Day: May 24, 2014

Perhaps the most startling part of the new X-men movie takes place after the movie ends. With the lights still off many of us were riveted to our seats waiting for something–anything–that would promise more. That delivery came in a delightful ‘haboob’ of action that can only point to one conclusion.  Everything that came before those post credit moments were a build-up–not to the post credit moments, but to the singular idea: The story of the X-men is far from over.

Days of Future past is a Retcon that marries the 1981 comic storyline of the same name to the 20th Century Fox Film franchise. In the film the mutants of the world are being hunted be powerful Sentinel robots created by Trask Industries. Wolverine must go back in time to prevent a key assassination that triggered the rise of the Sentinels before he himself is murdered in his own timeline.

Days of Future Past doesn’t lack for coolness. Between Blink’s awesome teleportation combat scenes and the Quicksilver set-piece (perfectly choreographed to Jim Croce’s ‘Time in a Bottle’), the movie was a visual tour de force. However, two hours isn’t enough time to fully explore what amounts to a complex storyline made even more so by the rich characters that dominate it.

There is plenty of room to grow here. The after-credit scenes point in two separate directions at once. There is the ability to continue the storyline with the character from X-men: First Class. The opportunity is also there (and possibly implicitly stated) that the franchise can return to the x-men 3 universe with a near complete retcon of most of what came before.

In the end, the two hour ride is worth it. There are enough thrills, surprises, action, and comedy to satisfy the ardent x-men fans. For those new to the franchise however,  this is a poor entry point as it assumes knowledge of at least X-men First Class and both Wolverine films.

Since the end of this latest youth soccer season I’ve been rethinking my approach to being a coach and to being the parent of an athlete. In some ways it is easier to be a dad to kids who have no athletic ability. I recognize how arrogant that sounds, but arrogance is not my intention. My concern is with doing what is best for the kid athletically as well as socially. It is the same problem I ran into when my mid-kid skipped Kindergarten and could have skipped first grade just as easily. The issue was not ability, but social misplacement. As a result of letting him skip ahead, I have a kid who is always the youngest in his grade and, at times, lacks the maturity of others at his grade level.

Lets ignore for a moment the question of how mature a 2nd grader can be anyway. Project this dilemma on to sports where the same kid is playing with much older kids. When we started the season he was 6 yrs old and his oldest teammate was 10. I’m stuck between this place of, do I let him play with other 6-7 year olds and watch his skill level remain constant (or at worse sink down to the level of the age group he is with), or do I put him up and force him to push his skills to that next level. This is what happened during soccer, and the boy was a constant starter–one of the top 6 on a 14 boy roster. Still, as the season wore on I could see the maturity gap. I could also see that I’d sacrificed the social side of the equation. A couple of his older classmates had moved up with him, but the bulk of his friendships remained at the 6-7 level. I asked him if he wanted to play 8-9 in the fall or go back to playing 6-7 and he struggled with a decision. Finally he asked to move back to play with his friends.

I see parents making this kind of choice every season. One of the players on my squad this year hadn’t turned 8 when the season began. Come fall his dad is moving him to the 10-12 team. While the child is talented, I wonder if parents like he and I are forgetting that youth league sports are as much about having fun and being a kid as they are about learning teamwork and basic skills. Once I recognized that I’d forgotten that I had to ask the boy what he wanted.

Now what he wants is to play tackle football–a passion he shares with his big brother. This may be the perfect time to put him in the game. Given his age and weight he will be at the top of the 5-7 bracket. That is a good a training ground as any to learn the fundamentals without fear of the bigger kids hurting you.

I just have to force that rationale past my wife…