Autumnal Intelligence

My wife and I recently finished the movie, The Martian. Yes, it came out in 2015 and it felt like we started the film 10 years ago. We actually heard the Netfilix intro thud at the beginning of this month, but finishing a home movie as a parent can feel like landing on Mars. The movie features Matt Damon stranded on the Red Planet for a God foresaken long time and in October 2025, featured two parents trying to operate an earthly home, stay awake past 9:15 PM, and lead two daughters to a bright tomorrow. 

Mission accomplished. (staying awake past 9:15PM was not accomplished multiple times yet we finished the motion picture). 

But, by no means was it easy - for us or Matt Damon - life can be quite challenging no matter what planet you are on. The Martian is full of scientific survival - astrophysics and all the mumbo jumbo that makes space travel and the magic of the movies a real thing. Prior to this entertainment expedition, I watched Conan O'Brien accept the Mark Twain Award For Humor. Conan spoke to what Twain has offered his readers over the generations as I wondered what Twain would think of the intellectual / not so intellectual world we are inhabiting today. How would the man who once used the phrase "mental kaleidoscope" react to artificially intelligent written words?

I have to believe Twain would be concerned for the sake of creativity. And as a fellow and less accomplished writer, my blog hope pitch (Chat-bhp) is that words will continue to be creatively generated by humans. Granted I am not using an ink well right now, but by golly, this is me (and then my wife posts on Facebook because I refuse to have Facebook). 

I certainly have put up limits to my social connectivity and I accept the consequences. I do not like Apps or online shopping. I use one App (for my gym) and I have to try shoes on before I buy shoes to wear to the gym - repeatedly try on. Then, I leave the store, come back a week later, and try the same shoes on again to refeel the feel. This is at a place known as a shopping mall. 

Also...

Hellno to Venmo. My Instagram is walking in the woods. I get instant gratification from trees and not knowing what other people are doing with their lives. Squirrels and chipmunks over Snapchat and Tiktok, all day, every day. Nothing against anyone who use these platforms - have at it. The world is your oyster - just stand on those platforms with some positivity - that's my secondary pitch - post and publish to congratulate and connect.  

The Martian is all about getting one man back home. It takes a lot of technology to get him back to Planet Earth (10-year late spoiler) but technology alone could not get it done. It took compassion, creativity, and grit. Nothing to artifically sweeten that deal. Just people thinking, talking, and working together for a common goal. 

Of course, The Martian is Hollywood and I am typing this in Johnstown. But no matter wherever you are, I encourage you to spread positivity in your own words, use technology to uplift, and consider aborting technologically driven message missions that criticize or divide. Dialogue on division is so prevalent because of the volume and all the ways it is amplified. In order to turn up the positivity, clear the fluff and nonsense stuff in your mental kaleidoscope.

As I finished this blog, my 8-year-old approached me and showed me how close her tooth was to falling out. She had a bloody napkin in hand. 

A new mission is upon us. 

Cheers to creativity, working together, and being a part of something bigger. 

I hate blood.