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constantine’s sword by james carroll – first a book, then a movie . . .

James Carroll’s Constantine’s Sword is directed by Oren Jacoby.

Here are some of the reviews:

“ENTHRALLING!” -Stephen Holden, New York TImes
“ASTONISHING!” -Jeffrey Lyons, NBC-Reel Talk
“MAGNIFICENT!” -Ronnie Scheib, Variety
“A FASCINATING JOURNEY . . . THAT COULDN’T HAVE COME AT A BETTER TIME.” -Ken Fox, TV Guide
“ENGROSSING AND EVOCATIVE!” -Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“EXHILERATING!” -Rob Nelson, Boston Phoenix
“ELOQUENT . . . FASCINATING!” -Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
“EYE-OPENING! Moments that are simply amazing. James Carroll is a marvelous teller of truths.” -Eric Goldman, NJ Jewish Standard

BONUS MATERIALS includes: Introduction by Gabriel Byrne, discussion with Elaine Pagels and James Carroll

www.firstrunfeatures.com

In the Director’s Statement Oren Jacoby poses the question: “Where did anyone get the idea that it was all right to kill people in the name of God?”

Perhaps for many centuries many people have been asking that question.

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I can’t imagine . . .

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in Japan right now. What are people thinking about as they wait, wait for so many things: bare necessities, word about family and friends, about the air they’re breathing, the condition of their homes, the next hour, the next day. And wondering what’s happening, and what will happen.

Viewing a catastrophe from the other side allows for many questions, too. How is it possible to watch real time events from a distance, and not be affected by them? The problem with witnessing world events, as we do daily, – some pleasant, but mostly not – is that we are helpless to render much support. The period in which we live gives us the technology to watch suffering on a huge scale. What’s incompatible with the watching is that most of us will not, for different reasons, be able to lend a hand. To observe the amount of suffering that occurs throughout the world, and not be equipped to help, doesn’t seem natural. What then do we, the people, do with our compassion, our anxiety, our inability to be of help?

Sarcasm, humor, depression, restlessness, alcohol, drugs, sex are some of the ways we cope, and in the process try to disguise our feelings. They’re not solutions. What’s the answer then? We’re not going to eliminate technology so that we can slide back to a time when we were ignorant of global events. We can wish for a better world, but it won’t happen overnight. It’s been said that to find answers to challenges we have to focus on the solutions, and not the problems. Time after time we sit and watch cruelty displayed before our eyes – torture inflicted on innumerable innocent civilians, killings in all forms from wars and the aftermath of wars, dictators running amok – all kinds of intolerable suffering. And we watch suffering brought about by tsunamis, earthquakes, and yes, nuclear disasters.

What can we do to help? I think that prayer is a practical method that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. For years I’ve read books, articles, and heard stories about the power of prayer, and the right way to pray. And until recently, none of it clicked for me, and so I didn’t give prayer the attention it deserves. Then one day I decided to buckle down and learn “what all the fuss is about,” and so I began reading, observing, and really listening to what those who have experienced the power of prayer were writing and talking about. It’s said that when the feelings of the mind match the feelings of the heart we connect to Cosmic Power (God). In new and used bookshops and in libraries, I found a wonderful array of books and magazines explaining the power of the heart and mind joined in prayer. We all have to find the book that sings to our heart. It’s a personal quest. That’s okay, discovery is a delightful part of learning.

So, in lieu of physically being able to help those in need, we can put our watches away for 20 minutes or so, twice daily, and quietly focus only on the Cosmic Power within. We let go of all worldly concerns and allow our heart and mind to join at the same frequency, then we pray and listen. It’s written in sacred books that that is where our Higher Self resides – waiting for us to respond to it. We practice praying in the same way we practice cooking, skiing, painting, driving, etc. – to be good at whatever it is we want to learn, we practice. To be a master, we practice over and over and over.

May the Creator of the universe guide, protect, direct, and guard the people of the world, especially those now in need of your help. Thank you.

