Trying to get a grasp on reality

Anthony De Mello (Last meditations)

Look at your life and see how you have filled its emptiness with people.

As a result they have a strangle hold on you. See how they control your

behavior by their approval and disapproval. They hold a power to ease

your loneliness with their company, to send your spirit soaring with

their praise, to bring you down to the depth with their criticism and

rejection.

Take a look at yourself spending almost every waking minute of your

day locating and pleasing people, whether they are living or dead. You

live by their norms, conform to their standards, seek their company,

desire their love, dread their ridicule, long for their applause, meekly

submit to the guilt they lay upon you. You are terrified to go against the

fashion in the way you dress or speak or act or even think. And observe

how even when you control them you depend on them and are enslaved

by them.

People have become so much a part of your being that you cannot even

imagine living a life that is unaffected or uncontrolled by them. As a

matter of fact, they have convinced you that if you ever broke free of

them you would become an island; solitary, bleak, unloving. But the

~ 52 ~

exact opposite is true. How can you love someone whom you are a slave

to? How can you love someone whom you cannot live without? You can

only desire, need, depend and fear and be controlled. Love is to be found

only in fearlessness and freedom. How do you achieve this freedom? By

means of a two pronged attack on your dependence and slavery.

First, awareness. It is next to impossible to be dependent, to be a slave

when one constantly observes the folly of one's dependence. But

awareness may not be enough for a person whose addiction is people.

You must cultivate activities that you love. You must discover work

that you do, not for its utility but for itself. Think of something you love

to do for itself whether it succeeds or not, whether you are praised for it

or not, whether you are loved and rewarded for it or not, whether

people know about it and are grateful to you for it or not.

How many activities can you count in your life that you engaged in

simply because they delight you and grip your soul? Find out; cultivate

them for they are your passports to freedom and to love. Here too you

have probably been brainwashed into the following consumeristic way

of thinking. To enjoy a poem or a landscape or a piece of music seems a

waste of time. You must produce a poem or a composition or a work of

art. Even to produce it is of little value in itself. Your work must be

known. What good is it if no one ever knows it? And even if it is known

that means nothing if it is not applauded and praised by people. Your

work achieves maximum value if it becomes popular and sells. So you

are back again into the arms and control of people. The value of an

~ 53 ~

action according to them is not in its being loved and done and enjoyed

for itself but in its success. The royal road to mysticism and to reality

does not pass through the world of people, it passes through the world

of actions that are engaged in for themselves without an eye to success

or to gain or profit actions.

Contrary to popular belief the cure for lovelessness and loneliness is

not company but contact with reality. The moment you touch this reality

you know what freedom and love are. Freedom from people and so the

ability to love them. You must not think for love to arise in your heart

you must first meet people. That would not be love but attraction or

compassion. Rather it is love that first springs in the heart through your

contact with the real. Not love for any particular person or thing but the

reality of love, an attitude, a disposition of love. This love then radiates

outward to the world of things and persons. If you desire this love to

exist in your life, you must break loose from the inward dependence on

people by becoming aware of it and by engaging activities that you love

to do for themselves.

They have finally come to visit and no one believes me

CROP CIRCLES

I have waited all my life for this moment and I missed it because I was sound asleep. The aliens came to visit last night and left evidence in my front yard. The whole family was in an uproar.....my son postulates the culprit is someone at school that he is having some issues with...my husband thinks someone got drunk and was being stupid and the next time they visit they might end up with a few holes in them. My little one's were really confused so I, being the good mom that I am, reassured them that it was just aliens that came to visit and we are really fortunate, not everyone has aliens land in there front yard. I tried in vain to get the males to see the light but to no avail. Oh well, maybe one day they will come to their senses.

HOOK, HOOK, HOOK

Went to see Jim Hart give a inspiring, insightful talk on the art of writing screenplays, pitching ideas, and adapting it to film.

He was very candid about the amount of time and energy that is spent getting things down on paper and also the immense collaboration with other writers/directors/artists that are involved with the film. He answered questions about his own work and supplied very useful information to others who were interested in pursuing a career in writing screenplays.

During the talk he ran a slide show of many different films he was involved in including Bram Stokers Dracula, Muppet Treasure Island, The Last Mimzy, Contact, Tuck Everlasting, Sahara, and two of my favorites, Hook and August Rush (Robin Williams) of course.

After the talk we walked over to the theater and watched the 20th anniversary screening of Hook. I had never seen it on the big screen before but have watched it countless times. As everyone stated it is a timeless movie. Mr. Hart elaborated on Steven Spielberg and his incredible imagination and ideas that he brought to the set every day. And how wonderful it was to work with such an incredible cast.

On the down side, before I went I watched a few of the movies and wrote down questions just to sit there and not ask them. I still have not managed to get over my shyness in public as well as I had hoped. I will one day.

 I now have a signed copy of the above book, and a new appreciation for the artists behind the scenes.

Thank you for an incredible evening.

Thank you

ALL HAIL THE THRICE GREAT OKAPI

Thank you Blackout.....again..... infinity times 42.

Bringing me back

Settting things straight, or crooked, or wonky.....or caright

Wherever the universe is spinning

You help me find the right path

You are a magnificent da wrecker

I am delighted you are in my imaginary reality

You have changed my black and white world blurpinkle.

Thank uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Emotions are in overdrive again

Last night I had a dream, I was out on a date. When the date drove us to his parents house, his mother yelled out of the door as we were getting out of the car. She was either mad or drunk or both, but yelled. "You need to take care of your father, he has pee'd all over himself." The old man was sitting in a car outside the house. We walked over to him and my date proceeded to pull him out of the car and almost tossed him aside so he could clean the car out. I went to the old man put his arm over my shoulder and helped him into the house, ran a bath for him and went back outside. My date was frustrated, angry, and sad all at the same time. I hugged him and he broke down in my arms sobbing. We sat down on a patio lounge/couch outside the house and I held him until we both fell asleep.

Wednesday, February 16

Conversation: 6:00 pm @ the Harry Ransom Center 

Screening: 7:30pm @ the Texas Spirit Theater

  

Austin Film Festival presents a Conversation with acclaimed screenwriter James V. Hart followed by a special 20th anniversary screening of HOOK. 

 

Hart, whose screenwriting credits include BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, CONTACT, TUCK EVERLASTING, MUPPETS TREASURE ISLAND, SAHARA, THE LAST MIMZY and AUGUST RUSH, has prepared a special clip reel that highlights memorable lines and moments from his films.  In the conversation, Hart will share anecdotes and stories about how these films got made, concentrating on the screenwriter's role and struggle in each.  After the conversation, walk across the street to The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum’s Texas Spirit Theater for a special 20th anniversary screening of the modern family classic, HOOK. 

 

 

I am sooooo going to this, some of my favorite films, even  the ones that Robin was Not involved in! I've got to meet this man, and see Hook on the big screen again. I love the unexpected bliss, when it catches me off guard. When I look for it, sometimes it hides from me and when I start to think it is not there, I catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye. I have to remember not to take the bliss/sychronicity for granted.

 

NOTE TO SELF: STAY AWAKE