Virginia Is For Families

It’s Monday Morning and the sun is shining.  The Oscars are in the history books or at least on Youtube for another year.   I was happy to see Monique receive the Best Supporting Actress award.   She gave an awe inspiring performance in Precious.   Sandra Bullock won Best Actress and she really did a fantastic job as well.    Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for playing a Nazi in a way we have not seen before now.   Maybe Hogan’s Heroes was the starting point for his portrayal.   I don’t know.  But he went way beyond the cartoon character of Colonel Klink.

I didn’t see Jeff Bridges play the worn out country singer so I can’t really comment on his performance.  My favorite JB film will always be the movie Fearless.   The story is one that takes me to a place you may recognize if you read some of the poetry here.  And the music is the very original work of  Henryk Gorecki.   It also takes me to that place.   Right around minute 16 of part one is a good launching pad for “spiritual flight” in my opinion.  Want to  try it out?

Learn to fly. . .

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Play Symphony No. 3  Symphony of Sorrowful Songs  I

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I really must say that the show  was entertaining this year in a way that it often is not.  Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were very funny as they made sure that nobody took themselves too seriously.   It should be an evening about art not politics and it was a success  in this regard although a film about Iraq won many of the major awards including Best Film.

You can argue whether it won because of its artistic merit including the performances of the actors or because it was about the war and our sons and daughters risking life and limb in that awful place.  Or perhaps we can say it was both of these things that brought the voters here.  In any case a record was set for the film with the lowest gross receipts winning Best Film.   That should change now.

More people will see the film.  Could that be a motivation?  Almost everyone has already seen Avatar.  Maybe the movie public needs more than fantasy at this point in time.  There’s some heavy thinking going on. . .

It’s Friday and the weather guy is promising us a nice weekend.  The temperature should reach the low 60’s in fact.   That’s pretty amazing considering where we were just a few weeks ago.

The Academy Awards will be happening and we need to see at least one more nominated movie before Sunday night.   But for us it’s not all about nominated movies.  Recently I discovered  The Painted Veil on cable and was enthralled by the beauty of this  film.  Now B and I are reading W. Somerset Maugham’s  original story published in 1925.  And  there were two previous movie adaptations  we plan to watch.

Finally we will return to the recent film starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.   B hasn’t seen it yet.  She  seems to be entertained by the book as we read to each other (25 pages or so each day).

We have been doing this and then going for a walk together.

Not a long walk.  It’s more important for us to take a daily walk then to try and walk two miles at this point.   It’s better to walk down the street and back EVERY day then to go on a hike and then return home in pain with the semi-conscious determination to avoid this discomfort again.

We can go further than down the street now.  And we hope to go a lot further in the future.  We also hope to discover some really wonderful links between the two universes of book and film.  It changes your perception of what is happening on screen when you have the written history of the work in your mind.

Art and exercise both bring us together as a couple.  The Painted Veil is a love story with a very different premise that allows us to experience joy and suffering as we read and watch .   When we walk we experience physical pain as well as moments of  physical and mental well-being.  This also prepares us for longer periods of walking as we explore museums or historic locations.

Or we take time to walk in beautiful gardens full of exotic plants and vibrant colors.

It’s fairly easy for me to merge these two worlds in such circumstances.  As we walk in a garden I turn to B and imagine Naomi’s character  in a lush landscape somewhere south of  Shanghai.   I worry about her and hope she will begin to appreciate what nature has to offer.   I remember Edward’s fate and hope it is not my own.

And I sing Somerset Maugham’s  pleasurable,  fluid prose in my head when it comes time to  write something about all of this.

We want the various parts of our lives to work together as a whole.  And as a couple we want the same thing.

But, more than this, we want to be part of life in a significant way.   Art and exercise both offer opportunities to do this and they shall remain at the top of the list when it comes time for us to decide what we will do today.

Andrea Bocelli published his memoir The Music Of Silence about ten years ago. It is an interesting title for his book considering that his music is so wonderful and seemingly so far from being silent. Is Andrea blind? Yes he is. How did he become blind? It was actually a process that involves disease and injury as if the fates wanted to be absolutely sure he would not see in this lifetime.

Andrea writes about himself in the third person because it is easier for him to recount his early childhood experiences in this way. He writes that the doctors diagnosed congenital bilateral glaucoma when he was only a few months old. It was a painful condition for one so young to endure. The family took him to many specialists and even a few healers as he grew older. There were operations and hospital stays. During one of these a patient in the next room began playing some classical music and it calmed the young boy. The family recognized his affinity for music and soon he began the journey that would lead him to incredible heights in the music world.

In the fifth grade while in a boarding school Andrea participated in an Olympiad organized for the students that was to include light athletics, gymnastics and soccer matches. He still had enough vision left to participate in all the events and even won a medal. But during a soccer match a sudden injury to the goalkeeper led to him playing this position. One can only imagine the thought process of the coach who made this decision. And it did not turn out well. Andrea was hit in the right eye by the ball and when he got off the ground he noticed that his eyesight was foggy. Prior to the accident he had been able to see lights and colors out of this eye.

The young man was treated with leeches in an attempt to relieve the hemorrhaging and reduce the pressure of the bleeding on his eye. But after the bandages were removed he discovered that he could no longer see. His mother hesitated to ask him about his vision. But when she did he responded ” I can see my room, the cupboard, the beds, but I see them because I know they are there.”

His doctor tried to explain. “The blind. . .cannot see darkness, just like the deaf cannot hear silence, which is an auditory sensation, the antithesis of sound.”

It is an inspirational account about a young man finding his way in this world as he overcomes major obstacles.

It will not surprise many people that I often start a post with no idea about its content and a blank state of mind. But that’s just the way it is here in pajama land. It’s part of the creative process. First you disconnect from your previous line of thought. Maybe you were thinking about lunch meat and the reasons why the dog won’t shut up. Then you go into a reverie.

At that moment inspiration hits you right between the eyes and you. . .

Go to the frig and make a sandwich. Wait. That’s not right. You don’t open up your mouth. You open up your mind!!

Probably each of us could do this more often and benefit from the exercise. I find that music helps too during these moments. And patience. Because there are days when it takes awhile for anything to happen. But even when it seems like nothing is happening I believe that something is happening.

Something that could be very important. Because for much of the day our minds are being led around by outside forces. It may be a job or just the television in the next room. It might be music if we are focusing too much on the words. It could be our emotions if someone has done something to ruffle them. A computer game like Lord Of The Rings can lead us around for hours as we jump through hoops trying to solve quests and move to the next level.

The next level!! What is the next level? Maybe it’s the moment when we create something that is interesting to ourselves and even to someone else. There is something about a blank mind that has been given a bad rap by “the world” and the establishment. Sure if you are asked a question in the fifth grade and your mind is blank you may have “forgotten” to do your homework.

But does that mean you should endeavor to never have a blank mind again? Is this one of the worst sins you can commit as a young person? I don’t think so. Given a choice between R-rated content and blankness I will go with the latter in most cases.

And there is a chance that once you have emptied your mind something very good may find a place there to speak to you or to simply hang out with you. I think the main thing is be like a magnet and simply ask for company. Be receptive to higher vibes.

If you need something to focus on perhaps light a candle or concentrate on your breathing. Put up a photo of some beautiful object. Relax and let yourself be an open book of sorts.

Sometimes when I do this I feel that there is a disembodied poet who is feeding me words and phrases as I write a poem. But other times a much larger spirit arrives and pretty much shuts down my attempts to write. In those moments breathing slows and physical complaints are a distant memory.

Something happens. It is difficult to describe in words exactly what is transpiring. But it can change your life. It can help you make an important decision about your life. Or it can simply help you understand that you are have a very beautiful soul.

We all have beautiful souls. And it’s always a good time to brush them off and let them shine a little bit. I have not done this much lately. But it is never too late.

Perhaps now, in fact, is an especially good time.

Andrea Bocelli/ My Christmas

Play – Silent Night