Weston Luke Guiltner
December 20th, 2006-September 16th, 2008
There aren’t many times in life where I’m speechless. There are less times which I’m brought to tears. Today, unfortunately, both have happened.
I have posted “RIP” blogs before, all pertaining to celebrities. Never in a million years would I have expected to have to write one about this amazing child. On September 16th, 2008, Weston Luke Guiltner left this world. You know, it is just like a friend of mine said: “He must have been really special if God needed him again,” and he was. He really was.
I had the privilege of being around this boy for the first 5 months of his life, during rehearsals and State competition. He was always so happy. I remember, during competition, he would just crack up whenever he heard the word “lunch”. Then he spit up in Sean Kerrigan’s lunch…and just laughed about it. And made us all bust our sides laughing. He was the typical “bundle of joy” which people use to describe babies all the time, and then some. Even when the Guiltners moved away from us, you just knew how much of a great kid he was through the blog posts Clay posted about him. I can’t remember a picture of Weston where he wasn’t smiling.
For those who don’t know this, Clay Guiltner was the drama instructor for our school, which is why Weston was at all of our rehearsals and State competition. Today, our drama troupe all found out about Weston together, and we all reacted in the same way. Anger, sadness…then reminiscence. Then, joy. Weston was, and still is, an honorary member of Troupe 4061, and we all knew that he wouldn’t want us to be sad for him. He would want us to laugh, and smile, which he had us do everytime we saw his face.
The (horribly edited) picture above is, unfortunately, the only one I have with me and Weston in it. Now I will cherish this picture forever. And everytime I see it, I will look right at Weston, and smile, thinking about him cheering us all on in Heaven, saying: “We’re number one, Troupe 4061!”
My thoughts and prayers go out to the Guiltner family, and everyone in the Troupe is keeping you all in our thoughts, and in our hearts.
Seven years later…We move on.
For those who have forgotten, it has been 7 years since the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Since the attack on America. I remember, every year since then, during school, there would always be a moment of silence for those who lost their lives that fateful day. The media would always have some documentary or archived footage playing throughout the day from 9/11/2001.
What happened today?
School. The announcements come on. We stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. We sit. The announcements are made. We wait for that moment when they say, “and now, if you will, a moment of silence for those who lost their lives x years ago…,” but it never comes. “Have a great day, Gateway.” That’s it. Some students don’t notice. Some students make their, “Gee, that was strange,” look. Me? I was maybe the only one who realized that this could very well be the year that we have finally moved on.
School ends. I go home, and immediately turn on the television. I change to MSNBC, expecting some kind of footage from that day playing, and some 40-50 somethings discussing the impact. What do I see? Oil price gouging. Normal news. This goes on for a while, then it is mentioned that Obama and McCain would be at Ground Zero today to visit those families who were affected that day. Strictly political. Then, the news carries on.
Is this whole “moving on” thing…a good thing? Sure it is. “Moving on”. Putting it in the past, and looking toward the future.
But, by moving on, do we sacrifice something greater? Do we start to forget? They told us to “Never Forget” though. I saw the pins and the buttons and the bumper stickers. I also saw them disappear, slowly.
“Never Forget”? “Moving on”? What will we do? You surely can’t move on without forgetting…and if you never forget, you can never move on. Those two phrases don’t work together. So which will America choose?
Judging by experience, we got our answer today, during those announcements, talking with friends, watching the news.
I got an idea. From now on, let’s just choose to remember during the years with the nice, round numbers. 10th anniversaries…15h….and so on. It’s worked for us in the past.
The Cable Guy (Infotainment)
An Under-appreciated movie.
The first time I ever saw this flick, I found it to be mildly funny because of Jim Carrey’s usual silly shtick. This was when I was, maybe, 6-7 years old. When I got the blessing of having Cinemax for free this week (an event I wait every year for), I got to see it again, unedited, as a teenager (young adult?).
I now appreciate this movie more than ever before. I suppose it was Carrey’s first toe in the water of dramatic acting (he plays a tragic psychopath, for crying out loud), and I found that I enjoyed this better than…most “other” movies (see: The Majestic). It definitely gets its message across (that humans [Americans] spend just too much time and care on Television), and this message is just as true today as it was in the mid 1990s. The fictional case portrayed in the movie about the guy who killed his twin brother (who was a famous child actor) could be related to any of the other news stories that we waste our lives paying attention to (from OJ to MJ). All of these distractions to real life. Infotainment.
It’s ironic, how the very message this movie tries to convey is told through a movie. A kind of poetic irony, I suppose.
Anyway, PS, if you haven’t seen this movie for a while, I suggest you watch it once or twice more. If not for the message, just for the entertaining formula of Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Jack Black (one of his very early movies), and Ben Stiller (his directing debut, I believe). As the first “frat pack” movie (reportedly), it is definitely one “Black Comedy” worth seeing.
Once a geek, always a geek.
Ahh, my favorite masks in the world...
I recently ran for Senior Class President (and a few of my Drama Club [DC] friends ran for other offices). I campaigned fairly hard (made campaign videos and shared the link amongst the seniors, gave out cards, etc). I ended up not winning the election (nor did any of my friends, who campaigned harder than I did), losing to the “popular” kid. Me being obviously troubled, my dad comes to me and asks me what’s wrong. I tell him what was wrong. I got really attached to the possibility (and, at one point, it did look very possible) that I could be president, and I could actually help out my student body. Actually represent them well. Deliver on my promises (rather than make impossible promises like these popular kids made). My father says, “You know why you lost, right?”
“You are in Drama. The Drama Geeks back when I was in high school were just as popular as you are. Just as popular as commercializing moist socks.” (okay, I embellished a little bit, but that was the gist of it)
Drama Geek. A label. One that has been around for at least two generations.
The sad truth about it is that my father was right. I remember one of my friends (who was running for office) telling me that one of the students told him that because we were in Drama Club, we could just be “acting” like good candidates.
It’s ridiculous.
I have deduced, however, that if I had to make the choice of being a Drama Geek or Senior Class President, I would line up to the earliest audition. It has been like this for years….decades…..CENTURIES! And it will be like this for generations to come. I decided I might as well embrace it.
Gateway got the President it deserves, and if the school should fall due to his leadership, the DC shall still prevail and rise up from the ashes. This time next year, the barriers will be broken, and I will help a Drama Geek become President. This is another promise that I intend to keep.