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When I was first going to add to this entry, I had so much to say that I couldn’t say anything. I think the most truthful and balanced words I’ve heard in the past few weeks come from Japanese people themselves. They know they can rebuild and rebuild stronger and in a way that is more congruent with the world, so that they can flourish and bloom. That is how we should all look at every instance that appears to be a damage situation. There is always rebuilding. The world will never stop improving and reshaping and for that I am glad to be here. I continue to learn from other people’s amazing perseverance and ability to shine in all stages of life. -Emi

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didn’t know til recently . . .

that the meaning of the letters SOS is not Save Our Ship/Souls, and that “the letters do not refer to any words but were selected because they are easy to transmit.” www.dictionary.com

that there’s a word ataraxia, at-a-rax-i-a, having this definition, A Greek concept meaning the attainment of perfect peace or transcendent calm.

that the pronounciation of acai is ah-sigh-ee

that the website: www.about.com has a lot to offer.

that this is a wonderful sentence to ponder: “If you lose your own peaceful center and are overwhelmed by the force of others and by intellectual perceptions and emotional feelings generated by external circumstances, then your own mind will have no independence, freedom, or peace and you will be functioning in terms of others as a slave.”
-Tulku Thundop

that it’s possible to be plucked out of the everyday world and into one of unconditional love when reading about Rumi’s life and his exquisite writings.

that the book Health through God’s Pharmacy by Maria Treben can almost be read as a good novel. The stories of the healings by herbs are fascinating.

that Rachel Trovi, a Norwegian woman, began working in the Philippines 20 years ago during her first visit by “distributing food, medicine and clothes, all purchased with her own money.” and that “Her advocacy became so great that the Ma’Ma Children’s Center of Norway (MMCCN) was founded, which is still led by 80-year-old Rachel Trovi.” www.odemagazine.com/io

that along with the movie Early Summer is wonderful information written by Jim Jarmusch about its prominent director Yasujiro Ozu. “. . . after leaving the exhibition of Ozu artifacts, I found myself in the Engakuji Temple cemetery. There, a plain black marble grave-marker commemorates the life of this extraordinary filmmaker. There is no name on the face of the headstone, no date of birth or death – only a single Chinese character, which Kazuko and Hayao identified as MU. They explained to me that its meaning is philosophical and spiritual, nearly impossible to translate into English. An approximation, they offered hesitantly, might be ‘the space that exists between all things.’ ” Kazuko Kawakita and Hayao Shibata are J. Jarmusch’s friends.

that ZeroWater includes a water tester called a TDS meter with their filtering system, allowing the consumer to test faucet, filtered and bottled water. Along with the testing will be some Hmm! moments.
www.zerowater.com

that it’s well-worth watching the movie Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes – a true story about an amazing woman who is autistic. www.templegrandin.com

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the extraordinary healing power of ordinary things, shantaram, salaam bombay!, (and germs)

Are we too concerned with germs? Is advertising on tv, and in magazines causing fear to creep into our minds? Are the products on the shelves that suck out every bit of moisture from our hands leaving them dried and cracked (so that we need more products to heal our hands) really necessary? If we’re not careful, we’ll begin to feel that germs are attacking us around every corner we turn. That feeling doesn’t feel good. Germs will always be with us. It’s the fear of them that holds the real power. If it’s fear that rules, there’s a book that flows beautifully in the direction of balance called THE EXTRAORDINARY HEALING POWER of ORDINARY THINGS by Larry Dossey, M.D. Can we use the word delicious here? Because it is. Go directly to the chapter on Dirt, and don’t stop there continue to the chapter on Bugs. Now that should help, if you let it. Then, of course, there’s the rest of the book.
www.dosseydossey.com

SHANTARAM by GREGORY DAVID ROBERTS – What a book! is all I have to say. If you have an unhealthy fear of germs, there’s no way you’ll NOT come away feeling very differently about them. Well, to be fair to the book, this is a small part of it, but it’s a thread throughout a lot of its story. You can only know what that means after you’ve read it. It’s wildly entertaining, inspiring, disturbing; it’s a big story about life. And know this, somewhere along the line we get quite comfortable with the way of germs.
www.shantaram.com

The movie, SALAAM BOMBAY! “Spectacular! Excellent!” is what’s been said of it, and it’s all true. The director had “street kids” acting, along with top-notch Indian actors. Watching the “special features” simply adds more to what is already an important, entertaining, inspiring, and, yes, delicious film.

The slums of Bombay are a part of SHANTARAM AND SALAAM BOMBAY. I can’t help wondering about our sterile, antiseptic, squeaky clean way of living compared to the slums of Bombay (and other parts of the world where people live in similar conditions). Questions arise after reading SHANTARAM and watching SALAAM BOMBAY One is: How is it that these people are still alive? The other is: How is it that the hospitals in our squeaky clean part of the world are packed with sick people? The answers are complex. Or maybe not.

