You know how sometimes Anderson jokes that his goal is to make it past the age of fifty, when his father died? Thing is, I don’t think he’s joking. He tries to pass it off as a joke, but I’ve heard or read in multiple interviews him saying he always sort of expected that he’d die young. I think he means it. Which really, really explains a lot.
When you’ve thought, from the age of ten, that you’re not going to live very long, that you’ve got this ticking time bomb in your chest, well, doing something insane like forging a press pass and going to wars without even the most basic protection? It doesn’t seem that insane.
Even now, when he’s not taking risks that are quite that stupid, it seems like he’s still got that countdown in the back of his head. I wonder if that’s part of the reason why he hasn’t had kids yet — not wanting to put a child through the loss of a father.
I got wordy as fuck, so I did this as a reblog instead of an answer.
I wouldn’t doubt in the slightest that, like Captain Hook and his crocodile, he still hears that clock in his sleep. When Doug was diagnosed with cancer in ‘95, the actuarial statistics for people with his specific diagnosis showed a 60% survival rate for the first year, tapering all the way down to 5% after 20 years. And despite all of the advances in science and medicine that we’ve seen in the 17 years since, every time he gets sick, we’re left wondering if this is the beginning of the end.
![sprackraptor:
fuckyeahdisingenuousliberal:
[Picture: A white arm with five social-justice themed plastic bracelets on it: left-to-right, they are from Stand Up/Speak Up (one black, one white), Beat Bullying, Make Poverty History, and LiveStrong. Top Text: “Social Activism” Bottom Text: “It’s only cool when others can see it.”]
I have a plastic band on one wrist. People ask me what it’s for. I show it to them. It says “This IS my costume!” And then I tell them it glows in the dark. None of them realize that it’s true.
I have a braided rainbow bracelet tied around the other wrist. Nobody’s asked me what it’s for yet. I suspect that they just assume it’s because I’m gay, even though I’m not (exactly), especially taken in combination with my short mohawk-esque green hair and aggressively disheveled comfy clothes. That’s fine with me.
[Note: I’ve edited the description above to include the wristbands the OP couldn’t identify.]
I confess I traded a LiveStrong band for a Beat Bullying band several years ago; BB were only available in the UK, and I saw someone ask for donations to the cause in a holiday gift exchange community. I did it because both are causes I believe in strongly, as a victim of bullying and the wife of a cancer survivor. And I wore both - not because I wanted other people to think I was Social Justice Sally or anything, but because they served as a reminder to me that other people gave a damn about these issues.
Indeed, the LiveStrong band I wore was not one I bought, but one that was given to me by a classmate. I was in an Office Skills class at the same time I broke up with one of my former partners; I was having a VERY bad day, and couldn’t talk about why, because I knew it was the wrong atmosphere in which to try and be out as poly. But she saw me crying at my desk and trying to hide it, and came over with a hug and a wristband. “Feel your feelings,” she said, “but wear this.” So in addition to the larger meaning of the band, it became a much more personal, literal thing for me: Live strong, and you will overcome what seems insurmountable at the moment.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1mbl0MBAb1qg768eo1_400.jpg "sprackraptor:
fuckyeahdisingenuousliberal:
[Picture: A white arm with five social-justice themed plastic bracelets on it: left-to-right, they are from Stand Up/Speak Up (one black, one white), Beat Bullying, Make Poverty History, and LiveStrong. Top Text: “Social Activism” Bottom Text: “It’s only cool when others can see it.”]
I have a plastic band on one wrist. People ask me what it’s for. I show it to them. It says “This IS my costume!” And then I tell them it glows in the dark. None of them realize that it’s true.
I have a braided rainbow bracelet tied around the other wrist. Nobody’s asked me what it’s for yet. I suspect that they just assume it’s because I’m gay, even though I’m not (exactly), especially taken in combination with my short mohawk-esque green hair and aggressively disheveled comfy clothes. That’s fine with me.
[Note: I’ve edited the description above to include the wristbands the OP couldn’t identify.]
I confess I traded a LiveStrong band for a Beat Bullying band several years ago; BB were only available in the UK, and I saw someone ask for donations to the cause in a holiday gift exchange community. I did it because both are causes I believe in strongly, as a victim of bullying and the wife of a cancer survivor. And I wore both - not because I wanted other people to think I was Social Justice Sally or anything, but because they served as a reminder to me that other people gave a damn about these issues.
Indeed, the LiveStrong band I wore was not one I bought, but one that was given to me by a classmate. I was in an Office Skills class at the same time I broke up with one of my former partners; I was having a VERY bad day, and couldn’t talk about why, because I knew it was the wrong atmosphere in which to try and be out as poly. But she saw me crying at my desk and trying to hide it, and came over with a hug and a wristband. “Feel your feelings,” she said, “but wear this.” So in addition to the larger meaning of the band, it became a much more personal, literal thing for me: Live strong, and you will overcome what seems insurmountable at the moment.")
