Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach-Destination Resort Los Cabos, Mexico

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Lobby terrace Pueblo  Bonito, Sunset Beach, Los Cabos, Mexico 

“Welcome to Paradise!” Is the greeting we receive from the doorman when our van pulls up to Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. After several long flights originating in Boise, Idaho, we have arrived in Los Cobos, Mexico. Los Cabos is on the Baha Peninsula.

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Gorgeous walking beach but don’t go in the water

Outside the van from the airport,  the glorious mid- seventies weather,  sparkling blue ocean and cloudless sky does seem like paradise.

I am traveling as a guest of my sister who owns a timeshare at Pueblo Bonita. We are spending 7 days under her timeshare agreement in a junior suite. Our suite has a full kitchen with granite counter tops stocked with kitchen ware, beatiful tile bath with glass shower, two double beds with down comforters, an eating area with lounge chairs, and porch with pool and sea views.

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View from the junior suite terrace.

I spent one glorious morning on the porch watching the whales jump along the shoreline surrounded by little sightseeing boats. I wrote this blog watching the sunset on the terrace.

Pueblo Bonito is a destination resort. Once the weary, over-stressed traveler arrives there is no need to venture out into the real world. The resort has six resturants, four pools plus a children’s pool, access to a golf course, tennis courts, spectacular spa services, a walking beach, beautiful grounds, a small deli, and a chapel. The resort also has a children’s center. The only thing it doesn’t have is water sports on the beach. While there is a beautiful public beach in front of the hotel, signs caution of rip tides and even casual wading is not allowed.

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Attention to detail by staff makes for a special visit. Folded beach towels like swans.

Pueblo Bonito is not the dangerous  Mexico we have all read about. The facilities are spotless. When I am out on my early morning walks, I see many workers scrubbing entry ways, sponging down pools, and even folding beach towels into swans.  Customer service is obviously emphasized. We are greeted graciously by all staff and people appear from nowhere to see if we need a drink, towels, or anything else.

The resort is built up a hillside. Access to services, pools and resturants could be quite daunting for anyone with limited mobility problems. Access is not a problem here, however. Small golf car vans that hold 9 passengers and a driver circle through the resort every five minutes. Because of the size of the resort, there are three lines: red, blue, and green. We are in a suite near the beach and overlooking the pool. We are on the blue line. If we walk down to the main pool and large resturant, we can catch the red line directly up to the lobby avoiding the twisting rodes of the lines going to rooms. If you watch the vehicles from the lobby terrace racing around, it looks something like a Disney Land race track.

There are signs encouraging walking. I have found the short cuts through lobbies and upstairs.  There are not many of us out walking the hillsides to our desinations. Enroute I have discovered the black swans, flamingos, flowers, and butterfies who share the resort with the tourists.

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Flamingo on the grounds.

Many guests arrive with large bags but after a couple days,  everyone has unkempt hair, sandals on and some type of beach clothing. Faces look more relaxed and smiles come more quickly and frequently.

In another blog, I wrote about the tourist, who likes everything planned, the traveler who likes to mix with the general population and see the local sights and the adventurer who goes without an agenda. Pueblo Boniti is definitely a resort for tourists.

I would recommend to couples, who want to rekindle romance,  travelers of any age seeking comfort, relaxation and safety. The resort also serves the needs of familues with children younger than 3 or 4.  Since the hotel doesn’t have water sports on the property, i would encourage familes with older children to seek out a different venue for their Mexican holiday.

I still have a few more days in paradise. I am thankful my sister let me tag along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brooklyn—Showcases Fifities America, Land of Possiblilites

Brooklyn is a 1950’s period piece with beautiful settings in Brooklyn and Ireland. Based on a 2009 novel, by Irish author Colm Toibin, the plot focuses on a young Irish girl, Eilis Lacey’s (Saoirse Ronan) journey from Ireland to Brooklyn, New York. Eilis chooses to immigrate under the sponsorship of the Catholic Church because she has no opportunities in Ireland. In Ireland, her older sister, Rose (Fiona Glascott), has a good job as a bookkeeper and encourages Eilis to go.  Rose willingly stays behind with their widowed mother.

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Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey in Brooklyn

 

 

The fundamental theme of the movie is the conflicting emotional pull of home versus the rational understanding that new beginnings in a foreign country present the possibility but not the guarantee of a better future. Eilis begins life in America living in a boarding house  and working as a sales clerk in a large department store. Shop girlHer homesickness is assuaged when she meets an Italian American plumber, Anthony “Tony” Fiorello (Emory Cohen).

