BLACK SWAN: PASSION OR PERFECTION?

I used to be a perfectionist. Thank God I’m not anymore. I still place great value on doing good work and my best, but I’m no longer obsessed with having to do everything perfectly. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) in the movie Black Swan is obsessed with dancing perfectly.


This film does an excellent job at showing the audience the competitive, and believe it or not, brutal world of ballet. We get a glimpse of the toll it takes on the dancer’s body, especially their feet which often become bloody and torn. We see the diligence the dancer must take with their shoes, their body and their dancing. We also see the competitiveness and rivalry inherent among dancers.

The director of the ballet company Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) bypasses the aging lead ballerina Beth (Winona Ryder) and gives the lead role of Swan Queen in his newer, rawer version of Swan Lake to Nina. The role requires that she play two very diverse parts, the innocent and pure White Swan and the provocative and sexy Black Swan. Nina has the White Swan mastered, but being too young and inexperienced she can’t quite grasp what is needed for the Black Swan. Yet waiting in the wings is another dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), ready to fill Nina’s shoes should she not succeed. We begin to understand Nina’s drive for perfection.

The director, using sexual advances, tries to get Nina in touch with her dark and passionate side, but this would require an abandonment and letting go that just doesn’t fit with her perfectionism. Sex, orgasm, abandonment and passion all require one to totally let go of control and the need for it all to be perfect.

We soon discover that Nina is more than just obsessed with being perfect, she’s psychotic. She is a tortured soul who mutilates her body, or does she? Throughout the film we switch back and forth between reality and Nina’s fantasies, and it becomes as difficult for the viewer, as it is for Nina, to tell the difference between the two.

In the end she not only masters the role, but she literally becomes one with the passionate and dark Swan. Her ending words are “it was perfect.” This film is dark, violent and extremely sexual. It is not for everyone, but I found it to be an excellent, Oscar worthy film.

If I, personally, had to choose between passion and perfection, I would choose passion. I’d rather abandon myself into something I love and not worry about how it all turns out. However, I’m grateful that, unlike Nina, I’m not psychotic and am able to distinguish the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs

BRINGING BACK THE OLD HOLLYWOOD

Below is a message directly from Hollywood Producer and Director Stephen Simon:


The spirit of The Old Hollywood is engrained in my soul and in the souls of hundreds of millions of people around the world. I grew up in the Old Hollywood. My father was a producer and director, Frank Sinatra was my "godfather", and I spent much of my youth with such stars as Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, The Marx Brothers, and Abbott and Costello. In my own career, I have produced movies with Christopher Reeve, Tom Cruise, Robin Williams, and Madonna, who gave me lessons in honesty. Yes, truly, she did.
Unless something dramatic is done, new movies will soon become extinct.
Bringing Back The Old Hollywood is a passionate declaration that The Old Hollywood is most definitely not gone forever. Like Brigadoon, it has only been cocooned, soon to emerge in a newer and more dazzling form.
I invite you then to join me on this journey to welcome back The Old Hollywood as it is reborn.
That rebirth can come sooner than we can even imagine.
Because we are the ones who can now bring it back.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you so much for your support.

Thanks so much!

Stephen Simon

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE BOOK: http://theoldhollywood.com/cart_cmd.php?af=1283759 As an affiliate, I will receive $5 if you purchase the book from this link. Thank you.

The Old Hollywood

I just discovered a new website called Theoldhollywood.com. It is sponsored by Hollywood producer and author Stephen Simon.

I had the privilege of meeting Stephen at a Spiritual Cinema Film Festival at sea a number of years ago. I was also a charter member of Spiritual Cinema Circle (http://www.spiritualcinemacircle.com/). I had to let my subscription go when I lost my job, but I truly hope to be able to renew it someday soon...if I ever get another job...I WILL get another job...LOL.

I also took a teleseminar with him and pitched the idea for my book Reel Transformation: Your Life Now Playing to him. If I ever get that book finished and published there will be an acknowledgment to him in the front of the book as I would never have even started it without his encouragement. Actually, I'm secretly hoping he'll write the forward to it.

