Month: January 2003

I’ve just watched most of Armageddon on BBC TV again and it started my mind wandering.

Basically, the film is about an asteroid “the size of Texas” heading for Earth and a bunch of oil drillers being sent up to the asteroid to “nuke” it from the inside. Part way through the film, Nasa Mission Control thinks they’ve lost the Independence shuttle and crew in the asteroid’s debris as it tries to land on the shuttle. The crew includes AJ (Ben Affleck) who is Grace’s (Liv Tyler) boyfriend. Grace is still in mission control and is obviously extremely upset at the loss of her boyfriend. Then the other shuttle – Freedom – lands on the asteroid and lose contact with Mission Control: making them think that both shuttles have gone missing. Grace is devastated because the second shuttle contained her father (Bruce Willis) – and, from what I can work out, her only living relative.

That got me thinking – what would I do if all my immediate family were killed? Would I cope? What would I do? And who would ask to come with me to lend moral support at the funerals? Whilst I’m close to my GESF, we’ve only met each other once (well, over 3 days) and we’re just close friends at the moment – so would it be “wrong” for me to ask? Or how about my ex-fiancee who I was with for around 3 years and who actually knew my family extremely well – or would it be “wrong” to contact an ex for something like that?

Luckily, I’ve “only” had to attend one funeral in my life (my Great-grandmother’s around 2 years ago), but then I had my entire family and my fiancee with me. But what would it be like if I suddenly had nobody?

It’s not really a nice thing to think about, but it is brain provoking.