Memorial Jam for Adam Mewherter

Mr. Oscar, Tear Down This Wall!

Andrew Stanton on How Animated Films are Pigeonholed -

- and How Wall-E is Every Man

We talked to 'Wall-E' director Andrew Stanton last week about his film and the increasing blurring of the line between animation and live-action movies -- plus, what makes the gun-wielding probe EVE a sleek, feminine mynx in WALL-E's eyes. 

Excerpts:

You talked about 'breaking the glass ceiling' in your speech after winning Best Picture from the L.A. Film Critic's Association.

Well, when we were starting out on "Toy Story," we just felt like animation was in such a box. You gotta remember that back then, everybody felt that, in the industry and outside it, if it was animated, that meant it had to be a musical, that meant it had to be typically some sort of fairytale, had to have some happy village in it and some villain and there were just all these unnecessary conventions put on it. And I would see my favorite reviewers of movies suddenly dumb down and say, "Good for kids," and that would be the review. It just frustrated the heck out of me and everybody else. So we felt, well, we're just going to have build a better movie prove that that isn't the case.

So "Wall-E" was born.

What people say we've been doing with "Wall-E," we've been doing since the beginning. But I guess the grooves are so deep in people's thinking that it took a film that pretty much didn't follow any convention for people to just finally get it. In a weird way, I don't feel like our philosophy or our tack on our filmmaking is any different on this one than it has been on the others.

What does it take to smooth over those grooves, to break down the barrier? Winning awards?

Wearing people down with good films. And to even think that it's segregating other artists -- pick a branch, but I know everybody always associates it with actors -- you know, yeah, agreed, we're not going to hire as many actors, but we're always going to be hiring actors. You can't replicate great acting. So I just don't get the fear.

The animated category was initially supposed to empower animated films -- does it now serve to ghettoize them?

It's just a sign that times have changed. Because from the live action side, animation -- and computers in general -- are being used as a tool in so many movies now. The line is just getting so blurry that I think with each proceeding year, it's going to be tougher and tougher to say what's an animated movie and what's not an animated movie. And what I'd love is to get to the point where someone just goes, 'I don't care.' Because I've been at the 'I don't care' point a long time now.

Are you okay with not breaking the glass ceiling at the Oscars?

I've never seen so much buzz about anything we've done like this. All the reviews that have been amazing. And I'll be okay if it doesn't break another glass ceiling. I already get how people feel. That's really, really satisfying.

People say, if not this movie in the Best Picture category, then no movie.

It kills me to hear that. Because I've been such a reverent fan of movies since I was a little kid, and I think I'm lucky that I work in San Francisco so I feel like I still am almost more of a fan than an actual filmmaker, and I just have always wanted to believe, no matter how naïve it is, that the best films will make it to the attention of the Academy in their proper place. And I still want to believe that.

Eve has gotten some blog buzz as the one of the best-written female characters of the year. Since she goes around blowing things up, what feminizes her?

I'm probably going to offend you, but I was just trying to sort of emotionally and temperamentally capture what I've always seen a male-female relationship to be. At least out of my experience -- and I'm a nerd. I've always been shocked and waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop that a girl would ever talk to me, let alone want to marry me. They always seem to hold the power to me, and from my mother to my wife to my daughter, every time I try to really figure them out, and think I've got them pegged, I pay for it. There's a mercurial nature, but more of a mysterious nature to women that I think is what makes them so attractive. And I think that that's what I love: Guys never seem to know when they've come too close and crossed the line, and then the temper comes.

AKA, then Eve guns something down.

Exactly. That's really what the gun was all about, was Wall-E having no clue where the boundaries were with a woman. Because men don't either. Men just stumble into it and find out through experience. And they either survive it, or they don't. And that's really all it was, was a metaphor for that. The fact that she was high-technology and she had a subcutaneous technology that you couldn't really see, I felt, one, made her just technologically more beautiful and stuff, because wanted her to be pretty in a way that another robot would possibly see another machine being pretty, not pretty in the way that humans see somebody. But [her façade] also just kept her a mystery. There's something about her -- the fact that she floats. That fact that he touches the ground and he's all dirty, and she can stay clean. Some of these are kind of conventional thinking for the gender, but they just worked -- they worked on a primal level.