Eilis and tony
Eilis and Tony

The plot twist in Brooklyn is that once Eilis has begun to establish a new life in America, she is presented with the opportunity to build a life rich with possibilities in Ireland.  The question for Eilis is which will she choose: America (representing risk and the unknown) or Ireland (representing tradition and long-term emotional connections)?

 

the choice

Brooklyn is drenched in fifties culture and provides an exquisite view of the possibilities or lack-their-of for unmarried, young women in both Ireland and America. Marriage to a man with a future is  the safest road to a secure future but education that provides a skill is another pathway. Brooklyn captures the transformation of one young woman through a transition of clothes and hair styles from an insecure newcomer to a self-assured young woman who has chosen her own future.

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Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey in Brooklyn

 

The brightness of Eilis’s future shines through in a movie leaving this viewer feeling better about the world.

 

Brooklyn polished

A transformed Eilis returning to Ireland

 

 

A Cat’s Christmas Tale

The Christmas season begins at 220 N Ashtree Way when the big, dusty plastic boxes are dragged inside from the garage by the MAN. I do not recognize his presence in the family. He has been known to chase Angel, the other cat and me with a shooing sound out of his closet.

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The author, Satchel and a Christmas Cat

This annoys me because I like to roll around on his big soft sweaters, leaving hair everywhere. He even squirts us with water when we jump on the kitchen counters. How’s a cat suppose to get a drop of fresh water if not from the sink?

 

All his heavy lifting is done after my mistress has cajoled him over dinner.  I flick my tail in anticipation. I love Christmas! The teenage human and her friend are in charge of tree decorating. This leads to many amusements for Angel, my subordinate and I.

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Finished tree

First, the tree with its bright green bristles has to be assembled. The portable boom box is turned up very loud, blasting out current hit music. The girls sing and dance while assembling the tree. Private Shani, the sheltie, runs in circles barking. Shani is a silly harmless creature whom I generally ignore. While the girls are gyrating, Angel, my assistant and I jump in and out of the tree box and then scamper over the tree skirt.  We jointly roll it in a ball.  The girls are incensed because they are holding the tree and have to put the tree down to straighten the skirt before putting on the lights. This leads to high pitched shrieking, “Get the cats out of here!”  I am so-o proud.  I stare at them dispassionately as if I don’t know the trouble I have caused.

 

After the lights, come the balls, this is my favorite part of tree decorating. The girls are told by the mistress to only put unbreakable balls near the bottom of the tree because of the CATS (That’s Angel and me).  We are capable of batting the ornaments off the lower limbs throughout the Christmas season. I take great pride in planning a stealthy attack on the tree most nights.  The most precious ornaments, the glass birds with feathers are at the top of the tree.

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Glorious glass birds-Oh for just one bite!

This causes me great angst.  I spend hours patiently waiting at the bottom of the tree for one of these beauties to miraculously fall into my mouth.  I did manage to break one of the six collectible eggs from Prague this year.  My pride overflows at this feat!  Like an Agatha Christie play, now there are only five.  I have nine lives so I’m sure to finish them off before I go to the great beyond.

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Hand painted egg from Prague. Poof-Gone!

 

We are ten days out from Christmas. Angel has taken to chewing on the poinsettia flowers, scattered around the house. This shows you her tiny brain, poinsettias are poisonous.  I, of course, am above nibbling on stupid plants. I have much bigger fish to fry. I have managed to knock the peasants littering my stairway perch down three times, a major accomplishment.  This act causes a lot of frenetic human activity as the silly stuffed toys are replaced. As if they were adding to my home—which any cat knows they are not.

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Angel eats these. Silly Cat!

 

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Useless peons on stairs. These things have got to go!

Yesterday, I discovered the hiding place for the catnip toys that go in my stocking. I knocked over the basket holding my gifts and tore off the tissue paper.   I had just about torn into my surprise when my mistress chased me out of the Christmas room. She almost slammed the door on my tail!

