Tag: Inspiration

One mother’s day, my mother insisted that I watch a movie.  She has never done this before or since.  The movie is called Paper Clips, it’s out on DVD, and I urge everyone to see it. It’s about the holocaust, it’s about a small town in Tennessee, it’s about changing people and changing the world.

Why am I recommended a film on Docudharma? This isn’t a site about film, after all.  There are two big reasons: First, I am coming to think of myself as part of this community, and to count some as friends.  My friends should see this movie.  Second, although it isn’t totally obvious, this is exactly a Docudharma kind of film.

Before I go into a little detail, I will say that the movie, while uplifting overall, does deal with a lot of horrible information.  It’s a disturbing film.  It’s a good kind of disturbing, but I think that it might not be right for kids younger than about 10, and even older ones will need guidance with it, particularly if they do not know about the holocaust.

Paper Clips is about the Holocaust; but not really.  It’s not really a film about Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it’s a film about Tennessee in the 1990s.  It’s not really a film about the genocide of millions of people, it’s about learning.  It’s not really about hate, it’s about hope.  It’s about changing the world.  And isn’t that what Docudharma is about?

OK, some details, without (I hope) spoiling it.  In 1998, in Whitwell, Tennessee (a small, all-white, all-Protestant town near Chattanooga) the high school principal decided that the kids should learn about some different people.  She decided that the school would study the holocaust.  They started off with not much idea of what to do.  Few of the teachers knew much.  One of the teachers admits to having been rather prejudiced.  The kids got the idea to try to collect a paper clip for every Jew who died in the camps.  This is their story.

Go see it.

It’s inspiring.

Tormented by corruption? Feeling Overwhelmed? Depressed? Frustrated? Fed up to f’ing here with the state of the world?  Bedeviled with angst?

Have a great idea? The best idea ever hatched in a human mind in all of recorded history? You’ve been to the mountaintop and he spoke to you and only you, man?

Are you the one the world has been waiting for all these millenia?

Are you Morpheus, man? Have you got THE ANSWER? The WAY?

The ONE TRUE PATH to world peace and justice for all but you’ve also had it up to f’ing here with all the morans in the world who are simply far too thick and obtuse to know what’s good for them and to comprehend your unique brand of genius and won’t get off their fat lazy asses and follow you?

Do you have a movement you’d like to start that you know in your heart will sweep the world like a planet scouring tsunami brushing all in it’s path aside if only you could find your first follower?

Here’s your one chance for a free lesson in becoming the next messiah. Grab this incredible opportunity while it’s hot. It may never present itself to you again.

Years ago, when I was training for and running marathons, I learned that the best way to perfect form, to have economy of movement, and a smooth, fluid style, was to watch others who ran beautifully and just imitate what they were doing.  It was basic, monkey see; monkey do.  Similarly, when I see somebody who has seized the moment to make the world better, I wonder about what I could do that would imitate what s/he did.  I’m inspired when I see people nourish their activism.

Here’s today’s example from the New York Times:

Playwrights and producers have used scathing commentary, heartbreaking drama and sharp satire to score political points about war, torture, presidents, AIDS, race relations and women’s rights with New York theater audiences. Now the Broadway musical “Hair” is expanding the concept of stage activism by taking to the streets and urging audiences to follow. The producers canceled a Sunday matinee so that the cast and crew could attend and perform at a march for gay rights in Washington on Oct. 11.

That unusual – and expensive – decision to skip a popular weekend performance at the beginning of the theater season originated with the show’s star, Gavin Creel.

“I said, ‘My God, we have to go, we have to go,’ ” Mr. Creel recalled when he first heard about the rally late last spring.

Although Mr. Creel, 33, stars in a show that is associated with ’60s-style activism and sexual liberation, he personally wasn’t much interested in politics before Barack Obama ran for president. On Election Day last November, he said, he was ecstatic that his candidate won, but was crushed by the victory of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California. So he decided to help create the activist organization Broadway Impact to mobilize the theater community.

Then in May Mr. Creel met Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, when he came to see “Hair” with Dustin Lance Black, author of the Oscar-winning screenplay for “Milk.” At a party afterward for the release of the cast recording, they all talked about the Oct. 11 National Equality March that Mr. Jones was helping to organize. The rally’s organizers say they are seeking “equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states” for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

And so, to make a longer, interesting story more concise, Gavin Creel and the tribe, the cast of “Hair”, are going to DC for the Equality March.  And they’re closing a Broadway Sunday matinee to do so.  With the full support of the producers of the show.  Because, and this is the important part, because Gavin Creel thought it was a good idea and he decided to try to make it happen.

I just love this story.  It’s inspiring.

It’s a reminder, a beautiful reminder that even seemingly impossible ideas can be brought into reality, and that you and I and everybody else who is passionate about something can make a difference.  It’s surprisingly simple. When we have a good idea, we can decide to try to make it happen.

Here’s to Gavin Creel with thanks for being a great example.  One I happily will copy.  Please join me in that.

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simulposted at The Dream Antilles

So yesterday I wrote a diary pleading for lawyers to help the Obama campaign ensure the vote on election day and the response was overwhelming and heartening.

Lots of “I just signed up” and “I’m in” and “They’ve got my info”, and yet, for every person who stepped up, there was another who said, “I want to help and have sent an email, but no one has gotten back to me.”

Well, to that, I smile and say… we are reaching the St. Crispen’s Day in this election.

St. Crispen’s day?

Henry V. The English badly outnumbered by the French. And in Shakespeare’s retelling, Westmoreland, cousin of King Henry, wished for more troops…

WESTMORELAND

O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work to-day!

…but Henry did not share Westmoreland’s need, wanting instead to hoard the glory…

KING HENRY

What’s he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;

If we are mark’d to die, we are enow

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

Sorry that i cant embed this video

(click it…watch it….you know you want to)

Me mum left this earth decades ago and me babies chose not to be born. Seems to me I’m the last person to write an essay on mother’s day. So I’ll throw this out thought out there, and ask for your stories.

The creation energy isn’t limited to our bodies; it isn’t limited to our gender. We– all sexes, all ages– experience the process of conception, gestation, birth and mothering through our projects, our gardens, our loves, our lives.  We experience still birth, early death, abortion. We know the power of a two-year-old’s “No!” and rambunctious thoughts that won’t behave. Most of us have colored outside the lines. And we’ve all rocked ourselves, or someone else, to sleep at night.

So, what are your stories of love and creation?  Of sunny days in the park and late nights in darkness?  Who is your favorite mother?  Who is your most troublesome child? What project just wouldn’t take despite the best sex in the world to make it so? And what joy has been just too enormous for a single heart to contain?  “I wanna story!”  😉

Because Kokopelli, that rascal, was a mom, too, I’m sure of it!

One of the great strengths of this social experiment we call ‘blogging’ is how one writer’s words can inspire others to look at problems in a new light. Even casual throw away comments can cause a light bulb to flash somewhere and start a chain reaction leading to…well, to anywhere one might imagine.

There has been a lot of brainstorming about what to ‘do next’ around here, and it’s all very inspirational stuff. The other day, Meteor Blades stopped by in Buhdy’s manifesto diary with a link to a 40-year old article discussing many of the issues we are struggling with today.

Light bulb. People have been through this before. Duh – how obvious. Still, sometimes the obvious escapes us. Other groups, other communities, other countries have struggled with very similar issues we face today. How do you break through and effect real change? Where do we find our inspiration? How will we be nurtured on this journey? Perhaps history can help us a little.