Usually we see familial or buddy love with Pixar -- this is the first really romantic relationship we've seen.

It's the most direct for romance, and it's also the only movie we've done where that was the story -- where it was a love story. Because all the stuff with the environment, all the stuff with the state of humanity -- that was all secondary and or sometimes even tertiary to what I just wanted to indulge in. I just wanted to see two machines fall in love, but I had to have a reason. I had to have a point to it all. I wanted to wallow in that innocent wonder and joy that you could get out of a love story in a '50s musical, but I felt there's no way the world would accept that in today's society. Unless you disguise it in a dystopian, sci-fi love story with two machines. Then, suddenly everybody's willing to take down their shields and just indulge. And maybe realize how much they miss being fulfilled that way -- with unadulterated joy.

Do you ever feel like those meta-narratives about Wall-E's message are in any way imposed?

I try very hard to have them not be. The biggest reason I ever put a plant in -- this is before I knew where the film was going, because it kind of came to me forward instead of as the whole idea -- was that I remember feeling [that] this was the loneliest character I'd ever thought of, working for 700 years for no reason.  And I thought, wow, what tenacity that is. And then it made me think of those flowers that just push through the pavement, that they're not going to give up -- even though all this manmade stuff [has] just mowed over it. And I thought, 'That's him!' So the whole idea that there was a green initiative was really never on my mind -- it was more just logic. It was just a logical consequence of people forgetting to love one another -- that everything else would slowly erode and fall apart and die because of it. It wasn't going to be some instant calamity -- as a matter of fact, I never even thought of global warming during the whole making of it.

What about Wall-E: The Sequel -- do you go there?

I don't think you do. I mean, frankly, I'm not speaking as a representative of Disney or Pixar, I'm speaking as just myself as a filmmaker: I don't go into anything that often thinking about a sequel. It's a real different mindset. And I'm not anti-sequel, but I just feel like there are very few ideas that are meant to be continued. You have to divorce yourself from the success and the box office and the desire of the audience to see it again.

You do feel that sense of finality in the Van Gogh-storybook ending.

I also have this artistic pride. I don't want my grandson to go, "Grandpa, did you make 'Nemo 1' or '2'?" That would just kill me.

For most of us there is a disparity between the blessings we have and the joy we receive from those blessings. The question is what causes this disparity?

... this problem has been around for a long time. It surfaced in one of the earliest biblical stories, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. At that time, according to the Bible, Adam and Eve were able to eat from any of the trees of the Garden except for one, known kabbalistically as The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

 It is written that the snake (representing the dark side of our nature), approached Eve and began planting seeds of doubt in her mind, "So you can't eat from any of the trees?"

"No, no, no," responded Eve. "We can eat from all the trees except this one."

The snake continued to badger her until her lack became her only focus.

This process is one many of us go through – although we have many blessings in our lives, we seem to focus on the one or two areas in which we believe we are lacking. When we start to focus away from the blessings we have, it's as if a veil is drawn, blocking out the blessings and Light we can draw from what we already possess.

This week, we first have to understand this reality. There is a constant voice or force that's going to try to get us to focus away from all the blessings we have and to focus us only on the areas we are lacking. This voice is coming from the dark side of our nature.

Second, we have to understand that it is our responsibility to fight this tendency. This means telling ourselves, "I am going to forget about that one area of lack, and I am going to focus even more strongly on, and reawaken even more appreciation for, the blessings I already have."

Spiritually, this consciousness awakens more Light, blessings, and fulfillment to flow from all areas of our lives.

Yesterday, in front of the Liberty Theater in Columbus, GA, three stars were unveiled, thus beginning the establishment of a 'Walk of Fame' of performers from Columbus, GA. The public recognition of "Blind Tom" Wiggins (Bethune), Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Fredye Marshall was privy to a packed auditorium and told the tales of the lives of these three gifted members of the community, including commentary from descended relations of each honoree.

