Real?

August 4th, 2012| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Friday, with a couple of friends, I went to see “Dark Knight Rises,” Christopher Nolan’s final offering in the Batman trilogy.

And now I’m tired. Yes, tired.

Mid-air hijackings, Batmobile, Batpod, and Bat (his flying thingamajig) chases, chaos galore, havoc aplenty, nihilism and anarchy, violence and killings, nuclear bombs, mushroom clouds, guns, guns and more guns, flying from buildings, escaping from caves, explosions, tanks, collapsing bridges, and every conceivable manner of mayhem.

And it was loud.

I was reeling at the credits. My eardrums protesting. Tachycardic. In a sweat. Hypertensive. I must have lost a liter of adrenaline in the theater.

So now I’m tired.

Oh, did I say I watched it on IMAX? Mistake.

Took a couple of years out of my life, on account of losing so many heartbeats all at once.

I went home and took a couple of ibuprofens. And I’m still tired.

Won’t have to go to the fitness center for two weeks, though. That’s the kind of workout I got watching ye olde Caped Crusader.

Yup, that’s right. A workout, just by sitting still.

A few years ago at the Society of Neuroscience’s annual meeting, a scientist from Cleveland Clinic Foundation reported that “Just thinking about exercise can help maintain muscle strength.” An imaginary workout was as good as the real thing.

Healthy adults were divided into three groups. One group imagined using their little finger muscles, another their elbow flexors, and a third imagined nothing at all (I’m not sure how they did that). All of these virtual exercises were conducted for 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 12 weeks. Muscle strength was ascertained before and after.

Believe it or not, pinky strength in the first group increased by 35%. Elbow strength by 13% in the second group. And in the lazy slobs’ group, no increase.

Apparently what’s going on is that the brains of the virtually-exercising crowd signaled the muscle in some fashion, improving their function.

“We believe that anyone who has difficulty doing physical exercises can use our mental training method to improve the muscle strength,” the scientists declared.

I actually did them better. I wasn’t imagining pinky flexion and extension; I was actually watching gut wrenching feats on celluloid the other day.

And, now, I’m tired!

See, who says you need the real thing?

SPOILER ALERT …

Bruce Wayne, aka the Batman, saves Gotham by flying away with the threatening nuclear bomb on his whatchamacallit (the “Bat”), sacrificing himself in the process as the thing explodes over sea somewhere far away.

NOT!

Our superhero, apparently had his aircraft on auto-pilot and bailed out before the big bang.

See, even he does it. Not the real thing. Not a real sacrifice. Just a pretend one. A virtual sacrifice, like my virtual workout.

And he gets a citation, a statue, pious words at his memorial service, dedications, etc. For a fake sacrifice.

I, though, am glad, someone went through a real sacrifice for me.

As the Apostle’s Creed goes …

I believe …
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.

The real thing.

… He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross,
so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24

And for all who believe in Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection for their sins, God offers forgiveness.

Yup, he’s the real thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ!