Quick Movie Review: "Bright Star"

Saturday night, when deluged with stuff to do, I decided to go to an art house movie at the Broadway Theater downtown. (This is symptomatic of my procrastination routine -- I tell myself that I work best under pressure.) Anyway, I decided to see a film called "Bright Star" about the poet John Keats and his first (and only) love, Fanny Brawne. It was a period piece (1818) but grittier than a Merchant-Ivory film with more realistic elements. John Keats had only one set of clothes, for example, and his wealthier friend/benefactor had two. Fanny Brawne was a flirtatious clothes horse / amateur fashion designer, so she had an assortment of nice things to wear of her own creation.

Anyway, I did not particularly like the film. The acting was fine, but as much as they tried, the actors portraying John Keats and Fanny Brawne lacked chemistry. (Note to self: if you're ever casting a love story, capitalize on natural attraction by selecting leading roles in a love film based upon actual attraction.)

I also spent a good part of the film trying to figure out the relationship among various minor characters. Who is related to whom? I probably should have done my homework on John Keats' biography before hand, but that would not have been necessary if the writer/director, Jane Campion, had clarified it at the outset.

On the other hand, some of the scenery was gorgeous, and I do have a better understanding of John Keats. The title comes from a poem he wrote to Fanny Brawne -- she was his 'Bright Star.'

And I have to add that it was much better than "Dead Poets' Society," which came out 20 years ago and really wasn't about dead poets at all. (Was I the only person disappointed about that?! Dead poets are probably a fascinating bunch.)

This is part of his most famous poem, "A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Forever":

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth...

Morita and Naikan Philosophy 101

If you, like me, 'suffer' from analysis paralysis, maybe you'd be interested in learning about Morita therapy and the Naikan method of self-reflection -- two philosophies very foreign to my Western way of thinking. (They are Japanese, and I am not really a Japanese afficionado. Generally speaking, I like all things Western European. Japanese gardens, stir-fry and Morita therapy are the only exceptions.)

In Western psychology (think Freud and Jung...) they focus on what someone thinks or feels and why they think or feel that way and what can be done to make them think or feel differently -- as though thoughts and feelings could be controlled by will. Morita recognizes that feelings are complex, so it asks you to accept your thoughts and feelings, as unpleasant as some of them may be, and move forward in spite of them.

Here are Five Elements of Psychological Health to consider (taken from the ToDo Institute web site, where they practice many of these concepts):

1. Learn to co-exist with uncertainty. (Realize that you cannot control the outcome of every situation.)
2. Pay attention to details -- nature, sports, food...everything. Details help us live with passion and fascination. They also take us outside of ourselves.
3. Lead with the body, not the mind. (***I find this to be KEY***) "Let the body take action and the mind follow." [My mind is stronger than my body, so I've tried this the other way around, but now I am observing that this is a much more sensible approach.] Acknowledge thoughts as they arise, but return your attention to the action at hand.
4. Either change your circumstances, or accept them. (I think I'm pretty good at this one.)
5. Cultivate gratitude through self-reflection.

Morita is sometimes called the 'psychology of action.' Years ago I read a fantastic book, called "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway," in which the author made the bold statement that ACTION IS POWER. Love that thought! (There I go again -- turning a call to action into a moment of contemplation, thus my paralysis.)

Naikan therapy has four phases:
1. The rest phase -- separate yourself from the loud and intrusive world. Re-familiarize yourself with peace.
2. The 'light work' phase -- including journal writing. Go outside to re-connect with nature. Move from darkenss to light both figuratively and literally.
3. The 'strenuous work' phase -- stretching and strengthening through physical labor, preferaly outdoors.
4. Integration phase -- blending meditation, physical activity, clear thinking, more ordered living, and a renewed relationship with the natural world.

As I read more about this (and synthesize the information for this blog entry), I realize many of these concepts were first intoruduced to me by Emerson and Thoreau, so maybe they aren't strictly Japanese afterall.

Just something to think about...

An Engineering Kind of Quote

This excerpt from the book "The Paradise of Bombs" by Scott Russell Sanders (University of Georgia Press) made me look at the world a little differently. (There's a moral lesson in the quote, too.) I'd really never thought about the importance of engineering before reading this:

"There is a mystical virtue in right angles. There is an unspoken morality in seeking the level and the plumb. A house will stand, a table will bear weight, the sides of a box will hold together only if the joints are square and the members are upright. When the bubble is lined up between two marks etched in the glass tube of the level, you have aligned yourself with the forces that hold the universe together."

VOTE!

Over the past two weeks I’ve been working full-time at an early voting office in Taylorsville, Utah. Some days we had as few as 55 voters, others as many as 133. Overall, 676 people exercised their right to vote at our location, and each time a voter returned a voting card, we handed him or her a red and white “I Voted” sticker. A few people declined to accept the sticker, but most accepted it gladly and promptly placed it to the upper left side of their chests where their hands might rest while reciting the pledge of allegiance. I saw it over and over again.

This made me think of the triumphant voters in liberated Iraq in 2005 who dipped their thumbs in insoluable purple ink to indicate that they had voted, a step designed to prevent them from voting again. Iraqis who dared to vote by the thousands defied threats of violent retaliation to turn out at the polls.

In some countries like Australia eligible citizens are required to vote. In Bolivia, if you don’t vote, the government can prevent you from accessing your bank account for up to three months.

But I’m not writing to lament the low turnout in this municipal election. I don’t want people to use the eeny, meeny, miny, moe method of selecting a candidate to fulfill a civic obligation to vote. I prefer voluntary voting by people who have formulated an opinion, regardless of how they arrived at it.

My co-worker observed that voters tend to be extremely nice people. Maybe that’s why they go out of their way to vote.

On the next to last day of voting, one woman who had forgotten to get a sticker came by later to pick one up. She indicated that she had some sort of grievance with one of the candidates for mayor and wanted that person to see that she had cast a ballot.

Which made me realize that the “I Voted” stickers might just as easily read “I Exercised My Power As a Citizen.”

I would encourage everyone who can vote to study the issues and the candidates and vote, not only because it is a person’s civic duty to do so, but also because it’s a uniquely empowering experience.