Element Bending.

My kids enjoy watching Avatar, The Last Airbender. Then something extraordinary happened. They made a movie! Yay! We watched the ads for the movie over and over with "This film is not yet rated" for many many weeks. Finally, about a week before the release date, which changed from July 2 to July 1, they pinned a rating. PG. Cool. We could take the kids. We are diehards when it comes to ratings. But PG is doable. Well, usually it means we will buy it and watch it at home. But since it's summer and my kids love the series, we decided The Last Airbender would be a family movie experience.

So we put it on the calendar. July 10. Matinee. Popcorn. Licorice. Cold theater. Assigned seats. As the day came closer, I found myself watching the series with the kids. I love what those people can do. The benders. Water, Air, Earth, Fire. Amazing. Ruthie would bend water in the tub. They would all bend earth outside in the garden. We can all bend air by just moving our arms really fast. Fire is a little harder to do. I don't let them play with matches.

Here is what they all bend...
Isaac-Air
Sam-Earth
Ruthie-Fire
At least that's what they bend today. All I have to do is ask. On Saturday as we drove to the theater we all chose what element we can bend. They were all picked by the time I got to choose. So I chose to be the Avatar. Bend it all. And this is how I'd use it:

Air-Blow the barn and/or skunk stink out of the neighborhood when necessary. Cool off the cake quicker so I can frost it quicker so I can taste it quicker. Create dust storms when I felt I wanted a dust storm.

Water-You know how I feel about water. I would use this bending skill to water the garden. Water the lawn. Get my kids wet when it's hot. Make a floating swimming area in the yard and all they would have to do is step out of it to be out. Shower myself when camping.

Earth-Prepare the garden for planting and then push the weeds out so Daniel doesn't have to work so hard. Create a mountain where I think a mountain should be. Dig a tunnel underground to play in.

Fire-Heat the water to boil quicker. Heat my water bending shower while camping. Make an easy and large campfire so we can make s'mores. Make a fire wall to keep my enemies away.

And all together I'd use them to just do really cool stuff. And I'd have a flying bison. Only I'd name my flying bison Fred. But my kids tend to think I can't be the Avatar. I have to choose just one. So I choose Water. Think about it. Water makes Earth into mud...Earth becomes defenseless. Water puts out Fire...Fire becomes null and void. Water, well, I don't know what water can do to Air. Air can maybe be more powerful than Water because Air would put lots of bubbles in Water and make it defenseless. But Water is heavier than Air. So Water's gotta be more powerful. But I think I'd just like to have them all. Too bad it's just an imaginative cartoon.

We enjoyed the movie. It was Book One:Water. So 2 more movies should be coming. Aang's gotta learn Earth and Fire. I look forward to Toff joining the crew in Book Two. And Zuko seems like a nice guy underneath all the fight. So I look forward to Book Three.

So if you could bend, which element would you choose?