Stephen produced one of my favorite movies Somewhere in Time as well as What Dreams May Come. He’s also just written a new book that I have ordered called Bringing Back the Old Hollywood. I’ve read the first couple of chapters online and can’t wait to read the rest. When I finish it I’ll post more here about it. I've become an affiliate which means you can buy the book through this link: http://theoldhollywood.com/cart_cmd.php?af=1283759 and I will receive $5 of the sale.

So click on that link and check out the website and Stephen’s blog and check back here later for my review of the book.

Our Crisis is a Birth

Does it feel to you like our nation is experiencing a crisis? Our economy is at its worst. Millions of people are unemployed. Our government is bickering across the aisle and stuck in how to solve our country’s economic problems, and many other issues as well.

What if what appears to be a crisis happening around us and to us is actually just labor pains? What if we are in the process of birthing something new and exciting? Well, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Ian Xel Lungold believe that is exactly what is happening, and I’m inclined to agree with them.

I looked back over my posts and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t written about this already. I was so jazzed by the Mayan Calendar film that Xel Lungold did that I watched it a number of times, showed it to a group of folks at church and sent copies to my friends…and yet I didn’t talk about it here.

Here’s the link to check it out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIUBP2ho3c

Ian says that the Mayan calendar is about the evolution of consciousness. Everything that has happened since the beginning of time…even before the Big Bang has been a result of consciousness evolving, and consciousness has a plan. As many of you know the Mayan calendar ends soon. Ian says the calendar ending doesn’t signify the end of the world, but the end of the world as we know it, and the beginning of an entirely new level of consciousness where humanity becomes conscious co-creators.

Barbara Marx Hubbard who is a futurist, an author and a visionary believes that humanity is on the verge of evolving into an entirely new species that she calls a Universal Human. http://www.barbaramarxhubbard.com/con/

What I’ve discovered in my own life and in researching the subject is that crisis (or what feels like crisis) always precedes transformation. Now I’ve never given birth, but I have been present at the birth of a baby and what I know is that it is a painful, sometimes difficult and messy process. So is life.

Imagine for a moment that you are a fetus about to be born. You’ve been safe and secure in the womb and all of a sudden there are contractions and you are being pushed through a tight and narrow passageway. It isn’t comfortable. If you could see…you would see a long tunnel with a light at the end. You would probably think (if you had the capacity to think) that you were dying. But you are not dying, you are about to begin a new and exciting adventure. The baby doesn’t resist the birth process…it surrenders and lets it happen. If it did resist, it would probably get stuck and die.

So, what if our country’s financial meltdown and political chaos are just the contractions of birth? Let us too not resist, but help it along by staying conscious and trusting the process. We are not in crisis; we are giving birth to a whole new level of being. I can’t wait to see what we become!

PAPERCLIPS

It is amazing how one little idea can grow into something bigger than you ever dreamed imaginable. I am sure that the students and faculty of Whitwell Middle School never dreamt that their little afterschool project would ever end up receiving worldwide attention and eventually become a movie.

It started when the principal asked an instructor to create a program that would teach the students tolerance and diversity. Whitwell Tennessee was a small rural town with a population that, according to the US Census, was 97.35% white. So a Holocaust Education class was started in the fall of 1998. When told that 6,000,000 Jews had been killed during this time in history, one student, unable to fathom it, asked, “how many is 6,000,000? That set them on a task to see if they could collect 6,000,000 paperclips.

It turns out the paperclip played a role in Holocaust history. Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian, is sometimes mistakenly credited with inventing the paperclip. He did invent a clip, but it is not the same one use today. It seems the people of Norway used to wear the paperclip on their lapels as a symbol of resistance against Nazi occupation during the war.

