life goes on for the living

I just saw the trailer for "127 Hours" the bio-pic of Aron Ralston, starring james Franco.

My senior year of high school, I was a huge rock climbing fan. I bought Ralston's book, Between A Rock and A Hard Place, and read it cover to cover multiple times. It is highlighted, written in, underlined, I think it has some of my tears. I don't know why- but that story resonated with me as if it was about me.

If you don't know the story- Ralston was hiking and climbing in Blue John Canyon (he told noone where he was going in order to get away from everything), got his hand crushed and stuck between a fallen boulder and rock wall, inside of a canyon. He was stuck for 5 days with a small ration of water, and even less food (if my memory serves me correctly, part of his food was a gas station burrito)

He was forced to drink his own urine in order to survive, and eventually came to the conclusion that he was going to die. In one final effort, he realized that he could break both bones in his forearm, and then cut the skin, muscle, and tissues surrounding them in order to break free. After that, he hiked 8 miles and climbed 65 ft to rescue- all without going into shock.

That part of the story was cool- but his book was more about his thoughts while he was stuck. One phrase he wrote and haunted me: life goes on for the living.

He was thinking over how when his family learns that he is dead, and that while his life is ending, their must go on. His sister was going to get married, and while the pain of him not being there will hurt, she will still get married. those six words have consistently haunted me.

Anyway- so I see the movie trailer- and obviously, like any true story, the movie will be much different. I think James Franco is a perfect fit for Ralston. One thing that I saw differently (and this may just be me thinking naively)- but I never pictured Ralston to be quite as ... "egotistical" as Franco's impersonation. The movie is showing a self-proclaimed hero who gets stuck and deals with his own morality, when I have always viewed Ralston as a normal person who dealt and overcame the mistakes he made. No- I viewed it even simpler- as a person who broke off his own arm and hiked out of a canyon. And he was my hero for it.

I understand that most people don't want to see a normal person dealing with problems, because, let's face it- we can just look in the mirror. And I think the movie is still going to be brilliant (I'm aware that it is already released, I have found that being married and on a budget apparently constrict my entertainment).