So today I went to see Defiance the Movie. This was the story about the Bielski partisans a group of Polish Jews that came together for common protection and to oppose the German occupation of their homeland. I won’t give the story line away here in this post but it reminds me that those in my generation can not even begin to comprehend sacrifice, pain, and suffering that took place in the world in the early 1940′s in WWII.
I had never heard of or read anything about or known anything about the Bielski partisans group before today. A group that lived in the German forest for several years until the war ended. Most of us who live in the free world will never have to understand or deal with loss like these people. Never have to make decisions they had to make. Here are a few pics from the movie (all images of course are copyright of Paramount / Vantage VIP).
Regardless of the movie’s historical accuracy compared to the theatrical take, it made me more aware of what happened around 1941-1943 and promted me to look up information about the Bielski family and how they survived.
Often, at least in the U.S., we take our freedom for granted. We successfully transferred political power last week from President Bush to President Obama. No one was executed, no one was exiled, and whatever the problems we face in this country, we are still free.
Free to learn
Free to make our own decisions
Free to speak
Free to travel where we choose
Free to disagree
Free to write our own opinion
Free to create
Free to marry who we choose
Free to vote
Free to worship how we choose
Freely created,
Equal in God’s sight.
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This was probably once of the nicest late December days that I can remember. It was over 70* with partly cloudy, blue sky and I ended up working outside all day. We ended up taking down our Christmas lights today and replacing them with our “everyday lights” which will remain up the rest of the year (these are lights that go around the inside of our patio). We started decorating the patio for this coming summer, which actually was an idea in part from a friend Cindy Wall during her baptism (photos will be coming on down the road).
As the holiday days wind down I am really looking forward to getting back to work (without holiday interruptions). We have so much coming up in the next few months, and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. One area we will be ramping up is “Twitter church”. So if you are not a Twitter member yet, sign up and see what it’s all about. Once you have signed up, you can follow Cornerstone from @cornerstonebuzz and if you are so inclined, you can follow me at @scottfillmer as well.
My Friday Feet post is a little late because I spent most of yesterday with family and at the movies. My dad and I went to see Valkyrie and if you have any desire to see the story about the assassination attempt on Hitler, I would highly recommend this movie. I knew very little about this story from WWII and although it was a movie, it did seem to follow the historical account fairly close. Although I am not a big fan of Tom Cruise any more, it is hard to deny that this was one of the better movies of 2008.
My friday feet post today is in recognition of the last Friday of the 2008 calendar year. This photo is on the corner of our patio. Deb and I placed our feet in the wet concrete just about this time two years ago when we moved into our house. It is a marker or reminder of the passage of time to me and I look at it almost every time I walk across the patio. 2006, 2007, and a lot of 2008 are almost a blur in history now but this image has become almost a time capsule in my mind of when we finally moved into our house here in Auburn.
Welcome home to all those who were traveling over the last few days, hope your New Year will be great.
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This week was one of the more crazy weeks in the past few months, but today Deb and I went over to Georgia and had dinner and that is my friday feet this week. The movie in case anyone was interested is With Honors (because my friend hasn’t let me borrow Dead Poets Society yet). One thing I have been trying to get to this week was to shoot a new profile photo (you can see the finished pic here) for various avatars and networking sites. The second shot here was when I got interrupted and Ebby joined me for the photo shoot. She certainly did not help at all, but makes for a cute photo I guess. Time to enjoy a few hours of Friday night and some work outside tomorrow. Being that it is two days from official winter, it will be over 70* tomorrow, time to cut some fire wood.
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This Friday night Deb and I decided to take off from working and go see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace and have dinner at Friday’s (not because it was Friday), and do our friday feet photo post (this one may be TMI, but it’s my blog). I actually saw two other friday feet posts (here if your on Facebook and follow Kevin, and here if you read Stephen DeVries blog) by fellow bloggers this week and although it was a total coincidence, let’s just say for ego sake it was for this series.
The new James Bond movie was good, although a few observations. The last movie Deb and I saw in the theater was Casino Royale in 2006 (yes the last James Bond movie), and these last two have been different but really good. There were few gadgets and the cars were some futuristic hydrogen cell Ford? The cost of a movie is still ridiculous. We went to the 4:20 show, ticket were $14, a small coke (I think 8oz) and a small popcorn was $10, and after talking to a friend in China, apparently everyone over there can watch the same movie for $1.00. Oh well, all part of the fun I guess, and I love the James Bond series, so today it was Quantum Solace.
I used Deb’s feet in the photo again (for those of you new to my blog, yes, we are married for some 15+ years now), pretty much a dead giveaway who’s who, but, Deb put the duck on the left in the photo just for you b/, yes, that is actually a Hook’em Horns rubber duck. You can’t see it for my big toe but it says Texas across the front. She’s pretty proud of that duck (although it’s fun to fill him up with water and sink him).
