I watched the movie “Medieval” recently, which has Ben Foster and Michael Caine in it. Both actors are fantastic but I felt the movie didn’t quite do them justice. It was ok, but for what they are, it was too many dramatic looks into the camera without some meat to back that up. Go watch Pandorum or Austin Power’s instead.

Anyway, one of the things that caught my eye and study lately is the concept of people and movement in the past. Here’s the basic gist-we’re a species that’s constantly moving. And many of those movements have seriously changed the face of Earth and our cultures-the peoples who crossed the Bering Strait became Native Americans, etc. The mind boggling issues to me are the fact that people just up and left. With everything or whatever they had on their backs. I suppose in today’s age it’s too cushy, or too connected, or too something. It feels strange to really just go, “I’m going, and I’m probably not going to be back, or if I am, it will be something entirely different.”

To be fair, that’s a lot of life-you grow through the stages, and after you leave the nest, you’re “different”. But still, to move continents away, with no medicine, no food, and no idea of what’s there is so wild that it seems entirely foreign, like flying to another planet or something with expectations of radical delusion. We still call people or at least Facebook stalk them.

The way it ties in with the movie is that they had a way of saying, “it’s the will of God” when bad things or certain things were happening. His character has a revelation in the middle or end that he can effectively change things, and that makes the movie (technically still the will of God?), but the phrase stuck with me as a bit of an explanation. If you WERE doing things like traveling long distances or kidnapping princesses and effectively changing the political landscape of an era, you’d definitely have to have some sort of belief that it’s a path you’re following. That would allow you to take those steps with confidence that you’re doing the right thing or just capable of doing it. Especially since plans and machinations changed so quickly that you were running around into 2-3 double crosses without having any idea which one happened first and in the end it’s only the dude left standing that wins.

I think about a fraction of those things now and I get heebie-jeebies. Do I have to pack up all my shit and move it across states? That sucks and that’s nuts to displace everything. Maybe I’m too sheltered and have too much stuff. Or just worn down from doing that so many times. I suppose phone calls could suffice instead of kidnappings. I dunno, but I’m also not that psychopathic and lusting for power.

I do love adventures though, so I guess it’s part of that spirit. Anyways, the movie was ok. And if we didn’t do all the crazy shit that led to here, we wouldn’t be here. It’s the will of God….