The Day the Sun Stood Still in Grand Rapids

I know a man who recently found out he didn't have cancer. Of course, that didn't make the months of doctor visits any easier. He fretted as much as someone who did have cancer, worried just as much about his finances, his health insurance and life insurance, his parents being forced to watch him die as they themselves faced health challenges, a dependent and loving wife, and children so little they wouldn't even have memories of a father.[1]

Many years ago the Grand Rapids Press movie reviewer John Douglas wrote an article while sitting in local restaurant about watching a glowing red sun rise over the city skyline; the restaurant had a lot of glass and was near downtown, may have been the Big Boy near the YMCA on Pearl, which I like myself, but I don't recall. After a while he realized that the sun wasn't moving, and hung just as bright, just as low, as it had a few minutes earlier. As the sky lightened, he realized he'd been looking at the Grand Rapids Weatherball, which used to be atop the Michigan National Bank building.

http://www.wzzm13.com/weather/article/118804/14/The-Story-of-the-13-Weatherball➚

His point was that it didn't matter at that moment that he was looking at the Weatherball and not the sun. His emotional connection was just as real, perhaps even more real, especially for a movie reviewer, since the Weatherball probably captured something quintessentially "sunrisy" at that moment, just as the unnaturally vivid colors of an old Technicolor film lends a suspensive[2] quality that real life simply doesn't have.

I groaned when I read that, as did some coworkers at the time, since we didn't have much regard for his reviews[3], but he was right. His opinions of movies affected my ability to appreciate his opinion of the sunrise, and I interpreted things much more starkly in those days.

[1]
He said the worst part was the thought that his children would not remember him, and that he would not be here to protect them.

[2]
I'm going to alter usage a bit here; I mean this in the sense that Technicolor lifts the suspension of disbelief a little higher. There is only one processing plant that still turns out Technicolor prints, last time I looked; it was in China, and it may not do it anymore. Any color enhancement of course can do this; films about the Old West are often filtered to enhance browns and yellows.

[3]
Mr Douglas was very eloquent on the radio and a joy to listen to; in fact, it was difficult to imagine that the man behind the voice was the same man behind the newspaper column. I don't think he's still on the air, but he used to do movie reviews on a local radio station. His website hasn't been updated for a while, but he is still working with movies.

http://www.johnadouglas.com/➚