Pixar's UP - Geniuses of LOVE

I'm repeating what I said on Twitter after we saw UP yesterday: Pixar are geniuses of LOVE.

Who but Pixar could even make a film about the friendship between an old man and a boy – and a floating house?

And without giving too much away, the way the story of the old man’s life is told is sublime…or quite possibly divine.

Wholly original beautiful moving cinema. See it - and see it in 3D if you possibly can, although it would be just as magical projected on a paper bag:)

GATE: Jim Carrey, Eckhart Tolle and John Raatz

I attended an astonishing event last night at 20th Century Fox Studios: the first gathering of GATE, the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment, a creation of John Raatz, Jim Carrey, Eckhart Tolle and others - including the phenomenal Melissa Etheridge and Donovan - dedicated to raising the bar among those of us who create entertainment, so that we think about the impact our work has on people and try to make that impact as positive, meaningful and, ultimately, transcendent as possible.

It doesn't mean avoiding the dark side - that can be addressed intelligently, since it is clearly a part of life and the world - but listening to and watching this group of people was a truly inspiring event. Jim Carrey seemed a thoughtful (and funny) man, and Eckhart Tolle is like a magical, highly enlightened, plain-speaking, extremely moving elf! (He spoke of his mother's death in the most personal yet relevant way.) Melissa Etheridge just made me cry when she spoke and sang - she is extraordinary.

I cannot blog fully about it now as I'm under deadline on a script, but I hope @thecitizen on Twitter will not mind me posting his lively account of the evening here (read from the bottom up!). By the way, I'm with Eckhart re: Groundhog Day - I think it is one of the best and funniest, most illuminating comedies ever...aside from all of Jim Carrey's films, of course:) There is a great chapter on Groundhog Day in a fascinating MoMA book called, The Hidden God.

1. @ashleyvandyke is practicing the power of now...and its killing her...slowly (and I'm loving it)about 13 hours ago from TwitterBerry
2. One of tolle's favorite films (he's seen it six times) is one of my faves too: Groundhog Day. Bill murray is my favorite actor ever.about 14 hours ago from TwitterBerry
3. Eckart says: Jim is truly a hard act to follow....this stuff is pricelessabout 14 hours ago from TwitterBerry
4. Jim Carrey: Dumb and dumber as a study in pre-egoic innocence! Fabulous. Media/news today is not what the world is or what the world wants.about 14 hours ago from TwitterBerry
5. "My name is Jim Carrey and I've come to free the world from sin." Absolutely hilarious.about 14 hours ago from TwitterBerry
6. Jim Carey is up. He's not just funny but one of the most active environmentalists on the planet. And he's damn down to earth.about 14 hours ago from TwitterBerry
7. Just chatted with Adrian Grenier about collaborating on @3rdwhale @belugaboyd @greenmob @argam He's all about it.about 14 hours ago from TwitterBerry
8. Melissa Ethridge just rocked the house to a standing ovation. I got extended chills. Super epic.about 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry
9. Melissa Ethridge is having a moment (last time I saw her live was at the green ball in DC #gb09) so lovely (she's hilarious too)about 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry
10. John Raatz aka @visioneering1 has worked on just about every important film ever: whatthebleep, baraka, mindwalk, etc etc epic man & friendabout 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry
11. What does transformed Hollywood look like? A place where business and consciousness work hand in hand to transform our species & planetabout 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry
12. John raatz just read the personal statement from the Dalai Lama about this event and the attendees: gave me chillsabout 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry
13. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessings all around you, then it will be a good day; live each day like it was ur 1st & last #gateabout 15 hours ago from TwitterBerry
14. Hollywood is the biggest playground for collaborative creativity imaginable_sandra hay, unseen pictures, earth dance& architectsof a newdawnabout 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
15. Carlin is repping the strength of #twitter! Says its a critical step to the transformation of consciousness! Yes! Go HBO!!!about 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
16. Oprah and Tolle's online ten part series was a tipping point in transformational entertainment & one of most simultaneous viewed events everabout 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
17. Content that comes from the place of love is the key to the transformation_scott carlin of HBO (just like I said) brilliant!about 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
18. Scott Carlin, pres of domestic tv distro for HBO, grad of univ of santa monica's spiritual psych: discussing the dilemma of consumerismabout 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
19. Hollywood and the world are now ready for an upleveling of consciousness._John Raatzabout 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
20. Listening to an "invocation for world peace" by michael fitzpatrick, famous chellist...amazingly beautiful. Frought with emotions.about 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Baba and Paradise

One more picture, this time of me with Paradise. To hold your baby in your arms is such an incredible joy and privilege, a true celebration of the fullness of life.

Paradise Rose

Mostly I am not making this a personal blog, but I cannot resist posting this picture of our two month old daughter, Paradise Rose, who is the light of our lives, along with our beautiful four year old boy, Hudson.

It is amazing how much in two months a baby can change...a transformation from the tiny creature that emerges from the womb into a little girl, already displaying her own character traits (although that much is true even on the day you are born).

Wishing all our love to Paradise and Hudson xxxxx

A Working President

Photograph courtesy Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

I have been a huge supporter of President Barack Obama

since the earliest days of his campaign, and I continue

to support him now in these extremely challenging times.

Obama inherited from George W Bush one of the most

disastrous economies, two wars (at least one of which

could have been avoided) and the legacy of probably the

most disastrous policies in our nation's history.

Obama has worked tirelessly in his first months in office

and has already taken vast steps in terms of passing

legislation to address the global economic meltdown and

the many other vital issues we face, including

universal healthcare, which I believe should be a

fundamental human right along with education.

He has not been helped in this by the Republicans, who

have chosen to use this critical point in determining the

future not only of the United States but of the world

by disengaging from a positive participation in the

political process and instead focusing their energy on

criticizing Obama and trying to gain political capital from

the many current crises.

My hope is that we all allow Obama the time and give him

the support needed for his policies to take effect.

Above all, it is critical that we remember that this is

a situation that he inherited, and not one of his making.

May we all wish him well.

See Coraline in 3D NOW!

This is my IMDb review of Henry Selick's remarkable 3D animated movie, Coraline, which a friend of mine, Bill Mechanic, fought long and hard to get made. (Producers rarely get the credit they deserve for the commitment and passion they bring to their projects...their days do not exist solely of torturing writers in dank dungeons.) The movie is wonderful, fresh, funny and visually unique, go see it in 3D while you can!

Coraline: Original, beautiful, funny...and remarkable 3D

First, this film is excellent with or without the 3D. It is beautifully written and designed,

brilliantly directed by Henry Selick, the characters are totally engaging, the tone is

perfect animated-suburban-teen-goth with a sardonic edge, and the whole movie feels

fresh and funny and dark and satisfying.

Visually, it is stunning...and in 3D it is even more stunning. The circus mice alone (a

relatively minor element, but quite unforgettable) make it worth seeing in 3D, and the

decidedly trippy garden in the parallel world (eat your heart out, Alice In Wonderland)

made a friend of ours long for the days of 1990s rave culture!

One word of warning: it is fairly scary by children's movies standards, but a lot depends

on the child, and although at times it seems to echo (in a fairly gentle way) Japanese

horror movies of late, there is probably nothing more disturbing here than Cruella de Vil

in Disney's original animated 101 Dalmatians.

Even the score feels fresh, much of it performed by the Hungarian Radio Orchestra (if I

remember correctly from the credits) but with contributions, too, from Bruno Coulais and

They Might Be Giants (who made one of the best children's CDs, No!).

See Coraline and make every effort to see it in 3D. And if you do, sit through the entire

closing credits, for there is a nice little kicker right at the end.

Oscar Tweeting

Even though I work in the film industry, there are years when I don't watch the Oscars, but this was not one of them.

Danny Boyle is an old friend of mine - we worked together for eighteen months on an adaptation of my novel, The War Zone, before Tim Roth took over as director - and Danny's amazing Slumdog Millionaire was produced by Film4, the company for whom I am currently adapting Toby Barlow's remarkable book, Sharp Teeth.

So all in all there was good reason to watch this year's telecast and I thought it might be fun to "tweet" it on Twitter as well.  Here is my record of the night - a great one for Danny, Film4 and Slumdog - including the epic struggle with our four year old son, Hudson, to watch it at all.  Hudson is being raised in the Waldorf/Steiner philosophy and does not watch TV, with the notable exception of Wall-E on DVD - so a night with the TV on was unusual for all of us.

Because of the nature of the Twitter feed, you have to read these entries from the bottom up! (The times of the postings are a little random as they reflect when they were saved as PDF pages.)

YESSSSSSSS! Slumdog and Danny and Film4 and everyone

else. What an amazing night!

about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon

Fabulous for Danny...and love the Tigger jumping:-)

about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon

Slumdog's music ROCKS...but I love the Peter Gabriel song

from Wall-E, too (we have watched Wall-E 50 times). Go

Slumdog, to the biggies!!!

about 3 hours ago from TwitterFon

Another win for Slumdog, amazing. They should use Segways

for everyone to reach the stage at the Oscars!

about 3 hours ago from TwitterFon

You can't fail with Grease...or All That Jazz...or Lady

Marmalade. But where's the Slumdog closing number?

about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon

Another win for Slumdog, fantastic...the cinematography and

editing were outstanding.

about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon

That was Joaquin, iPhone keys close together:-)

about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon

Had a DVR freeze for dinner, catching up now. LOVE Ben

Stiller as Joaquim Phoenix...I thought Joaquim was really

funny on Letterman.

about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon

YAYYYYY...great win for Wall-E, it really deserves it.

about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon

Love the Wall-E Oscar animation.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

And great to hear a shoutout for Tessa Ross of Film4.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Fantastic to see Slumdog win the first of many Golden Boys

tonight.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Hope Slumdog wins Adapted Screenplay... I like the way

they're presenting the clips with text over.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Great acceptance speech for Milk.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Milk is a great film, a testament to the human spirit. Glad to

see it win.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

I loved Milk, too...a tough choice.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Time to make some tea, like a good Anglo-American. Hope TimeTraveler-FlyingSquirrel

Wall-E wins, I love it and so does our 4 year old, Hudson (he

of the epic battle).

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

YAY for Penelope Cruz!!!!!

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Like the 20 minute delay line for Mickey Rourke.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Just survived an epic battle with our four year old who didn't

want to watch the Oscars. Amazingly he liked the musical

number.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Answer to the Danny Boyle/Trainspotting quiz: first 2 words

were, "Choose life."

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

I LOVE Penelope Cruz, one of the nicest and most beautiful

people in the film industry.

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Great to see two accountants unconcerned (at least tonight)

by the bailout...unless the Kodak Theatre floods!

about 5 hours ago from TwitterFon

Danny Boyle quiz: what were the first 2 words of the amazing

opening voiceover to Trainspotting? A trip to the 90s for the

winner:-)

about 6 hours ago from TwitterFon

Love the Slumdog cast welcome to the official Oscars

telecast.

about 6 hours ago from TwitterFon

It will be Slumdog's night, I feel it in my bones!

about 6 hours ago from web

Oscar excitement building...and Hollywood is as cloudy as it

is here a few miles away in Topanga:-)

about 6 hours ago from web

Songs To The Human Spirit

Three films this year have stood out to me as songs to the human spirit, each very different.

The first is my friend Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which is a remarkably tense and ultimately uplifting love-story set amid the striking poverty and the glitz of contemporary Mumbai, as astonishing in its kinetic energy - and wonderful soundtrack - as in the humanity of both its themes and its outstanding performances.

Slumdog and Danny, I truly hope, will walk away with a huge clutch of this year's Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The second film that moved me hugely and that stands, as much as Slumdog, as a testament to the human spirit and to the universal cry for human dignity and civil rights, is Gus Van Sant's wonderful Milk, which I reviewed more fully earlier on this blog.

The third of my chosen trio is perhaps a little less likely: Pixar's astonishing Wall-E, which thanks to our four year old, Hudson's passion for it, we have viewed perhaps 50 times or more (as well as seeing it originally in the movie theater), each time finding additional details that just make us love it more.

To create an animated film that communicates the immensity and wonder of space - and more remarkably turns a love story between two robots into the most human and emotionally moving tale imaginable - is a very great achievement, and I think that on every level, including its uncompromising mix of dystopia and hope, Wall-E is a remarkable achievement and Pixar's most satisfying and greatest film to date.

