Meet Joe Black

A few of my favorite quotes from the movie Meet Joe Black 

William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) to his daughter Susan (Claire Forlani) about love …

William: “I want you to get swept away. I want you to levitate. I want you to <pause> sing with rapture and dance like a dervish.”

Susan: “Oh that’s all.”

William: “Yeah. Be deliriously happy. Or at least leave yourself open to be.”

Susan: “Ok, be deliriously happy. I shall do my utmost.”

William: “I know it’s a cornball thin, but love is passion. Obsession. Someone you can’t live without. I say fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head and you listen to your heart. … The truth is honey, there’s no sense living your live without this. To make the journey and not fall deply in love. Well, you haven’t lived a life at all. But you have to try, because if you haven’t tried, you haven’t lived.”

Susan: “Bravo”

William: “Oh, you’re tough.”

Susan: “I’m sorry, ok. Give it to me again, the short version this time.”

William: “Stay open, who knows, lightning could strike.”

Another between William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) and Joe Black (Brad Pitt) who plays death.

Joe: I don't care Bill. I love her.

William: How perfect for you - to take whatever you want because it pleases you. That's not love.

Joe: Then what is it?

William: Some aimless infatuation which, for the moment, you feel like indulging - it's missing everything that matters.

Joe: Which is what?

William: Trust, responsibility, taking the weight for your choices and feelings, and spending the rest of your life living up to them. And above all, not hurting the object of your love.

Joe: So that's what love is according to William Parrish?

William: Multiply it by infinity, and take it to the depth of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I'm talking about.

Laughing at it all

"Since everything is like an 'apparition,'
Perfect in just being 'What It Is' -- as it is.
Having nothing to do with 'good' or 'bad,'
'acceptance' or 'rejection' --
You might as well just burst out laughing!"

-- Tibetan master Longchenpa, fourteenth century Tibet

Patience

Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.

Shams Tabrizi

Indiana Jones and Faith

“When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.” - Barbara J. Winter

The quote reminds me a scene from the third of the Indiana Jones movies, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which Indy is searching for the Cup of Christ. Towards the end of the movie, he comes to a ravine he must cross. The crossing is not far - perhaps 15 feet - but the ravine is no ordinary ravine. Hundreds and hundreds of feet of vertical cliff on both sides up and down, left and right. Indy checks his references and notes, from these he knows he must express the ultimate faith.

He stands there, crosses himself, takes a deep breath, closes his eyes - and steps out. His foot lands on a bridge that wasn't there a moment earlier.

In this case Indy had 'something solid to stand on'. Sometimes that's what we get, support in the most unexpected, unseen way. The other side is newborn birds who still not knowing how to fly reach the edge of the nest and off they go.

Winter is right - it takes deep faith to know we are always given the right tools at the right time and the scene is a great illustration of that.

Relativity

Albert Einstein has some fabulous quotes - this is one of my favorites:

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
THAT'S relativity

Belief

We do not believe
in ourselves until
someone reveals that
deep inside us
something is valuable
worth listening to
worthy of our touch
once we believe in
ourselves
we can risk
curiosity
wonder
spontaneous delight
or any experience
that reveals the human spirit.
-- e. e. cummings

Do it anyway

"Whatever you do in life will be insignifigant, but it is very important that you do it anyway. Because nobody else will. Are fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch."- Mahatma Gandhi

I first heard this quote durnig the movie "Remember Me". As a side not, it's a good movie. It's slow with the first half seemingly disconnected. It's not until near the very end of the movie the entire movie and the quote above make sense.

For me this quote brings forth the paradox and conundrum of life. With all the billions and billions of stars (or maybe it's trillions and trillions), with the estimated age of the universe at 13.7 billion years, with each human life 1 of a 6 billion on this planet we call Earth ... within this scale, it truly does seem that whatever we do with this life is insignificant.

Truly though none of us live at that immense, unimaginable scale of the universe. Even 1 star doesn't matter at that scale. We live at a human scale, most often measured by our neighborhoods, communities, and cities. These are the places we live, breathe, work, play, and exist.

At this personal level and personal scale, our actions are important. Very important. A smile to a stranger can change a day, both for you and them. Picking up a random piece of trash does improve the planet and make it nicer for everyone. Spending time with a friend enriches lives.

At the other end we can send waves the other way - road rage which might offer us some release yet brews anger in others, or flicking a cigarette butt out the window.

Everything we do matters, especially in relationship - to other people, to the earth, to animals, to ourselves. It is important how we act and it is equally important that we do act.

Regardless of the scale - universal or human, I agree with Gandhi. Do it anyway!

Give it a try

"It's impossible" said pride.
"It's risky" said experience.
"It's pointless" said reason.
"Give it a try" whispered the heart.