These stars were made possible by the Columbus, GA Chapter of 'The Links, Incorporated'. Founded in 1946 in Philadelphia, The Links is an organization that was based on a vision of an group that would respond to the needs and aspirations of women of color in the ways that existing organizations would not. Their intent was threefold: civic, educational, and cultural. Today, The Links, Inc is composed of 272 chapters with a total of 11.500 women... linking talents with needed services, serving community needs for the improvement of life and the pursuit of excellence. The Columbus, GA chapter was chartered in December, 1964 as the 100th chapter of the national organization of The Links, Incorporated.

from NPR's 'Morning Edition'; march 2002:

The Tale of 'Blind Tom' Wiggins
Play Chronicles Life of Slave Pianist Who Awed Audiences in 1800s

.. -->

The audio for this story will be available online after 12PM ET, 9AM PT.

--> Listen to Susanna Capeluto's report.

Listen to Thomas Wiggins songs performed by John Davis.

March 6, 2002 -- Mark Twain called him an "inspired idiot," who could "play two tunes (on the piano) and sing a third at the same time, and let the audience choose the keys he shall perform in."

 

The subject of Twain's back-handed praise was Thomas Wiggins, a blind slave from Georgia known as Blind Tom who toured concert halls throughout America and Europe as a musical oddity. He also was known as Thomas Bethune, named after his owner, Gen. James Bethune.

From an early age, Wiggins seemed to crave sound. At four, Wiggins was able to reproduce music from memory after hearing it played by Bethune's children. When Wiggins was six, he began improvising on the piano and composing music.

Born in 1849, he could recite any poem and play any piece of music on the piano after hearing it only once. He earned over $100,000 a year for Bethune, who kept custody of him even after emancipation. Now Atlanta's 7 Stages Theater has produced HUSH: Composing Blind Tom Wiggins, a play about Wiggins' life, Georgia Public Radio's Susanna Capelouto reports for Morning Edition.

His life was full of contradictions. "He had a strange walk and would sway and twitch when he played the piano," Capelouto says. "He could mimic whatever he heard, even in foreign languages, but rarely expressed his own thoughts."

The play features a character called Tom's Fool, who takes the audience inside Wiggins' head and explains his compulsive need for sound as an overwhelming craving: "Even when his master strikes him, he is so captured by the sound of the blow that he barely flinches."

Scholars now believe Wiggins was an autistic savant -- much like Dustin Hoffman's character in the film Rain Man. That term wasn't around in the 19th century, when few people questioned whether Wiggins was exploited.

HUSH director Del Hamilton says he wanted to look beyond the hype that audiences at the time responded to. "Between his blindness and autism and the fact that he was a slave and advertised like a freak and an oddity and toured around in this P.T. Barnum-like show, one of the difficulties was trying to make sure that we were accurate and not over the top," Hamilton says.

After the Civil War, Wiggins' parents were pressured to give custody of Tom to the Bethune family. Years later, after two court battles, Tom was returned to his mother, who was unable to care for him. He ended up living in New York with Bethune's estranged daughter-in-law. As time went on, he refused to play the piano because he wanted to be back at his old master's house.

As his character in the play says, "Tom wants to sit in master's parlor. I want to sit quiet and listen just like he taught me. Then I will play my piano for me, just for me."

When Wiggins died in 1908, his obituary in The New York Times referred to him as a "freak pianist" who played "with a conception of music that was as great as his skill. His technique came as naturally as did his musical emotions."

Pianist John Davis helped revive Wiggins' story by recording his music in a 1999 CD, John Davis Plays Blind Tom. "He left these pieces of music that are beautifully written, pieces of a certain style, and that, to me, is ultimately going to be his legacy," Davis says.

Other Resources

• "Blind Tom" Wiggins biography.

• An 1869 Mark Twain article on Wiggins (scroll down to middle of page).

• A New York Times article about Wiggins.

• An article about pianist John Davis, who revived Wiggins' music and recorded it in 1999.

• HUSH: Composing "Blind Tom" Wiggins, the play.

 

© Copyright 2004 by Georgia Informer, Inc

-----------------------------------------------------

Newton Collier was born on July 23, 1945, in Macon, Georgia. His parents, Lucile Birdsong and Newton Collier, Sr., led a group called the Sweethearts of Rhythm. With his parents' example to guide him, Collier began playing piano at age six and the trumpet at ten. He started playing professionally with the Pinetoppers, the original backing band for Otis Redding. Soon after graduating from Ballard Hudson High School in 1963, he joined Sam and Dave, known best for their 1967 Grammy-winning song, "Soul Man."

