male psyche.

And it will make you wonder every time you hit turbulence if some air traffic  controller is getting even on some grudge with another passenger.  All in the name of "pushing tin".  I always fancied that planes were more durable than tin, but perhaps I was wrong.  How rare!

It occurred to me today that it now takes three days in a weekend to accomplish the original idea behind having even one day off.  Other than the religious reasons, of course.  "And on the seventh day, He rested."  Hallelujah, brothers and sisters -- a day of rest.

Now, of course, the normal "weekend" gets taken up with maintenance -- laundry, grocery shopping, trips to hardware stores and clothing stores and office supply stores and the rest.  And then there is quality time with children, parents, other relatives, friends.  And social time.  We mustn't forget that: dinner parties, theme parties, bridal and baby showers, and more.  Oh, and plays and movies and concerts, for those whose evenings are taken up with work and or homework supervision or parent-teacher meetings, or other meetings.

But when the weekend has a third day built in, like this one, the world actually comes to a halt for a day.  Or at least it can.  For those of us who "do" Thanksgiving on Sunday, so that guests can travel on the Monday, or so that we aren't eating a big meal on a "school night", Thanksgiving Monday is the day of rest we have grown up hearing about since birth, but so rarely experienced since adulthood.

Today was such a day.  There was a visit with friends in Chelsea -- a beautiful ride on a beautiful day, in my favourite season, to be surrounded by fresh air, good company, and stunning scenery.  A pizza at our favourite dive, where no-one has a pretentious bone in their body, and where the pizza is the best in town, and a rental movie we'd been meaning to see.  Life simply doens't get better than this, I figure.

If we were to work a four-day week, we being the employed world at large, would all three weekend days get turned into "maintenance"? Does the third day of those wonderful holiday weekends seem magical because they are so rare?   Could we reclaim at least one weekend day a month, or maybe two, as a day of rest?   Would our world fall apart? Would our homes fall apart?

I suspect that our souls would be sustained, our spirits replenished, our relationships reinvigorated, our bodies rest and restored.     Perhaps that's worth building in more regularly.  Perhaps it's even possible. 

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