 

Today, my college boy emailed a cartoon of me to my mistress (see link below) I didn’t realize others found me as attractive as my family does.  My favorite ploy is to ask to go out and then sit at the open door staring at nothing.  The MAN has taken to counting to 3 and shutting the door.  The mistress pulls me out by my collar. The teenager ignores me the same way I ignore her.

http://www.businesscat.happyjar.com/comic/elevator/

I am having a very merry, naughty Christmas. I wish the same to all you cyber cats out there.

 

What is your International Travel Quota?

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Ten day trip to Spain sorted out the adventuers from the mere travelers. There wasn’t a tourist with us

I am traveling with my family through Spain for Thanksgiving week, a total of ten days. We spent three nights in Madrid, three nights in Barcelona and today we flew to Bilbao for three nights before flying home on Monday to Boise. There are three of us in our group; my husband, Peter, my daughter, Kayla (age 16) and myself. My son, Scott is spending a semester in Bilbao with the University of Idaho exchange program. He is a senior majoring in finance and accounting with a minor in math.

When he was getting ready to leave Boise, he warned us that he might not have time to see us. But it turns out he only has classes Monday through Wednesday with four day weekends. He has used his long weekends well traveling with friends to Portugal, Barcelona, and Amsterdam.

Last weekend he took a five hour roundtrip bus trip from Bilbao to meet us. He stayed in a hostel near our three star hotel.  His visit led me to the theme of this week’s blog. To travel well and happily you need to know yourself.

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Scott is a true adventurer, traveling through Spain, Portugal, France, and Denmark on a limited buget. He uses public transportation, hostels and carries everthing in a backpack.

Scott has turned into an adventurer. He carries what he needs in a backpack. He is facile with apps on his phone for directions, tickets and other travel necessities. He uses mass transit or Uber everywhere he goes. He finds ways to do things on the cheap utilizing hostels or crashing with friends. He has made trips all over Europe on a limited budget.

Pete, Kayla and I are travellers. Kayla and I have travelled extensively, Pete not so much. But a traveller has a distinctive style. We all carry a single bag that meets airport boarding standards and a backpack. The rule is that you have to be able to handle your own luggage easily. The three of  us spent 13 days in China with a large group. We managed with our roller bags while others piled up massive suitcases to load on the buses. Pete and I actually put everything in the overhead when we went to Prague and Vienna a number of years ago.

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Pete, Kayla and I are travellers. We spend unstructured days but stay in nice hotels and have our travel booked.

Travellers have some explorer in them. They will take off without a firm schedule. But unlike the true adventure, a traveller wants to know they have a room at night and  skip the line tickets for the big tourist showcases such as the Vatican.

The final category is tourist. This is the individual who wants every detail planned to the last second, excursions planned before you leave home and no worries about transportation or luggage size. Most foreign travellers are tourists. We see buses full of tourists where ever we go. The cruise tour is the ultimate luxury for the tourist, one doesn’t even need to move their baggage during the entire journey. I doubt I will go on a cruise in my lifetime. As a traveller, I would find it confining.

All of us have a little of each of these wanders in us. When my family went to China as tourists, I felt confined by the buses but would have been uncomfortable in the jammed streets with the  foriegn language and street signs without a guide.

Last spring in England, my sister and I rented a car and drove through England, Whales, and Scotland. We were mainly travellers because we had a destination each night but during the day we were adventures left to the mercy of the GPS. Fortunately, we know English.

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My sister Jane and I on a driving trip of England, Whales, and Scotland. Here we are a Loch Ness. The winding narroe road tested our adventurer spirits.

I am thrilled my son has turned into an adventurer. He plans on skiing in Southern France for 4 days for $200 to $300 Euros including room, lifts, equipment before returning to Idaho for Christmas. He will borrow clothes though he owns some of the best ski equipment in the world back in Boise. As an adventurer, who knows what places he’ll go or sights he’ll see.

I am pleased to be a traveller. I savor the freedom of an unplanned day where we can take a siesta, eat late, outside on a Spanish square with heat lamps going.

But I understand the tourist with their need to control their trip and keep their possessions with them.

The key to successful foriegn journeys is understanding: “Are you an adventurer, a traveller, or a tourist?”

Putting an adventurer on a tourist excursion will lead to great discontent for the tourists and adventurer.   A tourist on an unscheduled adventure will probably suffer great anxiety. There is no correct adventure quota but knowing who you are and the styles of your fellow travel partners will result in a much more successful trip.

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Puppy at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. Who knows what dites you’ll see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Bond in Spectre; a solo kite dancing in a hurricane!

Spectre has gadgets, violence, and plot twists.
Spectre has gadgets, violence, and plot twists.

I was introduced to Ian Flemming’s James Bond, British Secret Service agent 007 at our 1969 high school graduation party. Sean Connery played the tough, elegant Bond in Dr No (1962).

Released in 1962, the first of the continuous Bond franchise.
Released in 1962, the first of the continuous Bond franchise.

My primary memory of the movie was: 1. We had to get parental permission slips to attend because Mr. Bond had a tendency to jump into bed with almost every woman he met; 2.  Sean Connery was good looking but not desirable because he smoked;

Sean Connery the first Bond set the tone for future Bonds, aloof, womanizing, narcissist.
Sean Connery the first Bond set the tone for future Bonds, aloof, womanizing, narcissist.

3. There were wonderful wild gadgets to surprise and amuse; 4. There was substantial violence (tame by today’s standards) and 5. The plot was really convoluted.

Over fifty years later (24 James Bond films and 8 James Bonds), Spectre (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is still taunting Bond.  Daniel Craig has now played Bond four times (Casino Royale 2006; Quantum Solace 2008; Skyfall 2012). For anyone born in the 1980s or later, Craig is James Bond.

Daniel Craig, thank to Bond is one of the most recognizable faces from Britain.
Daniel Craig, thank to Bond is one of the most recognizable faces from Britain.

For those of us who have seen the other Bonds, Craig is by far the grittiest, toughest, enigmatic, and athletic of the Bonds. Craig’s Bond is impeccably dressed. In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently touted Spectre’s Bond as a premier fashion icon for men.   But Craig’s clothes are just a veneer for Bond, the consummate loner who uses and abuses his fellow agents, has street-smarts, is capable of daring feats and whose moral compass is out of sync with bureaucracy. After 50 years, Bond is still able to get any woman into bed.  Craig makes a great male lead in an action movie; he not only looks the part but he has the ability to bring to film this sense of isolation and total focus.  For me, his most memorable performance was in  A Girl with a Dragon Tattoo as the reporter trying to find a child who disappeared many years before.  His best Bond was his first, Casino Royale.

2015 has been a hard year for counter intelligence groups in the movies. As I reported in an earlier blog, the Mission Impossible team was disbanded by the CIA.  The British government suspends the 007 group under the leadership of M (Ralph Fiennes).   In Mission Impossible, the team regroups outside the boundaries of their agency.  In Spectre, M orders Q and Moneypenny to disengage because their efforts will hinder Bond.  The film further reemphasizes the solo nature of Bond, when Mr. White, a long-term Bond nemesis tells Bond that he “is a kite dancing in a hurricane.”

Monica Bellucci at 50 is Bond's oldest and possibly quickest female conquest.
Monica Bellucci at 50 is Bond’s oldest and possibly quickest female conquest.

Spectre, as promised, is a gargantuan spectacle, a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. Viewers are treated to a visual feast of exotic locales across the world; Mexico City, London, Rome, Austria, Morocco.  There are action scenes with a uniquely equipped spy car (a Bond signature item), airplanes, and many helicopters (apparently the preferred mode of travel for 2015 good guys and bad guys). There are formulaic gadgets and violence aplenty. Bond always a womanizer seduces two beautiful women, one with literally only an introduction.

There are layers upon layers of storylines from previous Bond movies amazingly circling back to an old family connection.

Ultimately, Spectre is not one of the great James Bond movies.  The movie feels bloated as if the writers felt compelled to include every imaginable plot twist and the cost to make of over $300 million reinforces this failure to edit.

All 24 Bond movies showcase a special spy car.
All 24 Bond movies showcase a special spy car.

The car chase goes on and on, the train fight occurs on a train where everyone has disappeared including the kitchen staff, drills into Bond’s head have no impact on him; amazingly he seems energized by this torture.

I personally have never found the Bond franchise as appealing as some other action movies, partially because the movies are so-o-o sexist.  In the 60’s when Bond came of age, women jumping in and out of bed seemed risqué but not totally implausible, partially because Bond was such a male stereotype.  As the world has changed, Bond has evolved into a strong, energetic, complex man.  Given fifty years of women’s rights, AIDS and STDs,  Bond women have not transformed appropriately. Does anyone think a 50 year old widow on the day of her husband’s funeral and who just escaped two assassins would be so sexually starved or find Bond so attractive that she would allow herself to be seduced standing up on first meeting.  This woman exists only in men’s fantasy worlds.  Ultimately, Mr. White was right.  Mr. Craig in Spectre is a kite dancing in hurricane, an exceptional actor dancing in a plot that is awhirl with nonsense, noise, and flash.

They Shoot Wild Horses Don’t They?

Wild, wild horses we will ride them someday (Jagger/ Richards, 1970)

Captives from the wild Captives from the wild

When I was a little girl growing up in Wyoming, horseback riding was my passion– almost an obsession. We were town-people in ranch country making access to horses somewhat onerous. When I took lessons on my rented horse Suzie, I would come home with blood dripping down the inside of my knees, saddle sores from gripping the saddle so hard in my efforts to perfect sitting in the seat of a western saddle.  In 5th grade, I looked out the window of our home. Dad had pulled up front with a horse trailer and bay quarter horse.  My very own horse—Debbie! It was love at first sight. While nowadays my children play soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball on the weekend, when I was growing up I rode Debbie whenever I could beg someone to drive me to the pasture.  My parents sold Debbie when I was a freshman in college.  Debbie wasn’t getting any attention and the funds for boarding were needed to help pay for my schooling.

Budweiser Clydesdale on display--gentle giants Budweiser Clydesdale on display–gentle giants

I haven’t owned a horse since but I ride whenever I get a chance. I follow horses.  I have seen the magnificent draft horses at the Montana State Fair, the Clysdales when they were housed in Fort Collins.

I have attended an Arabian Horse Sale in Scottsdale, Arizona where several horses went for over a million dollars.

Arabian Horse Show for Millionaires Arabian Horse Show for Millionaires

I have also seen the Lipizzans perform in Vienna.

Lippizzan in Vienna Lippizzan in Vienna

No surprise that when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) advertises  Wild Horse Auctions in Boise, I drove out to see the captured herd, remnants of America’s great western plains legacy.

The first horses came to American in the 1500s with the Spanish Conquistadors. When the Spaniards left, they left behind what was to become the wild horse herds roaming the Great Plains.

The horse transformed Native American's culture. The horse transformed Native American’s culture.

These wild horses or mustangs transformed Native Americans from hunters and gatherers on foot into fierce warriors capable of traveling long distances, hunting Buffalo and bedeviling white settlers and the Army.

New technology and the establishment of Indian reservations made the horse obsolete as a work animal by the beginning of the 19th Century. Wild horses were routinely shot wherever they interfered with cattle ranching.  In 1938 after the great drought, Congress created the United States Grazing Service later to become the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM was responsible for regulating 143 million acres (261 million today) of public lands primarily in 10 western states, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico,  Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. Given the strong influence of ranchers on the BLM, the policy for wild horses remained to destroy them either through poisoning of water holes or paying bounty hunters to shoot the horses. The program was stunningly effective between 1946 and 1950, over 100,000 wild horses in Nevada were reduced to 4000 animals.  Because of public outcry over this needless slaughter Congress passed legislation in 1971 designed to manage and protect the remaining wild horses.

Horses up for adoption Horses up for adoption

The horses up for adoption in Boise are a direct outgrowth of the 1971 legislation. Today, over 30,000 wild horses roam free in the west. But another 50,000 are kept in holding pens by the BLM. The holding program costs $42 million of the BLM’s  $72 million allotment for the wild horse program. Whenever the number of free horses, exceeds the BLM targets, the wild horses are rounded up.  The goal is to reduce the herd to the BLM’s lowest target number. I visited with the BLM horse program manager in Boise and he said the targets are scientifically established based on the number of horses which can be sustained in a multi-use environment.  Once the horses are rounded up, the BLM hosts auctions to adopt the young horses.  At next week’s auction there will be 24 fillies and 17 geldings all under a year old.  Given the high cost of maintaining a horse in today’s world, it is not surprising that many horses are not adopted. These Boise horses were harvested from Black Mountain, Hardtrigger, and Sands Basin because of the recent fires in Idaho.  In addition to the 41 wild colts, there is one halter trained horse available from the BLM 4-H program and one horse returned because an individual adopted in excess of BLM policy.

4-H trained mustang colt 4-H trained mustang colt

The wild horse adoption program has come under severe criticism this month for allowing a single Colorado rancher to adopt 1800 horses. The Inspector General determined the rancher shipped the horses to Mexico for slaughter, successfully avoiding the laws against killing wild horses in the United States. Because of this expose, the number of horses any one owner can adopt is 4 horses in six months.

Returned Horse from buyer who took too many. Returned Horse from buyer who took too many.

The BLM program manager I talked to said he was very concerned with the long-term prospects for the wild horse program. Given a Congress intent on saving money and the costs of maintaining large numbers of penned up horses increasing,  the time seems ripe for new ideas on mustang management.  Recommendations from experts include better reproduction management, collaboration among all stakeholders to better protect the native eco-system, and placing the needs of the wild horses first rather than beginning with arbitrary range management statics.  I have no easy solution to advocate. After  spending a crisp fall afternoon watching once free horses nervously run in pens, I believe we need to find a way to sustain these gorgeous symbols of freedom and the old west in the wild.

Wild Horses and open range are our western legacy Wild Horses and open range are our western legacy

Mission Impossible: The Quintessential Team

Mission Impossible planEthan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team have been roaming the world searching out bad guys in the commercially and critically acclaimed Mission Impossible (MI) series since 1996. In the newest of four sequels, MI–Rogue Nation, Cruise and his buddies, the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), are dismantled by a Congressional Committee at the behest of the CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin).  Director Hunley, viewing Hunt a threat to America’s interests, commits all of the CIA’s vast resources to tracking Hunt down.  While the CIA is seeking Hunt, a network of former undercover operatives initiates a series of terrorists’ attacks to destabilize existing governments and establish a new world order ( a’la the Rogue Nation).  The plot hinges on Hunt’s ability to outwit the CIA while he and his IMF team root out the leadership of the Syndicate.

Cruise in 1996, Jerry McGuire
Cruise in 1996, Jerry McGuire

The movie has everything you would expect from a blockbuster; i.e.a big movie star, Tom Cruise, who had both Renee Zellweger and me, “At Hello!” in Jerry McGuire (1996). Cruise, now 53, is still in great physical shape and exudes quiet confidence. Hunt’s persona remains incredibly consistent through all five movies; the loner who establishes immense loyalty among the men and women he leads, propelled to do impossible feats by adrenal, shear willpower and commitment to his country.  Sexually attractive to women, he is unable to commit because his first love is the mission. The haunting Mission Impossible theme song (Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen) with the strong beat, recognizable to most Americans, strings the sequels together as does the continuation of members of the IMF team .  Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) has been in all five movies,  Benjamin “Bengi” Dunn (Simon Pegg) in the last three, and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) in the last two.

Rebecca Ferguson provides a role model of a strong woman committed to the team
Rebecca Ferguson provides a role model of a strong woman committed to the team

Newcomer Rebecca Ferguson, playing British agent Ilsa Faust, provides a strong female protagonist and  positive role model of the capabilities of women.

Rogue Nation engulfs viewers in a great motor cycle chase, impossible under water aquabatics, roof and plane jumping, guns, bombs, torture, fighting and surprising impersonations.  The plot line is propelled by dazzling techno/gizmos, disappearing data, and improbable security breaches. Needless to say, this is Tom Cruise and his team so in the end America and Europe are saved and  the Syndicate is annihilated.  While there is no surprise to the overall plot , there are lots of fun twists and turns throughout. Attending an $3 afternoon show at a second run theater, I certainly got my money’s worth.

teamThe five series Mission Impossible juggernaut, running 19  plus years  and amassing $2 billion worldwide, is propelled by a series of consistent themes.  The IMG team continues to resonate with viewers because  the core relationships are founded in the reality of successful  work teams. The  eight winning characteristics of the IMF team include:

  1. Ability to execute
  2. Focused on solutions
  3. Flexible/adaptable as the situation changes
  4. Proactive
  5. Loyal
  6. Trustworthy
  7. Organized
  8. Respect for and reliance on the unique skills of the team members regardless of gender

Every day business spends a fortune attempting to create the 8 facets of the successful IMF team culture. The next time your boss suggests a team building exercise, why don’t you propose going to Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation instead.team 2

In 1974 on Casper Mountain, I learned fairness and equity go hand in hand

Elton John Taco Bell Arena, October 2015
Elton John Taco Bell Arena, October 2015

Last weekend I attended the Elton John Final Curtain concert at Boise’s Taco Bell Arena. During one of his songs, a picture of a wedding cake with two men on top flashed on the big screen bringing a huge shout out from the 12,000 fans.  This response to gay marriage in Idaho, absolutely amazing! One year ago this week, Idaho allowed gay and lesbian marriage.  Our Governor and legislature fought this action every step of the way in the courts.  Idaho taxes paid $457,000 for this staunch opposition.  This week on public radio there was an interview with the one of the lesbian couples in the legal challenge.  Asked how their lives were different, they said they were able to return to normalcy without stress of one court action after another.  As a married couple, they now have legal benefits such as medical insurance, ownership of a home and being named on their child’s birth certificate.

