by Randall Allen Dunn

When he was finished stringing the garlic cloves, he went outside and nailed them over the window boarding, taking down the old strings, which had lost most of their potent smell.

He had to go through this process twice a week. Until he found something better, it was his first line of defense.

Defense? he often thought. For what?

All afternoon he made stakes.

He lathed them out of thick doweling, band-sawed into nin-inch lengths. These he held against the whirling emery stone until they were as sharp as daggers.

It was tiresome, monotonous work, and it filled the air with hot-smelling wood dust that settled in his pores and got into his lungs and made him cough.

Yet he never seemed to get ahead. No matter how many stakes he made, they were gone in no time at all. Doweling was getting harder to find, too. Eventually he’d have to lathe down rectangular lengths of wood. Won’t that be fun? he thought irritably.

It was all very depressing and it made him resolve to find a better method of disposal. But how could he find it when they never gave him a chance to slow down and think?

Richard Matheson’s short story, I Am Legend, finds Robert Neville struggling for survival as the last human among a world of vampires. They plague him at night, scratching at the walls of his boarded shack, calling to him to come out. He wards them off with garlic strings, then finds them in their comatose state during the day and drives stakes through their hearts. The whole time, he functions in a sort of stupor, fighting these mythical beasts with the mythical weapons that are supposed to defeat them.

And they work! The garlic keeps them away, the crosses repel them, and the stakes destroy them.

But Neville can’t understand why. Before these bizarre creatures began killing people en masse, no one believed that vampires could actually exist. Now confronted with the sad and terrifying reality that they do, Neville begins to wonder what vampires are, and why these particular objects affect them so powerfully.

He is frustrated and weary at trying to stop them, to simply survive, day after day. He wants to figure out their weaknesses and find better solutions for stopping them, but he can’t!

Driving slowly to Sears, he tried to forget by wondering why it was that only wooden stakes should work.

He frowned as he drove along the empty boulevard, the only sound the muted growling of the motor in his car. It seemed fantastic that it had taken him five months to start wondering about it.

Which brought another question to mind. How was it that he always managed to hit the heart? It had to be the heart; Dr. Busch had said so. Yet he, Neville, had no anatomical knowledge.

His brow furrowed. It irritated him that he should have gone through this hideous process so long without stopping once to question it.

He shook his head. No, I should think it over carefully, he thought, I should collect all the questions before I try to answer them. Things should be done the right way, the scientific way.

As I read this, I realized that I faced a similar dilemma. No, vampires were not clawing at the doors of my house. But I needed to figure out a better budget to manage our expenses better. Yet there never seemed to be time to do it.

Then I realized that my situation was not like Neville’s. I did have time. I could review the budget I had created the previous summer, and update it.

I simply had never made it a priority.

Recognizing this, and the fact that it did take priority over other tasks on my to-do list, I set to work. I organized a budget on paper, estimating our monthly expenses for various items. I re-arranged my previous categories and amounts to match our current income and expenses. Within half an hour, I had come up with a new, working budget.

So often, we find ourselves defeated by a problem because we refuse to take action. The consequences of failure are so severe that we feel overwhelmed. Instead of trying to solve the problem, we find other activities to fill our time, and hope the problem will go away.

But it won’t. It will still be clawing at the door the next day. Better to deal with it head on, and the sooner, the better.

Neville continues reading, researching and experimenting, testing out various theories. When he finally develops a viable hypothesis, he is stunned to have discovered the possible explanation for what has come to be called “vampires”. Having been forced into it, the last man on earth deduces what vampires are and what it will take to stop them.

Necessity remains the mother of invention. You will find a solution when you are forced to start looking.

Don’t give in to the fear that you won’t be able to solve a problem. Your first attempt might not work. But you can come up with a better idea – a workable idea – once you start seeking it.

Find more reviews of I Am Legend at amazon.com!

by Randall Allen Dunn

Abby and I watched a fantastic show while we were on vacation: an award-winning HBO reality series called, “Kindergarten”, to give kids a behind-the-scenes look at what happens in kindergarten. For four-year olds like Abby, this is an exciting opportunity to get an inside look at what school holds for her future.