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charles eisenstein

A friend of mine and I exchange books. Last month when she offered a book to me; I looked at it and thought to myself, “I don’t think so.” I accepted it though and after reading a few pages, happily continued. Soon I realized that the author is a world-class thinker. The 565 -page book is titled The Ascent of Humanity The Age of Separation, the Age of Reunion, and the Convergence of Crises that is birthing the transition. At first glance it looks like the kind of book many of us would pick up and put right down, -as in I don’t think so. True, it’s as serious as the title suggests, and It could have been boring and dry. But it isn’t. There’s a wanting to read more because it becomes obvious to the reader that Charles Eisenstein is a person who is compassionate and dedicated to understanding all that brought the world to its present condition. On page after page his easy style of writing connects the reader to the world and all that it’s been through, and all that it can become. And we begin to know and to understand how it’s accumulated the many, many problems facing it today. Don’t worry, it doesn’t leave the reader “down in the dumps.” On the contrary, reading it opens the mind, and the reader is able to see the world’s problems with clarity, and also its solutions with an equal dose of clarity. Now I’ll stop attempting to explain a book that covers a vast number of important topics that touch our every day lives.

If you click on to Charles Eisenstein’s website, I think you’ll be pleased that you did:
www.ascentofhumanity.com

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a sticky situation

This week in a Brooklyn magazine I read a column in which people write in for adivice on how to handle sticky situations. For instance, a couple bought a house with a much needed garage because they live in a busy community where parking is not always readily available. The husband works long hours, they have three children (one has special needs whose school is a distance from their house), another child is on the way, and the car is used throughout the day. This is the sticky situation: one or two neighbors often park in front of the couple’s garage “for a few minutes.” The owner has to go knocking on the door; the offender apologizes when caught. Then the same thing happens again, and again. Once it took 20 minutes for the neighhor to answer a knock because she was taking a shower. Geez!

Many thoughts came to mind when I read about this particular situation: lack of manners, no common sense, using what’s not theirs, inauthentic apologizing, bringing stress into another’s life, etcetera. The advice given by the writer of the column was to have the neighbor’s car towed. She said the complete inconvenience of getting the car back, plus the elbow grease needed to remove the sticker from the car, would stop the illegal parking. I agree; it would do that, however. . . . There’s got to be a better solution for all involved.

The above advice reminds me of a quote by Albert Einstein on the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And it reminds me of a wonderful passage I read, and I wish I’d kept because it rings true for just about any situation we encounter. Mankind is evolving, every person will eventually be in the folds of the Divine – no matter how long it takes. Evolvement requires that we move beyond the way things have always been done. A quick look at what’s going on in our world suggests that it’s time to do things differently. We need to begin to understand that there are other ways of handling sticky situations, no matter how small, no matter how big, and it’s up to every individual to find that way. It’s not something that can be handed to us on a silver platter. Going to the next level requires the attention of our whole self because it comes from within. If the above garage situation advice is followed, it’s likely that other stressful situations will follow on its path.

* * * * * * *

To know how to live is my trade and my art. – Michel De Montaigne

When we allow ourselves to exist truly and fully, we sting the world with our vision and challenge it with our own ways of being. – Thomas Moore

You are not a beggar at the table of life. You are the honored guest. – Emmanuel

Before you die, dare to walk the wildest unknown way – Bryce Courtney

Always look for creative solutions to every day challenges – Deepak Chopra

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a quote by horace mann

Last night I passed a church on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia displaying a quote in large black and white letters in a glass-encasement attached to the building. Every so often the quote changes. Light shining on the words make them easy to read at night. Once in a while a quote seems to demand special attention from a passer-by whose imagination it manages to capture. Tonight Horace Mann’s words: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity” got me to stop, stare and reread those simple words strung together in a deeply moving way.

In recent years magazines and books tend to write about how caught up we are in surface things, and if we were to catorgize many of them we’d have to put them on our meaningless list. The writers of these magazines and books want us to consider a whole other way of living in the world. That sounds like a fair suggestion considering the way the world is at the present time. And so the quote by Horace Mann seems a good starting point to think about what exactly we could do for humanity before we die. There are many people already living this way. They don’t get write ups; they don’t want write ups.

The quote by Horace Mann gives those of us who have more on our meaningless list than our meaningful list a chance to consider how we’ll go about winning some victory for humanity before we die. Now’s as good a time as any because we’re in the midst of a season that tends to put joy in our hearts whether we strive for it or not.

And so, I say to myself that it’s time to shorten my meaningless list, and begin to figure out why that quote by Horace Mann grabbed my attention. Oh, Yes!

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a thank you for a “simple” meal

I HOPE THANKSGIVING DAY WAS EXACTLY AS YOU ALL WANTED IT TO BE.

