Friday 1 August 2008

The Dark Knight

sunny, warm, temps 29

The funeral was this morning at Blessed Sacrement Church in Toronto. Lovely service. What made it extra special is that two of Don's grandchildren, Joanne and Brian did eulogies. Really, the poise of those kids. And what they said was amazing. Painting an image of Don Lingeman - his love of cards and fishing, baseball. How he'd fish with Joanne, and take Brian to baseball games, and they'd buy the peanuts in bags which no one else ever bought.

They had us all laughing, then getting teary-eyed.

I realized, sitting there, that when I'm at a funeral I never think of my own mortality. But I do think about others...about losing people I love. And I get scared and upset. I'm never afraid to go, but I'm almost always afraid of being the one left behind. I'm a big fat coward.

After the service we considered driving home, but it's the beginning of a long weekend so decided to stay. Instead we went to the Dark Knight, the batman movie. Wow, was it ever violent...lost track of the deaths. I love action flicks, and there was a lot to like about this. Heath ledger really is fantastic as the Joker. So sad. And lots of other great performances. But the violence just became a scream that over-powered everything for me.

Nice popcorn, though.

Quiet evening in the hotel - then driving home tomorrow. Probably won't blog tomorrow, but will try for Sunday.

Be well.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI Louise Penny; I am glad that I discovered this blog of yours today. I love your portrait as well... Great !

I also did fancy the new Batman picture, but the last 30 minutes were a bit too... much.. All that heroic talk-business just got a bit too much for me. But the piece got great reviews in norwegian papers, though (norwegian film reviewers are normally extremely grumpy, particularly towards superhero-stuff from Hollywood).

Can I get any of your literature in norwegian or do they sell them here? I am sorry to tell that I haven`t read you before.

Well - thanks again for your contribution to the world of really good blogs.

Love,
Kristian

Louise Penny Author said...

Hi Kristian,

such fun to hear from you. And really interesting to hear about the 'testy' Norwegian critics.

I'm translated into Swedish and Finnish but not, as yet, Norwegian! But I bet you read English since you write it so beautifully. I suspect a bookstore could probably order one of my books. If you're interested, may I suggest starting with the first? It's called Still Life.

Either way, welcome to the blog!

Louise

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much, Louise. I will see if I can find that book of yours. Reading more english will probably help me to improve my language skills as well so it`ll probably be good in all possible ways. And as you can see, I`ve got my own blog now (made it this week-end.) I will make a link now to your site - hope that is okay.

Kristian

Louise Penny Author said...

Dear Kristian,

congratulations on the blog, and yes, please do link.