On Monday, by recommendation of a very dear friend of mine, I watched the movie The Way Way Back. Before I get into what I got from the movie, I want to highly recommend it. The writing is amazing (written by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, famous as the writing team for The Descendants), the characters perfectly developed, and enough of a conflict within the story to keep it real and relatable on multiple planes. Also, Steve Carrell probably delivers one of his best performances and what movie that features a wild Allison Janney isn't fun? I implore all of you reading this to find a copy of this movie and watch it immediately. Now, moving on.
The movie is about a young boy going on a summer vacation with his divorced mom and her boyfriend (Steve Carrell) to his beach house. This kid, along with dealing with the onset of puberty and all the emotional changes that comes with that, he is dealing with the fact that he no longer has a father figure in his life and a mom who is quiet, timid, and easily submissive, no matter that damage it could cause. Now, coming from a household that was not divided growing up, this is an aspect that I couldn't fully empathize with, but what I got from this movie was the friendship that this hermit of a kid forged with a local water park manager played by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell's character is a kid at heart, but the kid that everyone loves in high school, but not because he's the captain of the football team or the class president. It's because he just loves the fact that he can wake up every morning and breath. It's because Rockwell's character has a zest for life. He is the class clown and has no judgements regarding anyone. Everyone is his friend and no one is too good for him.
Throughout the movie, the boy, whose name is Duncan, is shy, quiet, off-putting, and generally shut of the world and everything it has to offer. When he visits Rockwell's water park, Rockwell immediately takes to him, realizing this is a kid not having a fun time and knows he can get something out of him. He eventually offers Duncan a summer job at the water park where, through a near perfectly orchestrated transformation, he comes out of his shell and starts to smile and enjoy what is around him: the world.
What I got from this movie is something that I believe with all my being in every day life: that no matter what kind of person you are, shy or outgoing, introvert or extrovert, there are people or plural people out there that are meant to inspire you. There are people that are the keymasters to your own world. You simply have to take a leap of faith and let them inspire you. Let them change the way you see things. Let them wake you up to show you that you are the eyes of the world and that the world is, in fact, looking at you and not ignoring you. Everyone has the natural right to enjoy life and sometimes we need other's help to convince us of that, just don't be so shut off that you are blind to their efforts.
Another thing that struck me about this movie and the message that I got from it is that I watched it on Monday. Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. day. A man who was an inspiration to millions and changed the way millions look at not only the world but their fellow man and woman. But he didn't just walk up to a podium one day and change things like that. He would've been nothing if people didn't let him inspire. But people listened to him, and let him inspire, and let him open their own doors to the rest of the world. Just found it as a cool coincidence that these two things happened on the same day.
Have a great weekend to all of you just be open. Be willing to be inspired and be ready to inspire.
Abide and ramble on my friends,
Stish
Soundtrack:
"Pearl" by Dave Crossland
"Goodnight" by William Fitzsimmons
"Celtic New Year' by Van Morrison
"Flirtin' With the Undertaker" by Jack Rose
"I'm Ready" by Muddy Waters
Friday, January 24, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
89 Comes After 88...Makes Sense
As some of you may know, and probably many of you don't, about eight months ago I became a student of Taoism and have dedicated to living my life in The Way. This came about when I picked up and devoured a book that changed my life. That book, appropriately enough for the kind of person I am with my interests, was Benjamin Hoff's The Tao of Pooh. What this book is, for those unfamiliar, takes the basic fundamentals and building blocks of Taoism and applies them to the characters and situations of A.A. Milne's lovable tubby little chubby all stuffed with fluff and the Hundred Acre Woods. I always knew I had a much more laid back approach to life and that always felt right to me. I never saw the point of exerting unnecessary energy towards things that I know I have no control over. Things were going to be as they were supposed to be. That's always been the case and will continue to be so, no matter how much we as mankind will try to exert our assumed force on Nature. But when I opened this modestly sized, 176-paged book, my philosophy on life and daily status quo was finally given a name: Taoism. And this excited the hell out of me. Cause, like everyone else out there with a pulse and breath in their lungs, I would stray from myself and become a different type of Dave. A stressed Dave (which has since brought on a couple dozen pre-mature gray hairs in my beard, which is filling in nicely I might add). A neurotic Dave. An anxious Dave. A snappy Dave. And all of these Dave's were, I am sure, hard to be around cause they were all certain hard to live with. But I never had anything to sort of 'help' stay focused and show me my Way.
Now, I am not here to evangelicalize Taoism and ring on your doorbells and ask you if you've found your Way. I am here, as I always have been, to ramble about something cool or worth rambling about that has happened in my life in hopes that something might be taken from it. So please, get out of your heads any thoughts that I am pushing my beliefs on you. That is not at all my point.
I recently started reading a new book called The Zen Experience by Thomas Hoover which stories the evolution history of Zen through its great masters (The Buddha, Lao Tzu, Bodhidharma, etc.) and there is one passage that really caught my eye and got me thinking about everything that I have learned inside the past year, both in my studies and it's daily application. It comes in the form of an anecdote told by Chuang Tzu, the second most important figure in Taoism behind it's supposed creator, Lao Tzu. In this story, he tells of a wheelmaker describing his method of making wheels to his Duke. I won't recount the whole story for you, but the section that lays highlighted says:
"The right pace, neither slow nor fast, cannot get into the hand unless it comes from the heart."
