That will be Mr. Connery to you

There are a number of meanders that I’ve been on since yesterday. The first started when I heard that Sean Connery had died. I’m not a James Bond fan, and don’t think that 007, as embodied by Connery, was interesting, but as he aged and took other roles, I became interested. One of my favorite memories from the Navy was the day my colleague and friend, Darla, and I led “The Hunt for Sean Connery”. It was during the filming of The Hunt for Red October bits and pieces which were being filmed on Sub Base San Diego where I was then stationed. There were men in our command, submariners, who were helping with consultation and as extras in the film. One of the officers, Lieutenant Mark Draxton, actually had a speaking role (showing up in the pivotal scene where the Dallas has to draw off the Russian sub) and was sent on temporary duty to LA while the filming was going on. He was already a blond, blue-eyed, cleft in the chin surfer dude who drove a Porsche; he looked like he had stepped out of a recruiting poster; I teased him terribly after he came back. But the day of the hunt, because it was secret as to where the crew might be, we were calling in favors, stopping known over-sharers and generally having a good time. We never found the crew, or Mr. Connery, and what would we have done anyway? No one had a cell phone to take that selfie; would it have really happened?

I realized, yesterday, that I had a greater (emotional) connection to Mr. (Thomas) Sean Connery who died at 90 than Mr. Keith Wortman, my father, who died at 90 July 4, 2019. One man I’d never met, but thought a lot about these past thirty years, and the other had shut me out of his life thirty-five years prior. Alright. There you go.

And then, I was thinking about parents and how in Jerry’s family the mind goes but the body stays strong and on my side the body goes and the mind is clear (for the most part, we both will add).  So that I am hoping we will be able to continue together and make one being, a Fankenberry or some such hybrid. I say this as both our fathers passed in 2019, months apart, his father didn’t know anyone and my father didn’t know his body. Both deceived.

And then I was wondering if we could teach our bodies to sleep in the cold like hummingbirds in the Andes. One species has been reported to go into caves during very cold weather and not come out for days. Of course, that’s a short hibernation, something I do on a weekly basis. I’d still like to get to the 12 on, 12 off sleep schedule just to kill time. Working toward the ‘see you in the Spring’.

And, then finally, I was back to Sean Connery and The Hunt for Red October. Sam Neill was also in this movie and as far as actors go, I have had an ongoing appreciation of him since 1979’s My Brilliant Career where he had his heart broken. I loved the movie, the character played by Judy Davis, Sybylla: “A young independent woman who lives with her grandmother and aunt in the countryside rebels against being pressured into marriage and chooses to solely focus on having a career as a writer.” I was twenty when I saw it on Masterpiece Theatre. So, there’s that.

                      

And then finally, today, I wanted to sit beside Seven Hills Road where it goes along the corn fields and film the blackbirds murmuring, back and forth, landing on the electric wires and then dancing back to the fields. Or just sit and listen to their wings and songs. Or just imagine my own arms allowing flight.