That overrated fiscal responsibility thing . . .

Just in case you wonder why I am not a Republican. Arnold is supposedly a Republican, right? Here is a quote from him just the other day:

"I think the important thing for the Republican Party is now to also look at other issues that are very important for this country and not to get stuck in ideology," the governor said in an interview broadcast on CNN. "Let's go and talk about healthcare reform. Let's go and . . . fund programs if they're necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility."

Nice to know the governor things fiscal responsibility is a bad place to be stuck.

Latourette Quote

"Not immediately, but as the months and years passed, increasingly, from experience and thought based on extensive reading, I found the Evangelical faith in which I had been reared confirmed and deepened. Increasingly I rejoiced in the Gospel -- the amazing Good News -- that the Creator of what to us human beings is this bewildering and unimaginably vast universe, so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Everlasting life, I came to see, is not just continued existence, but a growing knowledge -- not merely intellectual but wondering through trust, love, and fellowship -- of Him who alone is truly God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent."

--Kenneth Scott Latourette

I really love that quote. The more I read it, the more I love it.

Running

"You don't run to generate self-esteem,
but to render it beside the point.
This any religious man will tell you."
--Benjamin Cheever

RUNNING

While running
I saw majestic trees
Delicate yellow buds
A proud new mom
Grey-haired lovers in the park
Sun rays dancing on peeling bark

Running further
Looking closer
I saw how far I'd come
The strength of my sons
Every best friend I've had
My old man wasn't so bad

Running farther on
Looking closer still
My heart expanded
All my needs were met
I saw God's jubilee
The beauty inside me

--Shenandoah Lynd

music as necessity

Man, I found a quote that totally resonates with me. A long time ago I put up a post called The Way Starbucks Sees It. Well, this is another quote from a Starbucks cup, The Way I See It #267:


"Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears--it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more--it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity."
--Oliver Sacks

author of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain."

So, here is the line that I really "get" in the core of my being: MUSIC CAN PROVIDE ACCESS TO LIFE.

Is anybody alive out there? Yes, indeed!

A New Kind of Christian

I'm reading this book, "A New Kind of Christian," by Brian D. McLaren and I really dig it. It's making me think a lot. It's a bunch of conversations between a pastor, Dan, and his daughter's science teacher--turned Dan's friend--Neo. Here's a a great paragraph:

"Most modern people love to relativize the viewpoints of the others against the unquestioned superiority of their own modern viewpoint. But in a way, you cross the threshold into postmodernity the moment you turn your critical scrutiney from others to yourself, when you relativize your own modern viewpoint. When you do this, everything changes. It is like a conversion. You can't go back. You begin to see that what seemed like pure, objective certainty really depends heavily on a subjective preference for your personal viewpoint."

That quote is so important to me. It's from a lecture Neo is giving to college students in the book.

Quote of the Day

"Do I have to tell you what everything in the picture means? Can't you just experience it?"
--Stanley Kubrick

James Beaton just used this quote in his comment to one of my posts. I couldn't agree more with James' comment. Very well written. Additionally, I adore that Kubrick quote! Moreover, the Kubrick quote, in my mind, is related to a difference of opinion I often have with Chrisy as it relates to films. I'd like to paraphrase the Kubrick quote this way:

"Do I have to tell you what happens in this narrative after the picture ends? Can't you just connect your own dots?"
--Doah Lynd

Usually, when a film is over and the ending just "hangs there," I will tend to love the movie whereas Chrisy tends to be frustrated and feel cheated. She's not wrong; rather, we're just different in that way. I love movies that don't tell me what everything means or how everything turns out. For example, the great John Sayles film LIMBO is one of my many favorites. Many people (not just my wife) had an audible gasp or actually said, "Is that all there is?" when it ended. I loved it! I wanted to applaud. I'm sure you can think of other films that ended that way, they're kind of like the Beatles song, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on Abbey Road in that they just seem to "cut-off" abruptly.

Similarly, as it would natrually follow, there are many times I could have enjoyed a film much more if they didn't keep going, and going, spoon feeding me every little detail. There are many examples, but the most obvious for me is the Robert Zemeckis picture, CAST AWAY. I loved that movie, until the last chunk, then I took off 2 stars from it's rating because it had to lay-out everything for me, tie it up with a nice cookie-cutter ending! There's a moment when Hanks is finally on raft and he's asleep and he is awaken by a big ship. Rescued! We know that "rescued" is the implication. That's where I would have rolled credits. That would have been a 5 star film to me.

At any rate, I think Kubrick was a genius filmmaker and I love that quote. It really got me thinking. I love to fill in the canvas in my mind. Movies that allow me to do that are often among my favorites.

Narrative and Character

I recently read an article by Roger Ebert. He was discussing the five best picture nominations for tonight's Oscars. The big topic this year is the lack of "box office" generated by the best picture nominations. It's a far cry from TITANTIC or LORD OF THE RINGS. This year it's "artsy" films that nobody has seen. Here's the Ebert quote I like:

"Hammered by the idiocy of formula television and video games, a generation is forming that has no feeling for narrative and character. The Oscar nominees represent filmmaking at a high level, but who do you know who has gone to see more than two or three of them?"

The Way Starbucks Sees It

I've always enjoyed quotations. Funny. Inspiring. Whatever. I like quotes. As if I needed another reason to like Starbucks, I think their "The Way I See It" series is wonderful. If you haven't seen it, they put quotations on their hot-beverage cups. They're supposed to get people talking. They number the quotes, in case you want to read them all I presume. If you're not addicted to caffine, maybe you can be addicted to thought-provoking quips. I admire The Way I See It idea. Anyway, here's one I picked up Friday night that really got me thinking:

The Way I See It #68

In an age when pictures have become more eloquent than words, schools are still programmed to reduce the child's immersive interaction with the visual world to the practical poverty of the alphabet. Visual literacy should become a pedagogical priority in order to prepare our children to function within the increasingly visual complexity of our environment.

--Vick Muniz, Artist and photographer. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he now resides in New York City.