May we all - like the children running through the slums of Mumbai in Slumdog, or like Harvey Milk graciously fighting for the right to live his life as he wishes, or like Wall-E and Eve harmoniously circling the Axiom spaceship in an inspirational space-waltz worthy of 2001 (to which Wall-E pays great homage) - dance through both the triumphs and great challenges of our lives, in the faith that love and courage always win out.

Bamboo: A Plant I Love

Watch this inspiring YouTube video about bamboo, a plant I love.

For those of you lacking patience, plant Buddha's Belly bamboo. It is remarkably fast-growing and will take over a corner or anywhere else in the garden in a year or two (it is also beautiful in pots, in fact pots make the shoots curl and twist in remarkable patterns)...but it is CLUMPING (in terms of its root system), so can be controlled by pruning new shoots around the edges.

Avoid planting RUNNING bamboo anywhere near your home or pool or anything else you wish to remain standing. Running bamboo (such as the beautiful Black Bamboo) can extend its roots as far as 2 miles or more (yes!) and break through concrete, cause walls to collapse, break pipes, damage foundations, etc.

Bamboo is beautiful but it is strong and it lives longer than we do, so treat it with love and respect! (Gardening is one of my greatest passions.)

Thank You to FT.com

A brief word to thank personnel at the Financial Times Online for their very kind and helpful response to some emails of mine recently.

I have always admired the Financial Times as a newspaper, for its political and arts coverage as much as its business coverage (I used to know their outstanding film critic, Nigel Andrews, very well when I lived in London, and my ex-partner, Ann Totterdell, deputized for him from time to time), and FT.com is a wonderful resource for news of all kinds, especially to those of us who live in the US.

It is worth noting that the newspaper was an early foreign admirer of President Obama and is much more liberal politically than its US counterpart, the Wall Street Journal.

Anyway, many thanks to the FT.com personnel. You know who you are!

A Vision of Hope (Revisited)

As we sink farther into the economic mire, as Obama speaks eloquently but frighteningly of the risk of turning "a crisis into a catastrophe," and as conversations with friends take a darker turn - although hopefully often leavened by lifeboat humor - I thought I would run this post again, despite the fact that it was written specifically in response to an earlier NIC (National Intelligence Council) report warning of a pretty bleak future for us all.

Hope seems more important now than ever, and even if hope may sometimes seem "woolly" - alone, it is rarely a solution to any problem - one thing is for sure: it is better to live in hope than not.

When I started this blog a year ago, I originally called it A Wolf At The Door, because from reading the financial media (which I do regularly, although my wife and various friends tell me quite firmly that I should stop if I wish to live a happy life), it seemed even in February 2008 (indeed even in 2007) that we were headed toward a very serious recession and possibly even a depression.

I had my doubts a year ago that we would face anything quite as severe as the Great Depression, and I am still hopeful that our knowledge of history - particularly the history of the Depression - will allow us to avoid so dark a path.

But things are getting tougher, and two friends last week made remarks that underlined just how much life has changed.  One talked of a highly successful friend who has been hard-hit by recent events, financially and in terms of his personal relationships and self-confidence, and whom she is very concerned about, in terms of his present psychological state.

Another mentioned the possibility of widespread breadlines, if things continue to decline in the coming months.  (Obama mentioned overwhelmed food banks in his speech tonight.)

It is almost impossible to imagine having that conversation here in America even twelve months ago when this was all beginning.  Obviously there have always been breadlines, and that is a sad fact, but the prospect of 1930s-style widespread suffering is something that hopefully is still far removed from reality.

Times are tough and are probably going to get tougher before they improve again.  But let us, as I say below, continue to live in hope.

Friday, November 21, 2008

A Vision Of Hope by Alexander Chow-Stuart

The CNN.com news story below, which reflects a report by the NIC (National Intelligence Council) predicting an increasingly unstable and unpredictable future by 2025, and the waning of American power, has been widely reported elsewhere.

While the world clearly faces extraordinary challenges in virtually every regard right now, whether it be financial instability, dwindling natural resources, global warming, poverty or domestic and international conflict, the words "thus it ever was" come to mind.