On this episode, the kindergarten teacher asked the children how many of them had lost teeth or had a loose tooth. She then explained to them the importance of brushing their teeth at least twice a day. She showed them a white hard-boiled egg and explained that this was what teeth should look like. Then she showed another hard-boiled egg that she had soaked in Coca-Cola until it turned a pale brown color, and told them that if they don’t brush, their teeth could look like this. The children were shocked and appropriately disgusted, with a chorus of “Ewwwww”’s.

The teacher handed them all a similar brown egg, along with a toothbrush and paste, to scrub their eggs clean. It was a brilliant concept, and even more so when the kids saw that it was hard to brush that Coca-Cola stain off of an egg.

I remembered something that a church friend had told me once. He didn’t have tons of money, but he and his family had a nice townhouse, and he made sure he took care of it. He had learned how to maintain his car, his stereo system, and his household appliances. He figured that if he learned to take care of it, it wouldn’t break down and need a major repair. Taking the time to learn how to keep everything running smoothly was saving him plenty of money.

In the same way, I’ve been finding that exercising and eating right gives me more strength and energy to get things done around the house. It also helps me to spend less money on food that won’t give me long-term energy for the day.

Later in the show, two boys got into an altercation as they stood against a wall to wait for the teacher’s instructions. One boy had backed up against the other boy’s hand without realizing it. The injured boy wailed, as children do, not so much for the pain itself, but for the fact that he never heard the first boy apologize. The boy who had backed up insisted that he had already said he was sorry. The teacher advised him to say it again, anyway, since the other boy didn’t hear it. Finally, the boy apologized (for either the first or second time). Whether he had already apologized or not, the issue was the damaged relationship, and it needed to be fixed.

Just like brushing our teeth, it’s important to maintain our material possessions, our bodies, and our friendships.  Everything decays over time, no matter what we do to preserve it. But paying attention to the things under our care and working to protect them will help us enjoy them longer.

by Randall Allen Dunn

On Sunday, October 30^th, 1938, a dramatized radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ classic novel, The War of the Worlds, set the United States in a panic. Orson Welles’ brilliant adaptation presented the story of an alien invasion through a series of news reports, which followed the advance of the Martians as they destroyed city after city.

The public response flooded police stations with calls asking how to evacuate, led people to hide in basements and load weapons, and caused severe traffic jams as desperate citizens fled from a non-existent attack. How ironic that the story of an alien attack caused nationwide devastation from humans.

The 2005 film version follows the flight of one man, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), as he attempts to escape the alien invaders and save the lives of his two estranged children, Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and Rachel (Dakota Fanning). We quickly learn that Ray is irresponsible and unprepared to care for his children, shortly after Ray’s ex-wife drops them off to spend the weekend. He has almost no food in his refrigerator, no plan for monitoring his son’s homework tasks, nothing to give his ex-wife, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) any sense of security that he can be a grown-up.

Worse, Robbie expresses clear hostility toward Ray, telling him how much he hates having to spend weekends with him.

Then a freak lightning storm causes EMP’s that briefly knock out the power from all electronic and battery-operated devices. When Ray goes to investigate, he and some local residents discover a rupture in the pavement up the street. A minute later, a huge mechanical tripod erupts from the hole, towering over the city. It quickly starts firing heat rays that disintegrate one fleeing person after another as it marches after them.

Ray escapes and returns home, packing quickly and gathering his kids to take them back to their mother in Boston. They weave their way through traffic jams and military road blocks until they near the ferry crossing. There, a large crowd of foot travelers start begging Ray to give up his car to them. When he refuses, the people riot, shattering the car windows with clubs. They haul Ray and Robbie out, and seem ready to kill them both in order to take their car.

Having grabbed his pistol from home, Ray fires it in the air, and the crowd backs away from his family. Until another man aims a gun at Ray’s head, telling him he needs to take the car. Ray surrenders, but asks for permission to get his daughter out of the back seat first.

