Fringe

Top five Patrick Swayze movies, in no particular order: Ghost, Road House, Dirty Dancing, To Wong Foo, Point Break. Well, those first four are in no particular order, but Point Break sits atop the list. I remember watching that during a Family Movie Night thinking that there was no one cooler than Swayze's Bodhi. My daughters are just a bit younger than I was when I watched this, but something I've realized as I introduce them to the movies of my youth is that kids today don't have enough exposure to handle 90s media. So it might be a few years, but I look forward to showing them.

The thing about that movie that puts it on my short list of "must show" films is that it is one of the best ways to learn about the anti-hero. I could make the case that Johnny Utah is the anti-hero the same way Daniel is the bad guy of The Karate Kid, but that depends on where you fall with your morals. An easier case is that Bodhi is the anti-hero. Yeah, he's a bank robber (spoiler alerts for a 35-year-old movie), and maybe his friend group is a little xenophobic. But the dude absolutely rips. Skydives, surfs, and represents a certain freedom that comes with living life on the edge that I think is a desire ingrained in the human subconscious. Deep down, everyone hopes the little hand says it's time to rock and roll.

The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for emotional processing, memories, and coordination of survival. Neuroscience isn't my strong suit, but my read is that it means our ability to form emotional memories has grown out of recognition of threats. Perhaps somewhere along the line of evolution, the gap between fear and other, more positive emotions was smaller than it is now. So jumping out of a plane or trying to ride a 50-year storm's perfect wave is attractive despite the fear of it. Or at least to me it is. More in theory as I get older, but a younger me was attracted to the actual acts of defiant freedom.

I've never jumped out of a plane. Maybe that was my line between defiant freedom and survival. I've also never robbed a bank, but that probably comes after skydiving on the spectrum of fear. But I still like to chase ideas of pushing into the margins and feeling that fear. To find challenges that make you question whether you could complete them. And I think it's largely because there is absolutely no reason to. Life, for the most part, is pretty good. Are there things to be fearful of? Sure. But on the same level as when fear meant to our ancestors "I might get eaten tonight"? Not at all. Or, maybe it is. Maybe we are conditioned to fear what we encounter regularly. For them it was potential death, for us it's potential discomfort. I think a key to staying young is to stress the system every now and then. If for no other reason than it will recalibrate what is worth being afraid of. And I think I'm getting that itch to chase it again.

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