Baseball season started this week. The first time since 1909 that the Cubs began the season as reigning World Series Champions. Since the Cubs won the World Series last year, I’m not depending as much on hope this season. I’m still walking on cloud nine; any success this season will be gravy.
The Chicago Cubs kicked off their 2013 season yesterday. I’ve been a fan of the Cubs since I was a child even though they’ve brought me more heartache than joy. I don’t have much hope for this season but, as always, hope springs eternal.
Here are some of the most hopeful moments in nerdom.
The Empire Strikes Back
The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite Star Wars movie. When I was growing up Return of the Jedi was my favorite but I now know Empire is the superior film. As I wrote about last Friday, Empire is the Good Friday of the Star Wars movies. Luke loses a hand, the Rebels lose a base and Han loses his ability to move. Things look pretty bleak for Luke, Leia, Artoo and Threepio but they still have hope. The image of those four standing, staring out at the galaxy, is one of my favorite moments in any movie. It’s a moment that I would have wanted to ruin with a joke or bodily function, so it’s a good thing droids can’t fart.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
There’s not a lot I like about The Search for Spock. Christopher Lloyd makes a great Dr. Emmett Brown but not a great Klingon captain. I didn’t really watch the original series so I didn’t have a strong connection with Kirk’s Enterprise, but it was a little tragic when it was destroyed. There weren’t a lot of great moments in The Search for Spock, but there is something special about Kirk and his crew watching the flaming Enterprise fall across the sky. I’ll always remember the hopeful words of Dr. McCoy.
Kirk: My God, Bones, what have I done?
McCoy: What you had to do, what you always do, turn death into a fighting chance to live.
Kirk may have had weird hair and a staccato delivery, but he always did provide hope for himself and his crew.
The Two Towers
Yesterday I wrote about my favorite scene in The Two Tower, probably my favorite scene in the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I absolutely love when Gandalf and Eomer show up at the battle of Helm’s Deep. Usually I like something about the bad guys but there is nothing redeemable about the Uruk-hai. They serve the traitorous Saruman, they like eating people and once they got through the soldiers you know they would have gotten all those blonde kids in the cave. I really do get goose bumps when Gandalf and Eomer show up, brining hope to Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and all of Rohan. I could watch that scene over and over again. Thankfully DVDs can’t wear out like VHS tapes or else that scene might suffer the same fate as Luke on Jabba’s sail barge.
Hope springs eternal at the beginning of the baseball season. I just hope that hope doesn’t sour by the end of the month. Thankfully our hope doesn’t rest in baseball, starship captains or the Rohirrim but in the goodness of God.
What are your favorite hopeful moments in nerdom?
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