Sam and Dave broke up in 1970 after an international tour. The horn section formed a new band called LTD and moved to Boston. Collier worked on a freelance basis and married his sweetheart, Beverly Nelson. Their daughter, Charity, was born in 1973. Then, one night in 1976, tragedy struck. Collier was going home from an engagement when an unknown assailant shot him in the face. After three years of reconstructive surgery and recovery, Collier could speak well enough to be understood, but he could not withstand the pressure required to play the trumpet or trombone.

After the accident, Collier helped publish Progressive Platter Music Review. Having studied electronics at Boston's Wentworth Institute, he found work as an electronic technician – first at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1970 to 1976, then at Wells Fargo from 1976 to 1982. From 1979 to 1988, he worked in the fledgling computer industry at Honeywell Computers. In 1984, Collier learned of an instrument designed by Nyle Steiner called the electronic valve instrument. This windblown synthesizer, which sounds like a trumpet but requires far less air, enabled Collier to play in Boston-area cafes and small clubs.

In 1988, Collier moved back to Macon and opened Collier's Records and Tapes, specializing in rare and collectible albums. Unfortunately, despite the store's magnificent collection, it did not turn a profit and closed in 1997. Collier now makes a living as a taxicab driver.

Collier was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 18, 2002.


Bibliography ..TR> ..TR> ..TABLE>

..P>

Who's Who in Black Music, 1984. p. 128.

Currently reading: The Intuitive Healer: Accessing Your Inner Physician By Marcia Emery

 

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to remind you, me, and anyone else

of the idealism and the beauty

we had, and still have

not necessarily a well versed 'ABBA' fan, i looked up the title ...these are their lyrics that she sings:

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder -  of a fairy tale
You can take the future - even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good -  in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination - makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness - still another mile

"Our deepest fear is NOT that we are inadequate....

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, "Who am I, to be brilliant, to be gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?  "

Actually, who are you ...NOT to be? You are a child of God. (... whatever you want to: fill in for that label...Good Orderly Direction, if you want.)

Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of G.O.D., however you concieve it to be...  within us.

 And as we let our light shine, we consciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson

soooooo... draw, to your heart's content, if it's drawing you want to be better at... or paint, or play; sax, guitar, drums, whatever... SING!... and write, and dream, shoot and shout, and shedaddle and shuck and jive and dance and shine... and adopt, as your motto, "what you think of me... is none of my business."

Give yourself permission to be as free as a child, as loved as a child, as giving and innocent and full of potential and wonder and joy... as a child... because you are. and you always have been. a precious gift. unique in all the world. and thank you, for that. for everyone that reads this. thank you. for that.

think; instead of the value system we live in, think in terms of a tribal society, one that we all belong to...living in balance with resources, of taking only what we need, of honoring the land that provides for us and of listening to it ... where a bone or a stone or a stick contains a spirit that wants to be set free... and so a carving might not be, as it is in our current world, 'something to sell'... but instead, a message from the spirit that wants to be heard. 'care for the balance, care for me. care for your present, your past, your future. care for the balance of the earth mother whose blood comes into your taps daily, whose body grows the food that nourishes you, who holds  you solid with every step you take...'

rambling ... i know. ...  trying to find my vision. what are artists here for, except to be messengers? and listening... for my message.

(from Poem of the Day)

A single word can brighten the face

A single word can brighten the face
of one who knows the value of words.
Ripened in silence, a single word
acquires a great energy for work.

War is cut short by a word,
and a word heals the wounds,
and there's a word that changes
poison into butter and honey.

Let a word mature inside yourself.
Withhold the unripened thought.
Come and understand the kind of word
that reduces money and riches to dust.

Know when to speak a word
and when not to speak at all.
A single word turns the universe of hell
into eight paradises.

Follow the Way. Don't be fooled
by what you already know. Be watchful.
Reflect before you speak.
A foolish mouth can brand your soul.

Yunus, say one last thing
about the power of words –
Only the word "I"
divides me from God.

