Friday, September 30, 2016

too fast to live, too young to die, bye bye














I have been to the spot many times.  Many times, but a few years back decided to stop.  Not quite what I expected, but then I wasn’t sure what I expected either.  Tucked away but still in view from the road, harder to see at 80 than at the posted speed, it sits.  The day we stopped it was cold and windy, and the place was a mess.  Unkempt is a better description, and it looked like it just wasn’t the wind that did it.  And it was almost bizarre, it was supposed to be a memorial, yet it didn’t bring back any memories of what I had read about the man.  Isn’t that what a memorial is supposed to do?  But there it sits, subsidized by a Japanese group no less, to the King of Cool.  No not McQueen, he was still a few years away, but to a young actor who died before his last picture was released, another racer who acted, who rode Triumphs, smoked Lucky’s, and raced Porsches.  In case you haven’t guessed the name of this famous Indiana born man, his name was, and probably still is, James Dean.  And on this day in 1955, September 30, he died in a bloody car crash.  Like the Eagles song, “you were to fast to live, to young to die, bye bye.” 
On our last trip through the Indiana countryside, we visited the house where he was born.  Nothing cool about it, or where it was, just a farm house in the community of Fairmount, Indiana.  He was marginally famous, he was the “Rebel Without a Cause,” and his chopped Merc was more recognizable.  Just 24, he was young, talented, and had a bright future ahead, had just completed his third film with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, what he didn’t know was what lied ahead.  A young college student in a 1950 Ford, Donald Turnupseed, pulled in front of him, and Dean driving his Porsche, never saw him, the afternoon sun was blinding him, and he t-boned him, killing him instantly.  He had just fueled up at a station in Blackwells Corners, where the memorial stands today, and even the roads are different now.  State Highway 41 is still there, the site of the memorial, but State Road 446 is now 46, and has been rerouted.  How many times we have taken the road from Paso Robles to Tulare, going on either road at the intersection, and each time thinking of his crash.  An intersection I always drive extra carefully, just in case.  Dean was the only fatality, both Turnupseed and Dean’s mechanic who was riding with him survived.  How would you like to have a last name of Turnupseed and live your life knowing you killed a legend?
And the Porsche also maintains a special enigma around its demise, as as it passed from owner to owner, and was put on public display, to warn of driving too fast, all crashes happen at zero miles per hour, the speed getting them to the impact is the contributing factor, and was lost for awhile.  Mystery surrounding it, and stories, some verified, some lore, about those who became connected with it had similar bad fates.  Then mysteriously disappeared for 55 years, and may have recently surfaced again.  Believe what you will, and we will, the whole story and tragic ending is one made for Hollywood, so sad they never stepped up and built the memorial. 
Just like the day you were born, the day you die is a mystery to you.  You have no control over either, but you do of the days in between.  Looking back we can ask “why didn’t he go another way?”  “What if he was going slower?  Faster?  What if Turnupseed had hesitated for a moment?  What if Jimmy had gone back for a Coke, or to smoke another Lucky?”  The what ifs continue, and not just in history or legends, but in our lives too.  What if I hadn’t made a trip to California when I did?  And not met John, not run on the beach in Venice?  What if I hadn’t lived behind Brennan, gone to high school with him, worked at Sears with him?  What if one of those events hadn’t happened, would I still be saved?  Would I know Jesus?  We can dream, make up scenarios, and some even try to change history, but the fact is all are true, and they happened as planned by God, way back in the beginning.  His plans for you are for you, by him.  tough times, good times, times of rides that never end, rides that end up being life flighted.  Rides alone, rides with the ones you love.  And rides you choose to take with God, by his spirit, with Jesus Christ, his son. 
Romans 8 pretty well covers what came separate us from that love.  Nothing.  Shall trouble, persecution, hardship, famine, nakedness, or peril of sword separate from the love of God?  What about supernatural forces, but Paul emphasizes nothing can separate us from his love.  And for those who are saved, we will enjoy heaven eternally with him, for we will be eternally in his presence.  Yet some forget we are now also, and in the midst of a trial forget that if God is for us, who can be against us?  And that all things work together for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.  His purpose, is Jesus Christ, whom he sent to save you, to reunite us with him after Adam’s sin.  Tough times remind us of how he is with us, and the good times following remind us of our salvation, if they hadn’t worked together, we are not called according to his purpose, and deny Jesus.  Sometimes in the midst of despair we need reminding, we don’t know when the trial will end, but we persevere.  We hang in there.  And we love God because of what he did for us, how he took us through.  And maybe repent of how we had to be dragged kicking and screaming.  His love is greater than all evils, and anything the world can throw at it.  Nothing can separate us form the love of the Lord.  Nothing.
So what about James Dean? The answer is I don’t know, he is best remembered sadly for his crash, his movies, his race car.  His motorcycle.  But maybe his last PSA, public service announcement may serve as a warning to us all.  In it he talks of safe driving, and tells us “be careful out there, the life you save may be mine.”  Adlibbed from “the life you save may be your own” on the script.  How prophetic. And never aired as he died shortly after ward.  But his last words, just before the crash should be taken to heart.  “Doesn’t he see us?  He’s gonna hit us...”  Aren’t you glad God sees everything?  Don’t you wish James had.  Cool won’t get you to heaven, only knowing Jesus will.  Now that’s cool, too cool for school.  A man with a real cause.  A rebel in and of love.  And the life he saved is mine.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com