“Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’ - she always called me Elwood - ‘In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’  Well, for years I was smart.  I recommend pleasant.  You may quote me.” ~ “Elwood P. Dowd”, from the play “Harvey” by Mary Chase (1906 - 1981)

“The cure for boredom is curiosity.  There is no cure for curiosity.”  

                                                             Dorothy Parker

WHAT IF?

What if everything was the other way ’round?

The top to the bottom, the bottom to the top?

The sides would still be sides

but pointing the other way

Would we stretch our toes

and plant our head firmly on the ground?

Would we get up out of bed each morning

or get down?

Would we unmake the bed?

Would we water the dog and walk the plants?

And would we grow up?

or down?

Would the sky be our home

and the earth somewhere we long to roam?

Would we cry when we’re born

and laugh when we die?

Would we swim in the dirt

and walk on the water?

Would we believe in many gods

and make one person a friend?

Would the stars in the sky be

stepping stones?

Would fish fly and birds swim?

Would dogs meow and cats bark?

Would we say hello when we mean goodbye?

Be the change you wish to see in the world....

Mahatma Gandhi

~

Peace comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and that the center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.

-Black Elk, Lakota Spiritual Leader

We're Doing It Again!

I can’t believe we’re doing it again. Not only have we lost 3,752 American lives and a stunning number of Iraqi lives in a war of choice since May 1, 2003 when Bush declared an “end to major combat operations” in Iraq, but we have 23,417 seriously wounded military personnel whose lives will never be the same. This isn’t even counting the huge number of people who will come home but may never come back – those who suffer with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – some of whom will eventually end their own lives in despair.

A Vietnam Veteran I once knew had gone to Vietnam at 17 and returned with a serious case of PTSD. It was heart-breaking to watch his angst, witness his nightmares, and listen to him talk about joining the Mercenaries because he no longer felt “fit” to associate with normal people. He’d been trained to kill, he said, and that’s what he knew best.

When are we going to get it? The human being is not built, nor psychologically suited, to kill. Sure, there are exceptions – those with deeply rooted anger and other emotional problems – but the majority are decent, caring humans who want to do the right thing. Those who join the military do so for a variety of reasons, but in the end, they are ready, willing and able to defend their country with honor. When are we going to afford them the same honor, consideration and protection?

Personally, after seeing what happened to Vietnam Veterans – from Agent Orange to rejection to PTSD and homelessness – I thought we’d never have a willing Army again, let alone a volunteer Army. And yet, here we are again, treating our vets as abominably as ever. Not only are we paying low salaries and cutting benefits, we’re even charging them for military equipment that was lost or damaged in the line of duty! Have we no shame?!

It’s mind-boggling to realize that, in the 21st century with all of our technology and education, we have not found a way to end war. Needless to say, our current administration is clueless when it comes to the meaning or use of diplomacy, but almost worse than that, we have no leader in this country who is willing to step up and say, there is a better way and it’s time to implement it. No more war as a problem solver, no more war for any reason.

Until then, I propose that we make one simple change. It should be the job of every government official – and each of their family members – to be our warriors as well. Those who legislate war should be the ones to fight it. Period.

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Liberalism & The Arts

February 24, 2007

We hear a lot about the “Liberal Media” and Hollywood, “The Left Coast”, like it’s a bad thing. While it’s usually best to resist blanket statements and generalizations – because it’s just not possible to paint any group of people with a single brush stroke – this is delicious food for thought.

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the liberal attitude is defined as “Favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms; spec. (in politics) favoring free trade and gradual political and social reform that tends towards individual freedom or democracy”. A generic definition of liberal is “generous”.

There is a common denominator between the media and the entertainment industry, and that is the writer. What a writer must do, to do the job well, is to get to the heart of the subject at hand, and at the heart of any subject are human beings – complex human beings with a vast range of sometimes conflicting experiences and emotions. As challenging as it may be at times, journalists work hard to present both sides of a story; anything less would be propaganda. To tell a story comprehensively, or even interestingly, writers must suspend judgment in the interest of presenting real people (or characters) whose background, thoughts and feelings have motivated them to act or react as they have to the situation at hand.

This is also true for actors, whose job it is to “become” multi-dimensional flesh and blood characters. Like the writer, a good actor can’t afford the luxury of judging of a character to be portrayed but must instead do everything possible to understand and embody the totality of that character and, in essence, what makes him or her “tick”. Meryl Streep comes to mind, and her remarkable ability to “channel” a character.

Actors, directors, and writers have the advantage of being exposed to a variety of people on a regular basis, whether working in communities of the hundreds of diverse personalities employed on each movie or filming on location in other countries for months at a time. When they don’t have the opportunity to meet the character they’re portraying, they try to meet similar people and otherwise delve into their imaginations to draw on their own intricate psyches.

After all, ain’t none of us as simple as we might like to think we are. We are each the sum total of our experiences and our behavior follows logical patterns. We have the potential for all good and all bad in us, including character traits and abilities that range from thoughtful and kind to thoughtless and cruel. We make constant choices as to which facet of our personality we’ll draw upon in our daily interactions with others. Hopefully we choose to let our higher natures influence our behavior but often it’s an unconscious combination of our experiences and resulting emotions that dictate our reactions. An actor knows all of this; these are the tools that s/he draws upon in the course of his or her work. While most of us are busy living our single lives, an actor will live several lives in one, inhabiting numerous “bodies” and embracing various life experiences. Actor Peter O’ Toole commented recently that “actors are people, only more so”, a thought echoed by Jim Carrey who said, “we all walk around with a lot of people in our heads”. An actor has, you might say, “walked in another man’s moccasins” and knows that, in many cases, “there but for fortune go I”.

In his best selling book, The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle emphasizes the importance of living in the present moment. Actors have always been keenly aware of the necessity of “being in the moment” in order to be fully present and spontaneous in a scene. When we’re in the moment, we cease to be judgmental about how life – or other people – should be. We accept things as they are.

Once we understand that each person on earth feels pain, and bleeds, and has hopes, dreams, and a simple desire to live in peace, as do we, compassion and acceptance follow naturally. We care what happens to others because, beneath superficial differences like “color”, “race” and “religion”, we know that our similarities far outweigh our differences. It’s no longer easy to make judgments of “good” or “bad, “right” or “wrong”. This was well expressed by Oscar winner Helen Mirren, who grew up with a disdain for the monarchy but “fell in love” with Queen Elizabeth II while portraying her.

Ultimately, in this increasingly globalized world, we’re all beneficiaries of the work done by actors, writers and directors, who give us an understanding of countries we’ll never see and people we may never have the opportunity to meet.

Maybe we should each try walking in someone else’s moccasins for awhile. It might just save a lot of lives.

* * *

On Love

When we think of love, most often it’s interpersonal love; the stuff of which relationships are made. The dancing-on-a-cloud or addicted-to-you kind. Or the heart-breaking, cry all night, never-gonna-love-again stuff. It’s oh so human to think in limited terms, isn’t it?

But what is love really? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it can be many things, including “no score” in tennis and, of course, a strong sexual affection. The first definition given is: “That state of feeling with regard to a person which manifests itself in concern for the person’s welfare, pleasure in his or her presence, and often desire for his or her approval; deep affection, strong emotional attachment.” (It’s also noted that a former meaning is “an act of kindness”.) And affection is defined in part as “goodwill, kindly feeling, love.”

I submit that in its highest state, love can be a cohesive spiritual force that encompasses all life.

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