High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

This is my memorial for Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburne and Shepard ‘no one knows anything about him’ Book.

I’ve been a brown coat for quite a spell now, ever since the show was cancelled and after watching reruns and DVDs over and over and over again and now the movie, the characters feel like real friends, real people. I feel like I should be sending Zoe a card and making some kinda charitable donation for Book (too bad I don’t trust charities).

Watching them die was the most heart-rending movie experience I’ve ever had with a movie. When wash got hit, I kept telling myself; ‘he’s just pinned, he’s unconscious, he’ll be okay, they’ll come back for him later.’ But it wasn’t to be, Zoe’s words made that all too clear.

But dying aint the worst thing that can happen after all. They’re many worse things I won’t go into here in any detail. If I may quote from another (though formerly) great sci-fi series; ‘it matters not that we die. So long as we leave better than we thought we could be and no worse than we imgained’. Death is one of the acts of life and not a thing to be feared.

Though there are good deaths and bad, we should all hope to die half as well as Wash and Book. They Died Well. They fell for those they loved. They went down fighting. They died with their boots on. They died like Big Damn Heroes.