- Yunus Emre

so, in the miraculous interconnectedness and information overload of the internet ... this myspace page has a world map tracker... and when i was first fascinated with the global connections the medium is capable of, i used to check that map on a regular basis, and be amazed when someone from a faraway land looked at my page. and perhaps sent a message. like the gal from turkey, whose page is full of quotes and photos about social responsibility. i wrote back to her to thank her in her own language, also an internet gift in the forms of things like 'freetranslation.com'... or kid garcon, from japan, who sent a note, 'hey! we're both online, on the same time, on a planet!'...

this being said, it was a gift to see that someone from Myanmar looked at my page. Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is the place where the teachings of the Buddha have been preserved for 2500 years. and i learned of these teachings and visited a vipassana meditation center in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts for the very first time back in the 90's, after hearing folks making jokes as we worked in the kitchen at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.

With hilarious Indian accents, they made jokes about awareness and the necessity to breathe...' Start again, start again'...

"Everything is constantly arising, and passing away.

Arising, and passing away.

Every molecule, every atom in motion, is only particles of energy arising, and passing away.

When you look at a candle flame, it seems constant, no?

But it is merely energy in constant rebirth.

When you step in a river, step out, and step back in, it seems like the same river. But the molecules of water have rushed by, and you are not stepping into the same stream, and neither is your body even the same body.

When you look at an electric light, it looks like the same light, no? Well, then, why do you get an electric bill every month???'

These are quotes (albeit perhaps slightly altered in remembrance) from Goenkaji, who was a businessman that became responsible for the spread of Vipassana meditation teachings around the world. The only practice that has ever met all my ideals, as it costs nothing and is denied to no one. You attend a ten day course at a center, and nine days are silent. You come, like a beggar, like a monk or a nun, bringing nothing and paying nothing, because if you paid, your ego would get involved. So for a small period of time in life, you are humble, and freely take what is given. I don't have enough time to type right now, but you can read more about Vipassana here : www.dhamma.org

so todays blog has to do with being reminded of the good gifts i received from attending ten day courses, so long ago. I 'sat' two courses, and 'served' two courses. If you feel that the course has benefitted you, only then are you allowed to give dana (donation) which can be monetary funds or knowledge or time. I chose time to serve at the center, because i wanted to learn to cook all the awesome vegetarian food they served. BUT... i do not practice this meditation now, (though i am sure in the future i will) .. because i got a very clear directive (DURING a meditation) that said, "you would not tell a child that is hurt or angry 'sit in the corner and meditate, and all your pain will go away'. no, you would encourage the child to talk about their feelings and thus release them. Because feelings are energy, and while good feelings magnify and enlighten, sad or angry feelings can do great damage if they are not 'processed' and released.

Where is all of this going? Well, a dear friend from Atlanta sent an  excerpt from an article about anger. And as i've recently volunteered with the Urban League, which helps underpriveleged members of our community, I came into contact with kids that had a LOT of feelings ... about their life and family and community... including anger. Kids that have experienced abuse and discrimination and poverty. So i read the article. Not only for them, but for ME, who has anger and sadness in my background. I found it insightful and helpful. I read it aloud to a friend who was visiting that didn't have his reading glasses, and when we got to the point where the article talked about stored pain, this man began crying as he still has grief inside due to the deaths at different times of his two brothers.

i had 'things to do', business things, art things, 'ambition' things... but i set them aside because this felt like a way to be a source of healing to a person with obvious pain. and i printed the article for him and another friend. and i emailed it to people i know and feel connected to.

and then, i get this:

While all these people are "working" out and "getting in touch" with their anger, who is going to help the Palestinians and the Iraqis and the Afghanis and the Pakistanis, the persecuted in Sudan....etc etc etc, work out THEIR anger? hmmmmm?
 
I guess it's a question of priorities....What bubble are Americans living in anyway?  the mall, Dancing with the Stars? Football games, baseball games? Inner City Blues?.......hah!  they all deserve what they're gonna get when the world decides it's had enuff!
 
George Carlin said America is one great big giant mall, full of FAT people!
 
My parents hurt me ......awww, --------maybe we could go to Palestine, I'm sure we would have a better life there hmmmmm?
 