I remember reading media accounts of intelligence reports in the 1970s that predicted worldwide chaos and increasing violence by now, and while sadly there is always evidence of instability and violence, I am not sure that things are so much worse now than they were in the 1970s or certainly the 1930s.

The NIC, like any intelligence agency or any think-tank, has a job to do and its own existence to justify, and while I am no pie-in-the-sky idealist, I do believe that what President-Elect Obamabrought to the recent election, and will bring to the White House, is an overwhelming sense of hope: the "Audacity of Hope," to quote the title of one of his books.

If we focus on the negative, as we largely have for the past eight years, we are encouraged to live in fear and to temper our ambitions and our dreams.

If we live in hope, it doesn't mean that we deny the existence of the problems that surround us, but that we believe that we will find solutions, that together we will find greater strength, that if necessary we will shift our energy and food and manufacturing production into new directions - because we have to - and that while we may make mistakes initially, and while the balance of power, both political and financial, may change, ultimately we will make the right choices.

It is important that our new president be meticulously informed of the state of the world and of possible scenarios of the future, but my own hope is that Barack Obama doesn't lose his inspiring and empowering sense of hope amid the many challenges he will face as President and Commander in Chief.

He excited vast numbers of people - a 52% popular majority of the voters of this nation, as well as countless numbers of others around the globe - by offering, for the first time in memory, a political agenda based on a belief in our innate strengths and goodness as human beings.

As the parent of one young child, with another due in January, I pray for them and for all of us that President Obama's vision of the future will be achieved, that we will meet whatever challenges or disasters or attacks or dramatic changes in circumstance that may occur with ingenuity and imagination, with a faith in humankind and a belief that we can cherish our planet and build a better world for our children.

In the midst of the late 1930s and early 1940s in England, while Hitler was pressing Germany into an horrific war, and even as he served personally as a "watchman" during the Blitz of German bombers over London during that war, an American-born poet, T S Eliot, wrote one of the world's most beautiful and most spiritual books, reflecting on time, love, life, death, impermanence and permanence, and spirituality at its most sublime: Four Quartets.

As the world was falling into what appeared to be a vortex of destruction, Eliot wrote, among many other astonishingly beautiful passages:

"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor

fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance

is...and there is only the dance."

Let us all make it our responsibility each day to focus at least for a few moments on that still point and to hold to it - hold to the possibility of peace, both inner and outer, in this world, and of our role in this life as something to be honored and cherished and to be grateful for.

Let us continue to live in hope.

The Sun Behind The Clouds

Daily Dharma

The Sun Behind the Clouds
Samuel Bercholz on the enlightenment of the Buddha

This enlightenment of the Buddha's was profound and brilliant, accurate and powerful, and also warm and compassionate. It was like the sun behind the clouds.

Anyone who has taken off in an airplane on a grim and gloomy day knows that beyond the cloud cover the sun is always shining. Even at night the sun is shining, but then we can't see it because the earth is in the way, and probably our pillow also.

The Buddha explained that behind the cloud cover of thoughts--including very heavy clouds of emotionally charged thoughts backed up by entrenched habitual patterns--there is continual warm, bright, loving intelligence constantly shining. And even though in the midst of thoughts, emotions, and habitual patterns, intelligence may become dulled and confused, it is still this intelligence in the midst of thoughts and emotions and habits that makes them so very captivating, so resourceful and various, so inexhaustible.

--Samuel Bercholz, Entering the Stream

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Paradise Rose:-)

My postings to this blog will be few and far between for a while, thanks to the birth of our baby daughter, Paradise Rose, early on New Year's Day...whom I delivered myself (with considerable input from my wife, she insists) because our midwife could not get to us in time for our thankfully planned home birth!

More details of the birth to follow, but here is a photo of the two of us sleeping (I am exhausted from finishing a script) with Miso, our four year old boy Hudson's lovebird, perched on my head...no doubt mistaking it for a rock!  Mama and Baby are doing very well and Hudson is a very loving brother.  A friend of ours said that in years to come, Paradise will be the only girl in school who will be able to say that she was delivered by a pirate!

Slumdog Millionaire

I haven't had a chance to write about my pal, Danny Boyle's wonderful movie, Slumdog Millionaire, yet, but I shall very shortly...just as soon as I finish the script I am writing that is due over the holidays.

