my careless contagion

Little kids seem to go through phases. I don’t know much about phases little girls go through, since I don’t have a girl, but I’m pretty sure one of the girl phases involves unicorns. Little boys, on the other hand, I know. Although I don’t remember much about my childhood, I’m pretty sure I was a little boy once upon a time.  What were my obsessions in the 1970s, ’80s, and perhaps the beginning of the ’90s? Taking things apart, for starters. One of my earliest memories is of taking apart dandelion flower heads in my backyard. I tried to take apart my dad’s easy chair, too, slicing into the pleather handrest to see what was inside. He did not appreciate that much, as I recall. I had a severe obsession with LEGO blocks which persisted beyond puberty. My brothers’ habit of destroying my cities when I wasn’t looking didn’t deter me either. It just gave me more to work on, ensuring many more hours would be spent fiddling with my make-believe world. ...

I watched the movie Passengers because it has Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence in it. I figured, what could go wrong?  Well, plenty. I guess this is where I should say, "spoiler alert." Most of the movie you feel incredibly sorry for Chris' character, then Jennifer's, then both! It's a love story set in space. Their spaceship is bound for a distant planet and they are in hibernation for 120 years. Tragically, Chris wakes up and finds he has 90 more years to go; his pod had a failure and he is doomed to spend the rest of his life on this ship alone. After a year of this, and after becoming suicidal, he falls in love with a sleeping passenger, Jennifer's character. He wakes her up, which is the most horrible thing a person could do, really. He lets her believe her pod failed, of course, until an android bartender spills the beans. When she realizes he doomed her to living and dying on this ship, she kicks his ass. Rightly so. It was a selfish act, utterl...