As part of their project, the students developed a webpage and sent out letters to family, friends, celebrities and politicians. Slowly the paperclips started trickling in. Eventually the Press got involved and articles were written about the school project, and it began to pick up momentum. Paperclips starting arriving from all over the world. An old suitcase arrived from a group of students in Germany. Inside the suitcase were notes, written in German, attached to the clips. The notes were apologies to Anne Frank. (yes, this movie will make you cry)

It gets even bigger and better, but I encourage you to watch the movie for yourself….survivors of the Holocaust came and spoke to the students, a memorial was created, and over 29,000,000 paperclips collected….all from a little idea a principal had to help teach her students about diversity.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP15cY3f7UA&feature=related

YOU AGAIN

Yes it’s me again. I realize that I haven’t written here much lately. I’ve been doing lots of travel. I’ve been to Detroit, Indianapolis, Connecticut where I did my workshop Reel Transformation: Your Life Now Playing, and also was the guest speaker in Bentonville, AR. While I love traveling…there’s nothing like the ordinariness of a daily routine. I actually went a couple of weeks without going to the movies…oh my! We can’t have that! I had to make up for it by going to 2 movies in one weekend and watching 2 movies on Netflix. I just have to get in my movie fix.

I have also started a once a month Multi-Media service here in Fayetteville. At least it was supposed to be once a month. I did the first one on Eat Pray Love in September, but then traveled so much I had to forgo doing one in October. I have another one planned for November and the topic will be about the spiritual wisdom from the movie Inception. I just LOVE planning these services. I put all the music, youtube and movie clips into Powerpoint. I really enjoy putting it all together. I have a talk started on the spiritually of Avatar, but haven’t gotten back to it in awhile.

I went to see the movie You Again this past weekend. I enjoyed the movie, but I don’t think it will win any awards. The acting was a bit over the top and corny, but it was designed to be that way. It did have an interesting and timely message, however. It was about being bullied in high school, and how the angst of that can stay with you into adulthood. It made me think of the boy who recently committed suicide because a video of him was posted on Youtube. Growing up is difficult enough without being bullied by one’s peers.

I was made fun of in grammar school…and it was torture. I had a large nose as a child, which thankfully I’ve grown into. My classmates called me Grindl, which was a character on TV at the time played by Imogene Coco…who also had a big nose. I guess she didn’t grow into hers. I thought Imogene was ugly. While it was humiliating for me to be called that name, over and over again, I survived somehow. I used to hate my nose and yearn for one of those cute little button noses. Now I rather like my face, nose included.

The characters in this movie also survived into adulthood. However, they found it difficult to let go of the hurts of their childhood. Yet daughter, mother, and later we discover grandmother, all grew up and led very successful lives.

The title refers, I suppose, to having to face ‘you again’….the nemesis of our childhood. But I think it’s not about the other person at all. It’s really about discovering who You are again. Anytime we let someone else define us we lose our true identity and forget how awesome and Divine and special we really are. When we can finally let that go and be happy with ourselves, we’ve come home. I think as young children we remember how awesome we are, and then something happens and we forget for a while. I think it was designed to happen that way. We’ve left the Garden of Eden and we are wandering around in the wilderness. Hopefully we make it through and have an awakening, a remembering and we come back into our Awesomeness….our Youness….our I AMness.

If you are a teenager being bullied in school…remember, no one else can define you. Who you are is perfect. We are meant to be unique, but growing up is about trying to fit in and so being unique feels wrong somehow. Later in life it will all make sense. For now you just have to learn to make it through and stand up for yourself. Find others who are like you…they are out there.

If you are an adult and are still hurting over your childhood….get over it already! It’s in the past. Who you are is awesome. All those childhood experiences helped make you who you are today. You wouldn’t be the same person without them, so be grateful for everything. Remember the truth of who you are….claim it. Let go of anyone else’s identity for you and become YOU AGAIN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-UMzt9e34

INCEPTION

I love movies that mess with my mind…movies like Vanilla Sky and Momento. These are movies where you have to pay attention and sometimes even that is not enough to fully grasp the boundary between illusion/dream and reality.

I was not surprised to see that Christopher Nolan, also the director of Momento, was the creative mind behind the new film Inception. This man knows how to bend and twist and open the mind. If you’ve seen Momento then you understand fully what I mean. Who else would think to film a movie frame by frame backwards to help us understand a character with no short term memory?