Bloom: Ambient Music and Magic for iPhone Users

Everyone with an iPhone should get Bloom, the amazing interactive ambient music application designed by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers. With a variety of "moods" to choose from, Bloom offers you an effectively blank screen that you tap to create unique and repeating musical patterns. Your compositions are looped but slowly fade allowing you to develop a new theme or just sit back and listen to the very chilled-out sounds and watch the matchingly mellow visuals. It is totally mesmerizing and one of the best iPhone apps I have seen. It turns your phone into a source of truly relaxing meditative music. All thanks to Stephen Fry for introducing me to this.

Bush's Crimes, Critics and Peaceniks

My suggestion that I felt a degree of empathy for Bush in his final failing days in office sparked quite a spirited exchange on my friend Bumble Ward's Facebook page, which is where I first posted my comments.  Here is the conversation to date:

Emine Saner: How to insult George Bush, wherever you are in the world | World news | The Guardian

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Emine Saner: George Bush was on the receiving end of the worst of all Middle Eastern insults when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at him

Add Comment - 9 Comments - Share

Lynda Obst at 9:41am December 16

I love the Guardian piece, thanks Bumble.

 Alexander Chow-Stuart at 11:30am December 16

What scares me about Bush is that, in his last and failing days, even I find myself feeling empathy for him at times, which is to discount the terrible wrongdoing, incompetence and death he has caused (think of "Shock and Awe" and the criminal bombing of Baghdad alone). Bush is another Bernie Madoff, or vice versa, and the awful truth about both is the astonishing corruption (both literal and moral) that lone individuals can encompass, and the worldwide havoc they can wreak. Madoff's assault on philanthropy alone should earn him a special place in the hell I don't believe in, and I hope that my moments of empathy for Bush are simply that which makes us all human. To empathize is not necessarily to sympathize; forgiveness is a key virtue but it does not require us to forget wrongdoing, rather to learn from it. Here ends my sermon for today:-)

Matti Leshem at 6:01pm December 16

It's generally not okay to have empathy for war criminals and politicians who rape their country for greed. Who else is on your list? Tito? Mobutu? We need a little less empathy and a little more retribution. I thrust my palm in your face.... and thanks Bumble...

Bumble Ward at 6:17pm December 16

Matti, honey, take your meds (mwah, mwah)

 Alexander Chow-Stuart at 6:59pm December 16

Matti, to quote The Dhammapada, which I know better than I know you: O let us live in joy, amongst those who hate! Among men who hate, let us live in love.

And as someone with a lifelong abhorrence of the death penalty (I don't believe a country can call itself civilized if it uses it), I felt sickened even by Saddam Hussein's execution.

Happy Holidays!

Matti Leshem at 9:06pm December 16

View As Web Page
And I don't know you from Adam but feel your love for the haters (I guess that's me). I too was sickened by the execution of Saddam Hussein Al-Tikriti, not because I give a damn about what happens to a murderous tyrant but because not one drop of American blood should have been spilled in the process. We didn't belong there -- ... Read More

Freddie Oomkens at 4:01am December 17

This is all just low kneejerk meanspirited bullying. Shame on you!

Bumble Ward at 6:02am December 17

Hi Freddie, look what you've been missing all this time! x

 Alexander Chow-Stuart at 9:14am December 17

Matti, as a parent, human being and citizen, I try to view life as closely as possible through Buddhist eyes. I admit it's hard at times. I felt something akin to hatred (a word I try not to use) for Cheney more than Bush, although Bush is obviously equally deserving, and I agree with you that Iraq was wrong and a crime, although not simply for the American blood (why is that always so much more valuable?) but for the innocent Iraqis, too (and there were thousands of them), who had suffered enough under Hussein. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove et al should be impeached and/or imprisoned, but it won't happen and it wouldn't change what happened. Let us pray that Barack Obama, who is a man whose integrity and passion have vastly impressed me for far more than a year, will do something to restore basic human values to our society...and try to turn your sympathy/empathy dial up just a notch for the holidays:-)

