December 20, 2006 Most of December's second & third
weeks I spent in Texas, first in Floresville, where my mother & I found
time to take in showings of Happy Feet, that inspirational paean to
walking your own life path, penguin style, and of Casino Royale, that
reminder that body counts do mount when espionage rears its ugly head.
From F-ville to Houston, for one more movie (Helen Mirren in The Queen,
playing QEII after playing QEI in a TV mini-series earlier in the year),
and a variety of other events, led by the Tallowood Baptist Church's adult
choir's 2007 edition of its annual Christmas music. This year's stellar
program was like those of past years in its excellence, and in the presence
of my sister in the soprano ranks. More music came my way a few days later,
when I attended the Evening of Sacred Sound in celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the Institute for Religion and Health.
And what would any visit to Houston be complete without a peek inside
its Museum of Natural History, which this month was hosting an exhibition
honoring the life of Benjamin Franklin, filled with intriguing factoids
and artifacts of that great man. While there we also took in the new gem
vault in the mineral collection, a vault whose contents took my breath
seriously away. While my sister was most mesmerized by a 100 carat
flawless cerulean sapphire surrounded by smaller diamonds, and my mother
made approving noises over many of the other jewels, most of them in the
multi-hundreds-of-carats range, I found myself dragged repeatedly back to
the ~ 10,500 carat (yes, that is correct - not a typo - a more than ten
thousand carat) aquamarine, cut from its much larger rough into a tall
pyramidal shape, and looking for all the world like early morning light
filtering through tropical sea water, frozen into stone. Mesmerizing ...
December 4, 2006 November 2006 turns out to be the
coldest November in Australia's history, which makes swimming in the otherwise
inviting ocean rather less inviting, and renders more indoor pursuits, movie
watching among them, all the more attractive. During the last half of November
I viewed four exceptional movies, three of them outstanding. First The Cave
of the Yellow Dog, a film by the same Mongolian filmmaker who had previously
done The Story of the Weeping Camel. The Cave of the Yellow Dog stars an
actual nomadic Mongolian family, with three extraordinarily cute tykes
(one an accomplished pre-teen horsewoman) and one thoroughly cute dog,
threatened briefly by some scary vultures, and aided by a helpful granny-woman.
My favorite line: "Look what's happened to father's gift!" Run
(or take a horse), do not walk, to see The Cave of the Yellow Dog.
If Yellow Dog was truly heart-warming, Kanyini, another must-see, was
heart-rending. A documentary based around the life of Bob Randall, an
Aboriginal man who grew up in the shadow of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and is one
of its traditional owners. You need to meet Uncle Bob who, without evident
rancor, describes how the four pillars that made up the fabric of their
"pre-white" life - their belief system, spirituality, land & family - were
taken from his people, and how what was given them in return failed miserably
to return to them the deep sense of kanyini (connectedness) that had
existed
before they were subjected to attempts to "civilize" them, leaving them, in
his words, "a living dead."
Some of those ancient ways, mostly now lost, are on view in Ten Canoes,
which I watched on the long flight back to the USA. Written & acted by
Aboriginals, Ten Canoes is a story within a story, a slow-paced
depiction of life as it may well have been in the "pre-modern" era, a window
into another way of seeing and being in the world. Also not to be missed.
Finally, I cannot tell you not to miss Bliss, for I had trouble locating a
copy even in Australia, and because it will certainly not be everyone's cup
of tea; but it is indeed unique, and I was finally able to view it thanks to
the efforts of Louise & Joshua from Yoga Moves, who hosted me in Melbourne.
When in Melbourne and looking for yoga, Yoga Moves is the place for you:
www.yogamoves.org.
My long flight deposited me in the USA on the day of the full moon, where
began the next phase...
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