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So, true story, I like to obsess when I watch movies. I look for patterns and trends, as if all movies are one movie during a year. I trend-watch music and books too. And this year, cinematically speaking, is the year of the cliff jump.  Someone somewhere has figured out a way to make it look disturbingly authentic for actors to jump into thin air. And now everyone wants to do it. Take for example The Revenant. That was a jump. Sweet Leo that was a jump. Last weekend I went to see Jungle Book with my crew and I counted three such jumps. In every trailer but one, there was a cliff jump of some kind. If you doubt me, go the movies.

So, I thought, why? I mean obviously it looks cool. And someone in the computer world has figured out how to do it in a way that makes the skin on my arms stand up and salute. But after that, why? What does it say about us, as a collective audience, and as a culture, that we delight so much in seeing someone sail off into the abyss?

No idea. But on a personal level I couldn’t be happier. I’m doing some significant cliff jumping of my own this year, on a personal and professional level. And you know what? In real life you don’t always land in a nice absorbent pine tree to break your fall. Sometimes you die. Or worse, you live broken. But the thing about all scenes that involve cliff jumping is that the unknown is the only choice besides death. Going back is the end. And that’s exactly how I feel.

I am lucky enough to have friends of all ages. I get to talk to people about what they care about and what they want. I love that. And one thing I’ve come to believe from all this talking and listening is there is no easy age to be. Being five is hard, being forty is hard, being ninety is hard. All in different ways. But everybody has to keep jumping. What we did yesterday matters far less that what we do today. Today is who we are. And who we become, or where we land, depends on us knowing that.

In life there is only the cliff.  Like it, or be eaten by a giant singing gorilla. And as the boys from Van Halen used to say,
You might as well
jump.