A Brief Thought About Bush And Madoff

What scares me about Bush is that, in his last and failing days, even I find myself feeling empathy for him at times, which is to discount the terrible wrongdoing, incompetence and death he has caused (think of "Shock and Awe" and the criminal bombing of Baghdad alone). Bush is another Bernie Madoff, or vice versa, and the awful truth about both is the astonishing corruption (both literal and moral) that lone individuals can encompass, and the worldwide havoc they can wreak. Madoff's assault on philanthropy alone should earn him a special place in the hell I don't believe in, and I hope that my moments of empathy for Bush are simply that which makes us all human. To empathize is not necessarily to sympathize; forgiveness is a key virtue but it does not require us to forget wrongdoing, rather to learn from it. Here ends my sermon for today:-)

Obama: In His Own Words

"A government that truly represents these Americans - that truly serves these Americans - will require a different kind of politics.  That politics will need to reflect our lives as they are actually lived.  It won't be prepackaged, ready to pull off the shelf.  It will have to be constructed from the best of our traditions and will have to account for the darker aspects of our past.  We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds.  And we will need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break."

- Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

How wonderful to have a president who has actually reflected long and hard on our history, on our triumphs and our failings as a people.  Let us hope that President-Elect Obama can navigate a course through Washington and the presidency that allows him to remain true to himself and true to the vision of our future that he has crafted through his personal and political experience.

See Gus Van Sant's movie, MILK

I had high expectations of Milk, being a fan both of director Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn, but this film totally surpassed anything I was expecting.

It is beautiful, engaging, moving, stirring, powerful and, of course, ultimately desperately sad in terms of the assassinations of both San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (no plot spoiler here, since their deaths are announced in newsreel footage within the first few minutes of the movie), but at the same time its portrait of a man of true courage and of the activism he stirred transcends the tragedy.

Penn gives an astonishing performance as Milk, one that I hope earns him this year's Best Actor Oscar, because he captures the humanity, joy and rightful anger of the man without once slipping into any kind of gay stereotype. When you see Milk/Penn's tearful response to the fate of the Anti-Gay Proposition 6 (the "Briggs Initiative", widely promoted by the deeply disturbing so-called Christian singer, Anita Bryant), you witness a moment that feels acutely judged, in terms of Milk's emotions, sexuality and personality. And Penn, who has his own fine record as an activist, brings real passion to Milk's powerful, original and courageous approach to "gay rights."

Josh Brolin, like the entire cast, is outstanding in his role as City Supervisor Dan White, to whom Milk shows great sympathy early on - attending the christening of White's child when all the other supervisors fail to turn up.

Gus Van Sant's direction is a perfectly judged blend of drama, humor and finely-paced use of newsreel, which, along with Danny Elfman's excellent score, draws echoes at times of the Holocaust, given the black and white images of gay men crammed into old police wagons. (I do not mean to diminish the Holocaust, but the echoes seem deliberate, given the Nazis' own persecution of homosexuals.)

While I believe that Elephant remains Van Sant's most remarkable movie in terms of its use of time, its beautiful long tracking shots and silences, and above all its surprising and very underplayed approach to another horrific subject (the Columbine shootings), Milk is a more accessible movie and I hope it finds a wide, wide audience and does great box office, not simply to benefit the movie but to inform the public.

This is a film about fundamental human rights, not simply gay rights, and it should be seen in particular by all those who continue to campaign, often in the misused name of their religion, against gays and lesbians. The recent passage of Prop. 8 in California, on the same day that President-Elect Obama was swept into office, was a sad irony, and I only pray that ultimately - and soon - everyone will embrace the notion that all people deserve the same rights, that all people experience the same love (if they are lucky) and that in a world where love sometimes seems in short supply, we should celebrate it, not limit it.

Milk is an important film, one of the few this year that is actually about something. I strongly urge everyone to see it.

Mind: The Dhammapada

"All experience is preceded by mind,

Led by mind,

Made by mind.

Speak or act with a corrupted mind,

And suffering follows

As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.

All experience is preceded by mind,

Led by mind,

Made by mind.

Speak or act with a peaceful mind,

And happiness follows

Like a never-departing shadow."

The Dhammapada (1-2), A New Translation Of The Buddhist Classic With Annotations, by Gil Fronsdale, Shambala Books

(The Naropa Buddha painting by Joan Anderson and Robert Spellman.)