This discussion led me back to the summer of 1974, a summer memorable because of Watergate and President Nixon’s resignation in August.   The summer of 1974 is memorable to me because it was the first time I confronted  gay and lesbian rights. I spent the summer on Casper Mountain as a camp counselor at a Girl Scout Horseback Camp.  In my first year of graduate school, I was lead counselor for a large number of girls and several other counselors.  The camp was over enrolled. Leaders were responsible for planning one meal a day outside.  We were in tents up a mountain side with wooden floors. I remember spending many evenings out in the rain, wrapped in a green plastic tarp with a shovel dredging around the wood floor to keep sheets of water out of the tent.  Or trying to get a campfire going to feed hungry girls as the rain slogged down. We were on horseback, the main activity of the camp, rain or shine, every day.  We spent two weeks up the mountain, a weekend off and then 2 weeks on all summer long.  I would visit my aunt in Casper on my weekends off, where she would soak my muddy socks in bleach and I would luxuriate in a bath and understand the lavishness of having a bed with clean sheets.  Otherwise, we were isolated up a mountain with only women and girls 24- 7.

About 4 weeks in, the counselors were called to an all staff meeting where it was announced that two of the counselors were sleeping together. Gay issues were definitely in the closet in Wyoming in the seventies.  As a graduate student at Arizona State University in sociology, a huge campus in a liberal discipline, I wasn’t totally naïve about sexuality.  But it took me a minute to wrap my mind around the dialogue.  There were two counselors in every tent and all the girls, so of course, we were all sleeping together.  Since lesbianism wasn’t openly discussed, I didn’t immediately grasp that we were talking about two camp counselors having an affair.  I remember general outrage among other counselors.  The final outcome was that two  women couldn’t share a tent or see each other socially during the camp because those of us with boyfriends weren’t able to see our ‘men” while on duty up the mountain. Looking back on that discussion now, I am amazed that we discussed it openly, resolved it based on the issue of equity and went back to slinging real mud out of tents precariously perched on rough terrain.

Since then, I have reflected on my Aunts Florance (Florrie), a giant red-haired woman and Lillian, petite sparrow-like creature. As kids in the fifities, we would go to South Carolina, visit my dad’s family including his mother, brothers and these two spinster aunts who lived together. I would wonder on the vast differences in their appearance and was never sure of Lillian’s relationship to us. Florrie clearly looked and acted like my dad’s side of the family.  Now I recognize that Florrie and Lillian were probably lovers living under the cover of spinster aunts. I am sure that in the small southern community of Lancaster, South Carolina the relationship was known and accepted if not necessarily endorsed.

In the sixties in Cheyenne, Wyoming, we had two teachers who lived together; Miss Kepner, the PE teacher and Miss Shubert, the choir director. They were known for their great teaching skills, their hard-nosed grading and for being peculiar.  A few summers ago, I was back in Wyoming visiting friends.  I saw Miss Kepner helping an extremely frail Miss Shubert to a park bench. They sat down and Miss Shubert leaned her head on Miss Kepner shoulder.  Such a small jester, but a clear image of intimacy, I actually felt like a voyeur.

In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same sex married. At that time, CNN noted, 60% of Americans opposed gay married.  Between 2003 and 2015, the percentage of Americans supporting gay marriage rose to 55% (Pew Research Center).  In 1974 on Casper Mountain, young women helping educate America’s future leaders decided that same sex dating was not a problem but an issue of fairness.  Swamped with mud and focused on getting through the day, we were too busy to judge people and their private lives, but we wanted everyone treated the same.  Between 1974 and 2014, most Americans came to the same conclusion:   Fairness demands that we be able to protect the rights of those we love through marriage.

Fairness and equity go hand in hand
Fairness and equity go hand in hand