Pursue Those

"There are many things in life that will catch your
eye, but only a few will catch your heart . . .
pursue those."

-- Unknown

Autotelic

definition from the Encarta World Dictionary
1. done for its own sake: done for its own sake rather than to gain a material reward or avoid a punishment
2. philosophy possessing internal purpose: describes an entity or event that has within itself the purpose of its existence or occurrence

In some ways I relate this to the Zen proverb: "Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water." Once we can do things for their own enjoyment, they are no longer burdens but a way to live and enjoy everything we do. Essentially every activity becomes autotelic.

Alan Watts put it this way: “This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”

What's more fascinating about autotelic is that it has been used to describe a personality type! I believe Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was one of the ascribe this context. This is how he describes autotelics: "An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding. Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, even when alone with nothing to do, they are less dependent on the external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life composed of routines. They are more autonomous and independent because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life."

While I'm not one more labels, I do like patterns and this is a pattern that has many elements which ring true for me. I wonder how many autotelics are there?

Living Truth

Knowing the Truth is Fairly Useless. Feeling it is Profound. Living it Makes All the Difference.

~David Deida

Beauty

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty.
I think only how to solve the problem.  But when I have
finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

--R. Buckminster Fuller

The Gift

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
- Steve Prefontaine

Play and Work

“The master of the art of living makes little distinction between their work and his play, their labor and their leisure, their mind and their body, their information and their recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly knows which is which. They simply pursues their vision of excellence at whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing. To them, they are always doing both.” - James A. Michener

The Mexican Fisherman and the Investment Banker

An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna.

The banker complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The banker then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

What Matters Most? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life."

The investor scoffed, "I am an Ivy League MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. "

The investor continued, "And instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would then sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution! You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But how long will this all take?"

To which the banker replied, "Perhaps 15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The banker laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!"

"Millions. Okay, then what?" wondered the Mexican.

To which the investment banker replied, "Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Einstein

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. - Albert Einstein

I love this quote and how it can be applied in so many ways. It can be applied to personal issues, to physical issues, to solving problems. It's a lot about perspective and seeing things in different ways, especially if we're stuck and need another kind of input whether that's another person, another idea, or letting go altogether to quiet the mind to discover our hidden wisdom.

Courage

One of my favorite quotes:Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon


Here's a second part to this - the root of the word courage comes from the 14th century French word curage or the Latin word cor - which means heart.

Happy New Years!

2012 is right around the corner. I can feel the buzz of it and it feels good.

There’s been an enormity of change throughout the world the past year and 2012 has the potential for even more. I’m looking forward to it.

So as 2012 begins here are two expressions for the new year: Obi Wan Kanobe speaking the immortal ‘May the Force be with you’ … followed by Buzz Lightyears’ exuberant ‘To Infinity … and Beyond.’

A little Alice in Wonderland

"I mean, what is an un-birthday present?"
"A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course."
Alice considered a little. "I like birthday presents best," she said at last.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" cried Humpty Dumpty. "How many days are there in a year?"
"Three hundred and sixty-five," said Alice.
"And how many birthdays have you?"
"One." - Lewis Carroll

Hallelujah

You might think this post would be about Handel’s Messiah being that it’s near Christmas, but no, this is about the song Hallelujah penned by Leonard Cohen. It’s one of my favorite songs, and while I like Cohen’s version my favorite covers are by Brandi Carlile and Jeff Buckley, both of which give me goosebumps. Brandi Carlile sang it with the Seattle Symphony live – I wish I could have been there for that.

Below are 5 verses most often sung. I believe there are at least two more common verses and I’ve even read there are another 20 verses somewhere, but I’ve never found them. The lyrics are like poetry – just beautiful, full of imagery. Still they don’t seem to make much sense on the surface. Supposedly it took Cohen a year to write these lyrics, which makes sense as the song reveals itself over time for the song covers time.

Then you hear the song on the radio, or a CD, and you start singing along. The music reverberates through you and the meaning reveals itself.

For me it’s about faith – having it, keeping it, losing it, discovering it again and again, having it tested, having it return, rejoicing in it, knowing/feeling it’s real. It can be sung as hopeful, sorrowful, joyous – it depends on the artist, the mood, the musicians.

For a short while I did some singing and this was my favorite song to sing, especially backed up by the amazing pianist I worked with. And when I sang it for an audience – wow, what a feeling. What a feeling inside and it was clear I had reached everyone listening.

Regardless it’s always beautiful and profound. Find your favorite version and sing along, let it sink it and light up your day.

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time when you let me know

What's really going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you

The holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above

But all I’ve ever learned from love

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

It’s not a cry you can hear at night

It’s not somebody who has seen the light

It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah