Oppenheimer

Merril and I did something today we have not done in a number of years.  We went to the movies.  We saw Oppenheimer.  He was the director of the Manhattan project and is sometimes called the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.”
It was a long movie.  The show started at 2.30 and ended at 5.50.  I found it totally absorbing though and did not feel like it was too long.
We had planned out the day.  Merril did some things around the place, and I did stuff for a zoom get together we have Tuesday lunchtimes.  Merril had some banking she wanted to prepare, checked the spa (which had been fixed after developing a leak) and watered the garden, among other things.  My car had decided not to go, so we put it on charge.
We had decided that in the afternoon we would bank, go to the movies and then watch Spain and Sweden in the soccer that evening.  That is what we did.  Spain is the first team into the soccer women’s world cup.  To me they are a freaky team.  They can look really good and really bad.  They deserved their win.  It all happened late in the second half.  They won 2-1.
There is a word I am hearing a bit of at the moment.  It is “takeaways.”  To me it describes well what I was looking at getting from Oppenheimer.  There was something I took away from the movie that highlights to me the age we live in.
They were unsure if the chain reaction setting off an atom bomb, would be contained or continue and destroy the world.  It was contained, but Oppenheimer made a telling comment early which was repeated later in the movie.
He was unsure if the weapon would promote peace or be used to destroy the world.  The movie came to an end with him saying something like “I think we have created the means of mankind destroying himself.”
What he said really reinforced one of the reasons why I think we are at the end of the age.  For the first time mankind has the means to destroy himself.  We have had it good, but the concern has always been that the weapon falls into hands ready and willing to use it.
Right now we are living on a knife edge, wondering and hoping it is not used in the war currently in the headlines.  It is not very joyous I know, but to me it is a vain hope.  It may or may not happen in this war, but to me it will happen.
I am actually not a good movie watcher.  Many times, I leave and do something else when stuff is on at home.  This one I was happy to watch right through.