My wife, Nicki, was stunned by the selfish, criminal acts of the rioting crowd. They could see that there were children in the car, yet they had no qualms about taking up weapons and attacking them in order to get what they wanted.

But in a crisis, that’s how people act. H.G. Wells figured it out when he first wrote about this nationwide panic in the 19^th century. Orson Welles discovered it when his broadcast incited a nationwide panic in the 1930’s. Aliens can have an easy time destroying humans when we’re already so eager to destroy one another.

Our innate selfishness prompts us to push people aside or knock them down if they’re getting in the way of things we need, or even just want. That’s why drivers cut people off on the highway. That’s why shoppers push and shove and race to grab the last sales item available at Christmastime. That’s why children hit one another as they struggle to pull a favorite toy from one another’s hands.

We are only generous and thoughtful toward one another until we are not getting what we want. Then we decide it’s time, once again, to “look out for Number One”.

Of course, I don’t deny that I would put my own family’s welfare above that of another family if I were in a crisis. But I don’t believe I would take up a baseball bat to steal away someone’s car.

Ray discovers how far he must go after Robbie abandons them to join the military effort. Convinced that Ray is only interested in returning them to their mother so he can look after himself, Robbie feels he must do something to stop the threat. When he nearly loses Rachel in a crowd, Ray must let Robbie go.

He and Rachel seek refuge in the home of a stranger, Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins). Clearly on the edge of losing his sanity, Harlan insists that he has a plan to take out all the aliens himself. But when his panic results in a fit of screaming, with the aliens so close to the man’s back yard, Ray realizes that Harlan will soon get them all killed. “I can’t let my daughter die because of you,” he tells Harlan. After telling his daughter to sing herself a loud lullaby, Ray goes into the back room of Harlan’s cellar and kills him, to keep him from alerting the aliens to their presence. Ray then collapses beside Rachel on the stairs, emotionally and psychologically spent. It has come to this. Man against man, in order to survive.

But when Ray and Rachel are captured by a tripod and held in a cage, where Ray is about to be digested by the hideous machine, his fellow prisoners come to his rescue. They pull on him, as a group, until he is dragged free of the sucking tube that would have bled him dry.

Interesting that as a race, we can be so callous and hateful toward one another, but we can also be so unified and courageous. It all comes down to a choice.

We may not be in danger of an imminent alien attack. But there will be enemies in our lives that deplete our resources and threaten our existence. Loss of jobs, broken relationships, and even hostile neighbors or friends can make our lives a struggle for survival. Harlan had told Ray the human race had no chance against the aliens, since they had been planning this attack for centuries.

Prepare in advance. Decide now what kind of person you will be, and what moral lines you will not let yourself cross, before the next crisis hit.

A crisis does not build character. It only reveals it.

Find more reviews of “War of the Worlds” at amazon.com!

by Randall Allen Dunn

Everyone seems to have fallen on hard times lately. Debts pile up while income dwindles or disappears. As a people, we have become more creative at finding ways to make ends meet than we have been for nearly a century.

Back when things were really bad.

Facing the hardest times of our lives, we often feel that nothing could ever be worse. Our own suffering is so great that we magnify it even more by imagining that it is the greatest suffering imaginable.

But as difficult as it is to struggle through the current economic crisis, what we experience today is nothing like surviving the actual Depression.

“Kit Kittredge, An American Girl” is set in the 1930’s. According to ten-year old Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) and her manual typewriter, it is a time when the Depression is “in full swing”. Kit longs to be a reporter, and makes repeated attempts to sell her latest stories to the local newspaper, only to be rejected outright by the editor (Wallace Shawn).

Still, she’s got plenty news to report, though none of it is good. Neighbors are being put out of their homes and losing their jobs. When Kit’s class volunteers at a local soup kitchen, offering meals to the unemployed, she is horrified to find even her father,

Jack (Chris O’Donnell), has come there to receive food.

