The Quiet Man

What a wonderful movie. Just about become a St. Patrick's Day tradition around the Wright house. Don't know what it is about it that appeals so much to me...

• I love Ireland: just can't beat the beautiful Irish country, the lack of city hustle, lack of the 'things of man'.
• Great story: don't need a city or cars...life gets complicated enough without that as this shows. Still, it's the basic struggle. On the one side, balance materialism with life and tradition with matters of the heart. On the other side, trying to escape what we've done in the past and make a new start just to realize we can't start again unless we conquer what we've let the past do to us.
• Wonderful camaraderie: whether it's the tradition of an Irish pub, a town full of people that get involved with and care about each other's lives, or the clear skies that can only come after the clouds have rained themselves out in the form of a climactic fight where everyone turns out friends.

This setting is what I picture part of Heaven to be like. In my life long hours, hard work and tobacco took my father at an early age. He never drank. Alcohol addiction stole most of my brothers youth and killed him at 37. Some day those things are going to be conquered and aren't going to steal anything from anyone again and I'm going to get to sit down in an Irish pub and enjoy the finest Cuban cigar and best draft anyone ever tasted with my father and my brother.