When soldiers break down your door, rape/kill your sister, and put a bag over your father's/brothers' heads, and handcuff them and drag them off, AND drop bombs with WHITE PHOSPHEROUS ALL OVER YOUR LAND  When we PAY Israel to fence in the Palestinians in the largest open air prison that's ever existed, when we GIVE them the weapons to sniper fire on LITTLE CHILDREN!--bulldozers to dig up your olive groves and tear down your homes, prevent you from going to school or work at your job, or even GO THE HOSPITAL TO GIVE BIRTH!...THEN you can get angry!
 
500 CHECKPOINTS, where Palestinians are held up at least 6hrs, and this not even to get into Israel proper, but from one of their OWN neighborhoods, to other Palestinian neighborhoods.....Not only do the Israeli settlers have 24/7 running water and 24/7 electricity BUT they are sending their sewage waste onto Palestinian farms.
 
How's that for flinging SHIT at your fellow man?
 
......While the Palestinians have approx 2hrs electricity daily and maybe 4hrs of running water...pulleeeeze!
 
Don't talk this psycho babble to me, while we are SUPPORTING genocide!

while i agree there are many wrongs in the world, i cannot absorb or even bother to respond to this because i am of the mindset that we MUST... 'Think globally and act locally'.

Now, this person, who i love dearly, has helped me a lot in this life, passing along information that has helped me body and soul. But she obviously has some unhealed stuff. Which i happen to know. Another friend of mine who, similarly, has been supportive and encouraging, has had a similar type reaction whenever i pass along something that i think has even one small nugget of inspiration. and uses the contact as a way to lambaste and criticize things in the world. like false and greedy prophets.

But why can't these folks just understand

that my aim and intent is to magnify and heal?

...and that's why i pass stuff along?

i probably need to use my journal and come up with a song.

How can you know whether or not , in unplugging from the corporate wheels of Karma and stopping to listen and care for a fellow being, right next to you at the diner or the bus stop or the grocery store or the local shelter... how can you know whether the person you help will be the next ghandi, or in turn help a child that will be the next mother theresa or martin luther king or goenkaji? i operate on the timetable of the spirit.

sorry, i had to vent. thanks for listening. and if you have criticism, keep it to yourself.

ps the anger article is here:

Hi Eileen!

...Been reading a web page about
anger and depression.  Pretty
interesting!  I hope your morning
is going well.  Write back when
you have a chance :) Here's an
excerpt from the web page:

"...Bert: That's scary. So if all of this anger then wants to come out, and we use one of these bypasses, it sinks back into the body.

John: Before I did this work I had to constantly have Rolaids in my pocket. I always had indigestion, heartburn, headaches. I couldn't sleep. I was using drugs and alcohol addictively, sometimes just to get to sleep. Since this great expulsion period in my life happened, years ago, I haven't had a Rolaids in my mouth. And damn few headaches. Anger will wreak havoc on the body and soul, and on your relationship to your children, your wife, and your friends. And if you still have tremendous anger at your father in your body, when you're around a father figure you'll project that onto him. It's not fair to that person..."

More at:

http://www.menweb.org/lee-ivu.htm

John Lee on Anger : An Interview

and thank you , adam.

I believe i will be taking a communication vacation.

But i still intend to post about Hiawatha.

later, or more likely, tomorrow.

'an artist has to be like a whale

swimming with their mouth wide open

until they get what they need...

then and only then

they begin to grow.'   - romare beardon

'discovery is looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different'   - albert gyorgi

'success is not final; failure is not fatal; what counts is the courage to continue'

'when patterns are broken, new worlds emerge'

'(the new shamans) are not lonely, even if alone, for they have come to understand that we are never really isolated. Like Siberian shamans, thye realize, "Everything that is: is alive!" Everywhere, you are surrounded by life, your family.'     - Michael Harner

'Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.'    - Thich Nhat Hanh

Friday, August 1

I just want to tell you today that there are a lot of things you should be doing. You should be sharing more with other people. You should be eating healthier. You should be feeding your soul a lot more. A lot

How does it feel when you read this? Am I inspiring you? Or am I making you want to throw your computer [and me] out the window?

Should is a terrible, terrible word. It creates resistance, not rejuvenation. It implies that we are not enough. And it's a word many of us use in our own inner dialogue. And that's exactly one of the reasons we don't do the things we should do.

Should is never the reason to do something. Nor will it ever be the motivation you need.