Jack finds Kit at her treehouse in the back yard, too frightened and ashamed to talk to him. When he later tells her he’s leaving to seek work in Chicago, she storms off in a panic. “You said we were going to be okay! We’re not okay if we’re not together!”

As she tries to bang out an article on her typewriter, the keys get stuck together. As Kit fusses over the keys angrily, Jack walks in to help her fix it. “Don’t let it beat you, Kit,” he tells her.  “You know, when I was about fourteen, my dad traded some old farm equipment for a used Model T. One time I was cranking it, to start it and the crank broke in half. Car kind of groaned, and it just died right in our front yard. I wanted to junk the darn thing when my dad walked in and he said, ‘Don’t let it beat you, son. Don’t let it beat you.’ Drove it for five more years after that. So whether it’s an old Model T,  or a typewriter ribbon … or going to Chicago to find work … we can’t let it beat us, sweetheart.”

Jack promises to write Kit every week, and return home as soon as he can.

But after he leaves, things seem to get worse. Kit’s mother (Julia Ormond) starts taking in borders to help make ends meet. She soon has a house full of them, as she keeps pushing her own belongings into smaller spaces to create extra guest rooms. Kit even learns that her mother has purchased a chicken coop to try selling eggs, a plan which Kit knows to be “one step away from the poorhouse”.

Worst of all, her father’s weekly letters have stopped coming. Making her fear that there’s no end to their misery in sight.

But Kit finds her mother’s creative use of living space to be very clever. And she even discovers that selling eggs on her bicycle isn’t so bad as she expected it to be.

She also makes new friends with two young “hobos” – that is, homeless boys – who agree to do yardwork in exchange for food. Most townspeople presume every hobo to be a thief, but Kit discovers what they are really like and how they struggle to survive, living in “hobo camps” where other homeless travelers share what little they have and help one another to struggle through. Ironically, the endurance and comraderie of the hobo community gives Kit the fresh story she needs to get the local newspaper editor’s attention. And seeing people with almost nothing finding ways to survive together gives Kit new hope, that she can survive, too.

One woman (Glenne Headly) turns her nose up at the hobos, uncomfortable speaking even with the young boys. Yet when her husband leaves her, she is forced to seek lodging wherever she can find it. Fortunately, Kit’s mother spies her entering a cheap boarding house, and offers to house her and her son. Still, the woman remains bitterly disillusioned. Her hope left when her husband did.

But real hope has not disappeared. Had she humbled herself enough to reach out, she would have found that people like Kit’s mother were willing to help, as much as they could. She would have found out that true friends don’t see any shame in a person confessing they have needs, even desperate needs.

She would have found that there is a future for her, even if she can’t get there in the way that she had originally planned.

We often fear “lowering ourselves” to certain tasks that we presume to be reserved for the poor and desperate. When we realize that we are becoming poor and desperate ourselves, we think our lives are spiraling out of control.

Yet when we recognize that other people have lived through much worse times – through lay-offs, house fires, floods, wars, hurricanes, identity theft, and many other debilitating tragedies that can befall any of us at any time – we realize that we can survive as well. None of us plan to move in with friends or parents in order to survive. None of us plan to sell a house and move back into an apartment. None of us plan to take second jobs or start selling eggs in order to earn a few extra dollars for grocery and gas money. When we’re forced to make these changes, we think that we’ll never have control of our lives again.

Yet in these hard times, we find something that we can’t find in easy times. We find family and friends who are willing to share our struggles. We find that meeting others’ needs is more important than having the latest and most expensive clothes or CD’s or toys. We find that we actually need a lot fewer material possessions than we thought we did, and we need to be a lot more grateful for genuine caring friends than we ever were before.

If people could make it through the Great Depression, surely we can make it through this crisis. The key is to not let it beat us. To not give in to the lie that we have no hope, or that there is no one to help.

If you’re struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel, be assured that there is a light there. You just have to be willing to keep pushing forward through the darkness until you find it. And if you look, you’ll find there are people willing to help you in your search.

Don’t let it beat you.

Find more reviews of “Kit Kittredge, An American Girl” at amazon.com!