While recovering from a recent hospital experience, I sat one morning with a simple breakfast of Knudsen’s Concord Grape juice diluted with water; scrumptious Wheat Sandwich bread from Metropolitan Bakery in Philadelphia, toasted to perfection and spread with butter and bionatura Organic Bilberry Fruit Spread; Burlap and Bean Espresso coffee from Newtown Square, Pa made in a French Press (although a few days ago Sumi read that for health reasons a French Press and percolator are not the best way to prepare coffee. And so, a little research will begin on that).

With that simple breakfast before me, I decided to say a thorough thank you to everyone responsible for the enjoyment of this meal, – farmer, baker, supplier, retailer, and all of the employees – from land the world over. I was surprised at how many people and how much work was involved. And as I thought about the simple breakfast, the list became a very long one. Then I was reminded that it wasn’t only about the food, there was also the matter of the coffee grinder, plates, pot for boiling water, stove, toaster, utensils, glassware, tap water, and refrigerator. I truly hadn’t stopped to think about the extent of our dependency on each other until that breakfast thank you. A simple breakfast doesn’t seem so simple anymore.

On Thanksgiving Day I think the food would have gotten very cold had we all said a special thank you to everyone involved in that entire meal.

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Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul. -Democritus

Simplicity should not be identified with bareness. – Felix Adler

The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. – Ludwig Wittgenstein

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. – Meister Eckhart

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. – Vincent Van Gogh

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where have all those hands been?

When clicking onto aol I sometimes read the gentle news, and the comments that come with it, because they’re often witty, informative, sensitive, on target, and have a lot of common sense attached to them – HA! -of course not all comments. On the whole, however, there seems to be some very wise people “out there” who ought to be heard.

On Friday, Aug. 7, there was a short news item about a group of people, including a 6-month old baby, entering a Burger King, and soon finding themselves unwelcomed because the baby wasn’t wearing shoes.

The following from Heidi might make you want to gag, but it’s still worth reading:

“. . . Sending away 20 customers as a result doesn’t really fit into the equation of following the rules. BTW, I’d rather deal with the “dirt” from baby feet than the e-coli & other bacteria in the ice they put in your soft drinks. Did you know that a high school student somewhere did a project in a fast food restaurant that proved there was more bacteria in the self-service ice dispenser than there was in the toilet? NO ICE PLEASE — I’LL TAKE THE BABY FEET!!”

Actually, the reason the baby was unwelcomed was due to liability concerns. However, along with this news we’re reminded that cleanliness in many fast food places leaves much to be desired. Unwashed hands do touch the condiments, unwrapped plastic utensils, levers on drink dispensers, napkins, and, yes, the ice. However, we can’t control the world. Much of our time is spent in public places regularly eating out, picnicking in parks in the summer, clasping hands at concerts, in introductions, at meetings, etc., better to wash our own hands, be aware and choose wisely where we eat, and not obsess about things we can’t control. The fact is that there’s a very long list of things we can’t control in public places, and, come to think of it, sometimes even in shared and more personal spaces.

Keep on keeping us laughing and informed, all you wise and witty ones “out there.”

Enjoy the day; it’s a beautiful one.

www.parentdish.com was listed next to Heidi’s name.

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ruminations

It’s late evening and I just wrote an email to a friend in Thailand. He’s an American, married to a Thai woman, and liking his life in a country that’s now home to him. I know a few people who are living abroad, and every so often I wonder what it takes to put away one lifestyle for another. It seems that more than ever people arrive in and move out of the United States. Maybe not, maybe it’s always been this way, here and in many other countries.

In my fantasy world I see life lived without borders. Yes, I know, this will rile some; however, if things had taken a different turn way back when, what would the world be like now? When the day allows your mind to travel away from ordinary life, and takes you to different places, where do you go – if only for a few minutes? Taking a break in mind, and shaking up your world on the inside, puts the mind on another track, the mind can then eventually go beyond ordinary thoughts and into other compartments of life.

I was watching a video sent by a friend, and on this video someone who was in the movie, THE SECRET, spoke of how blessed he is. It was an interesting interview to say the least. There are two things I clearly remember about the conversation: what he said about gratitude and what he said about the world. About gratitude he said that before getting out of bed every morning, he thinks of five things he has to be grateful for in his life. He won’t get up until he does. And about the world he said that he and his family live on a ship, along with a number of other families. The ship goes around the world, and he considers the world his home. In my fantasy world, we all consider the world home.

It’s time to put on the Qi Gong Fire & Water dvd with Matthew Cohen, – to breathe, move, practice stillness, meditation, and appreciation.

Sweet dreams.