Before this statement, the wheelmaker says if he goes either too fast or too slow in carving his wheel, though perfect in one area, it is largely imperfect in another area. My interpretation of the above statement is a basic principle of Taoism: don't fight what is innate, do what is supposed to be done as it is supposed to be done without tension or resistance, and all will turn out as it should. Do only what you need to do to appease yourself and don't try to do too much.
Like my mantra says, 'To Thine Own Self Be True.'
Why this stuck out to me? That's an easy answer to what could be a rhetorical question. In October, I decided to start the process of establishing my own theatre company here in New York. This is a company that found its birth back in 2009 while I was in school and I always wanted to bring to New York from the day I arrived, but I knew the time wasn't right. But I was confident there would be a right time, I just had to wait for it to arrive. I wasn't to force this hand or speed it along, cause then it wouldn't materialize as it should. Finally, come late September 2013, and I can't really recall the exact circumstances that surrounded this all, but the right time had arrived, just as I thought it would. Since then, there has been non-stop action to assure the success of my company and every day it continues to grow and create more and more puzzle pieces that, once all are collected, will create a magnificent image. That is what I have faith in and that is what I believe will come to be.
So I say this to close out this entry: if there is something you know you are meant to do or have happen, do not urge its arrival. If it is too happen, and I am confident that it will for you, you must have trust in the Way Nature has been laid out in your puzzle. Just like riding down a highway and passing exit number 30 and you need to get to exit 89, it will happen when it is supposed to, right after exit 88. Not an exit or mile sooner. Just keep living your life as it feels right, from your heart, and it will all come into your hand.
Abide and ramble on,
Stish
Soundtrack:
'Stealing Time' by Gerry Rafferty
'Can't You See' by Marshall Tucker Band
'I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise' performed by Iss Van Randwyck
'Cripple Creek Ferry' by Neil Young
'Joe Avery' presented by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
'Belfast to Boston' by James Taylor
'The Blood of Cu Chulainn' (The theme to The Boondock Saints) by Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna
'California' by Joni Mitchell
Now, I am not here to evangelicalize Taoism and ring on your doorbells and ask you if you've found your Way. I am here, as I always have been, to ramble about something cool or worth rambling about that has happened in my life in hopes that something might be taken from it. So please, get out of your heads any thoughts that I am pushing my beliefs on you. That is not at all my point.
I recently started reading a new book called The Zen Experience by Thomas Hoover which stories the evolution history of Zen through its great masters (The Buddha, Lao Tzu, Bodhidharma, etc.) and there is one passage that really caught my eye and got me thinking about everything that I have learned inside the past year, both in my studies and it's daily application. It comes in the form of an anecdote told by Chuang Tzu, the second most important figure in Taoism behind it's supposed creator, Lao Tzu. In this story, he tells of a wheelmaker describing his method of making wheels to his Duke. I won't recount the whole story for you, but the section that lays highlighted says:
"The right pace, neither slow nor fast, cannot get into the hand unless it comes from the heart."
Before this statement, the wheelmaker says if he goes either too fast or too slow in carving his wheel, though perfect in one area, it is largely imperfect in another area. My interpretation of the above statement is a basic principle of Taoism: don't fight what is innate, do what is supposed to be done as it is supposed to be done without tension or resistance, and all will turn out as it should. Do only what you need to do to appease yourself and don't try to do too much.
Like my mantra says, 'To Thine Own Self Be True.'
Why this stuck out to me? That's an easy answer to what could be a rhetorical question. In October, I decided to start the process of establishing my own theatre company here in New York. This is a company that found its birth back in 2009 while I was in school and I always wanted to bring to New York from the day I arrived, but I knew the time wasn't right. But I was confident there would be a right time, I just had to wait for it to arrive. I wasn't to force this hand or speed it along, cause then it wouldn't materialize as it should. Finally, come late September 2013, and I can't really recall the exact circumstances that surrounded this all, but the right time had arrived, just as I thought it would. Since then, there has been non-stop action to assure the success of my company and every day it continues to grow and create more and more puzzle pieces that, once all are collected, will create a magnificent image. That is what I have faith in and that is what I believe will come to be.
So I say this to close out this entry: if there is something you know you are meant to do or have happen, do not urge its arrival. If it is too happen, and I am confident that it will for you, you must have trust in the Way Nature has been laid out in your puzzle. Just like riding down a highway and passing exit number 30 and you need to get to exit 89, it will happen when it is supposed to, right after exit 88. Not an exit or mile sooner. Just keep living your life as it feels right, from your heart, and it will all come into your hand.
Abide and ramble on,
Stish
Soundtrack:
'Stealing Time' by Gerry Rafferty
'Can't You See' by Marshall Tucker Band
'I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise' performed by Iss Van Randwyck
'Cripple Creek Ferry' by Neil Young
'Joe Avery' presented by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
'Belfast to Boston' by James Taylor
'The Blood of Cu Chulainn' (The theme to The Boondock Saints) by Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna
'California' by Joni Mitchell
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