Today, when you're feeling under the weather or your gut is getting humongous or you're having a challenging day at work or anything spiritual is the last thing on your mind, tell yourself that this is your OPPORTUNITY to use the tools, to release and accept more, to share more, to love more, to break a habit, to expand your vessel.

Intention is the key here. Don't do anything because you should. Do it because you know how good it will feel once you do it. Do it because you want to. Do it because you're excited for the chance to put these tools to use.

But please, don't do it because you should.

(from the daily kabbalah tune up... the message is infinitely more important than the messenger)

P.S. You should have a great weekend!

from miz meems, recently attached to the front door so that even the mailman can get some positivity:

Promise Yourself:

to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind...

Promise yourself to speak of health and prosperity to everyone you meet

Promise yourself to make all your friends aware of the special qualities within them...

Promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and let your optimism work to make your dreams come true.

Promise yourself to think, work for, and expect the best.

Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about successes of others as you are about your own.

Promise yourself to forget past mistakes and press on towards a greater future.

Promise yourself to wear a cheerful countenance at all times as a smile radiates warmth and love.

Promise yourself to give so much to the improvement of yourself that you have no time left to criticize others.

Promise yourself to be too wise for worry, to tolerant for anger and too courageous for fear.

Promise yourself that you will remember this: strong self esteem does not mean you will always be happy, but that you accept and love yourself through it all....

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copied into my journal during a recent trip to Macon:

MANIFESTO: THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT
by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.
Want more of everything made.
Be afraid to know you neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery any more.
Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something they will call you.
When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute.
Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace the flag.
Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.
Give you approval to all you cannot understand.
Praise ignorance,
for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium.
Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion--put your ear close,
and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.

Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap for power,
please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap.
Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and politicos can predict the motions
of your mind, lose it.
Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go.
Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Copyright Wendell Berry

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saturday afternoon study  (Elders at Ocmulgee River Blessing Ceremony)

it's a little bright and cartoony but it is something i did as a participant in the 'plein air paint out' in Macon during the art and kids festivities of the yearly Bragg Jam, and it is percolating my mind in new directions. makes me want to take a trip to Ada, Oklahoma, to visit the Chickasaw folks whose portraits i sketched a couple years back at Riverfest, here in Columbus, GA. hmmmm....

Spirit Hawk is an Iroquois, and did a dance of Hiawatha (lower right figure); he explained that Hiawatha taught humility as the chosen position. When approached by anyone seeking conflict, choose to be low to the ground, and humble,

i remember learning about Hiawatha as a child. i grew up in Western NY, and walked on the lands of the Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga, and Onondaga. I attended several sweatlodges on the Tuscarora reservation, and many times camped along the Mohawk trail. and i do believe i will have to post a separate blog, because just in a little research to educate you, dear reader, about Hiawatha,  i am finding fascinatin' tings.

so lemme put up th' picture and get back to hiawatha...

Ocmulgee Blessing Medicine Wheel, 24 x 48", acrylic on wood, painted between 1pm and 5pm on the banks of the Ocmulgee in Macon, GA

Page 17-18: North American Indians understand their HIAWATHA was the reincarnation of one of the Great of Earth who had come to "sheep of other pastures ye know not of." After he instructed the Indians to lay down their war clubs and live in love, he sailed away in His canoe and rising above the earth He disappeared in the clouds. The Indians have a three-day Sun Dance ending the twenty-eighth of July each year which is equal in esoteric understandings to the IDE festival of the Moslems in India. As Buddha appears in the skies to his loved ones at the Wesek Festival in India, so does Hiawatha appear to the Indians in the Western States. The dance is held at Pocatello, Idaho, because it is expected that Hiawatha will re-appear in that state. IDAHO means "Sun coming down the mountain."

Our "I DO" Organization was incorporated to sponsor and protect the woman we mention so many times. Her soul has been recognized by the Wise Men of the Far East as the "Idean Mother" or "IAO" Because of her the State of IDAHO came into being. Originally the Indians called it EE-DA-HOW, or "sun-coming-down-the-mountain," since it is the place HIAWATHA (incarnation of Gabriel) said He would return. Ancient records have been found which state that Zeus (Christ) and Ganymede (Mary) will be united in that Day "on Mt. Ida of a new continent."