I also love movies that are laced with deeper messages, and Inception had me going back to the movies a second time with my pad and pen in an attempt to capture some of the quotes and richness weaved into the script. If you haven’t seen the film…well it isn’t easy to explain, nor would I want to even try. Suffice it to say that it is a movie about dreams and our subconscious mind. There have certainly been other films made about those subjects, but none as innovative and creative as Inception.

“What is the most resilient parasite?” asks Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio). “An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and re-write all the rules. From the tiniest seed, it spreads like a virus.”

WOW. Well that simple idea is what my spiritual teachings are based upon: the power of the mind to transform. Unity’s teachings are all about the power of the mind and how we can transform our life and our world through our thoughts.

Ideas are resilient and formative. This is great news! The bad news is that many of us are living with ideas that have taken residence in our subconscious mind, ideas we got from childhood, that are destructive. Ideas such as: “I’m not worthy” or “Life is difficult” or “The universe is not a friendly place.” Or, like Cobb, maybe we are harboring feelings of guilt that stay buried deep in our subconscious mind and interfere with our everyday living.
The thing is…those thoughts are not reality. If we believe that we are not worthy or unlovable or that we live in an unfriendly universe, we are deluding ourselves and living in a dream world. We need to wake up! But we’ve held onto those ideas for so long that they seem real. They are buried deep in our subconscious mind and they are running (and ruining) our world.

In the movie, Cobb and the others who hung out in the dream world crafted for themselves a unique totem. A totem was something that they could carry with them that would tell them if they were living in the dream world or awake. Cobb’s totem was a top (actually the totem was his wife’s, and why Cobb is using it was never explained, but for our purposes here let’s say Cobb’s was the top). When Cobb was inside of his dream world the top would continue to spin forever. If he was awake the top would eventually stop spinning.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could craft a totem that would let us know that the thoughts we were living with were not real? While we may not have a physical item to carry with us, we do have the ability to tap into our ‘witness’. All of us have a consciousness that is able to stand ‘outside’ of our circumstances and observe. It is that consciousness that is able to remember the dream upon awakening and even able to be aware it is dreaming (lucid dreaming). It is also that consciousness that can ask the question that Cobb asked Ariadne (Ellen Page) “How did you get here?” As Cobb pointed out, dreams usually start out in the middle, not at the beginning. So if you can’t answer the question, “how did I get here?” then you are most likely dreaming.

That’s a great question to ask ourselves whenever we are having a thought or experience that brings us pain. How did I get here? What is the prevailing thought behind this experience? What was the ‘inception’ of those ideas? For instance, say your lover leaves you and you go into a deep depression. How did you get to this place of depression? It wasn’t simply over being left. It was the thought process and meaning that you attached to getting left. Such as, “I’ll never find someone else to love me, I’m not good enough or loveable, I’ll have to live the rest of my life alone”…etc., etc.

If that is the thought process buried in your subconscious mind, then you need to wake up from that delusional dream for it will bring you nothing but heartache and will mess with your ‘waking world’. Once we uncover the prevailing thoughts we have the power to replace those negative thoughts with positive life affirming ideas. The trick is to make sure those ideas are imbued with a corresponding positive feeling. As Cobb said, “positive emotions trump negative emotions every time.” He didn’t say positive thoughts trump negative thoughts. Positive thinking alone is not enough; feelings trump thinking every time. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, believed that thoughts include both thinking and feeling, and feeling is the most powerful and most formative of the two.
Cobb fostered deep feelings of guilt over the death of his wife and those feelings impacted his life and his dreams. He needed to forgive himself, release those negative and destructive thoughts and feelings and learn how to live in the waking world. The film ends leaving us wondering if he did indeed make it out of the dream world.

Albert Einstein said “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit it a very persistent one.” Perhaps he’s right and it’s all an illusion. It really doesn’t matter; we all have the power to choose our experience, our thoughts and our feelings…even within our dreams. That’s the beauty of Lucid Dreaming, which is a form of dreaming in which the conscious mind takes control over the contents of the dream. So even if what we think of as the ‘waking world’ is really an illusion or dream, as Lucid Dreamers we become empowered to change and mold our experience.

Perhaps I love movies that mess with my mind, because my mind was designed to be messed with? So let’s get busy messing around.