With just weeks to live, some people would be checking off their bucket list, traveling to exotic locations and chasing final adventures. Others might opt out of the whole experience with a simple suicide note. Surely at least a few would pull out sandwich boards and megaphones to proclaim "The end is near!" All of these responses appear in this movie, but Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is about something more, something timeless. The haunting hollowness that so many feel, but few admit except in the face of death: Loneliness.
What would you do if you only had three weeks to live? Everyone has toyed with answers to this question, but few wrestle with their answers as seriously as writer/director Lorene Scafaria in the 2012 film, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Don’t let the casting fool you. Comedian Steve Carrell (Michael Scott in the Office) plays the lead, across from Keira Knightley, but if this is a comedy, it still leaves you sober. I don't remember laughing, but I definitely cried.
With just weeks to live, some people would be checking off their bucket list, traveling to exotic locations and chasing final adventures. Others might opt out of the whole experience with a simple suicide note. Surely at least a few would pull out sandwich boards and megaphones to proclaim "The end is near!" All of these responses appear in this movie, but Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is about something more, something timeless. The haunting hollowness that so many feel, but few admit except in the face of death: Loneliness.
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Islam has been forging its way into our thinking since September 11, 2001, but as we reach another anniversary of that terrible day, I'm not convinced we understand this religion any better than we did fourteen years ago. Before the terrorist attacks, our national concept of Islam came from Hollywood films like Lawrence of Arabia and Indiana Jones. Islam seemed far away, mysterious and exotic when people thought about it at all, and most didn't think about it. Today, our perception of Islam is filtered by a media more likely to report the body count after a bloody explosion than a joint declaration from Muslim leaders condemning violence.
If headlines and book titles are to be believed, Islam is Daesh, Al Quaeda, radical terrorism, and the end of civilization. To be a Muslim is to be a suspect, a potential threat, a person set on destroying the West either by force or by a less violent (but no less sinister) immigration strategy. But is this the real Islam, the one that exists outside the parameters drawn by a nostalgic Hollywood, a partisan media, and popular understanding? With 1.5 billion adherents (according to PEW Research), the Muslim religion is the second largest religion in the world (Christianity is the largest). If it is a religion of violence, as many claim, why is violence and war on a steady global decline? Oops, did it again! Clicked "send" on an email and immediately wished I could take it back. It's so easy to give the wrong message, especially when you are preoccupied or in a rush. You came off as snide, obnoxious, rude or demanding, when really you just weren't paying attention. Now that business associate you've never met, the college admissions adviser you are hoping to win over, or the craigslist seller you're trying to negotiate with is set on edge and dis-inclined to help you. Nothing ruins relationships faster than miscommunication, and it all could have been prevented with a nearly effortless practice Mirabai Bush calls "Mindful Emailing."
It's been fourteen years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but tragically, many Americans are no closer to understanding Islam and the forces behind radicalization than they were before. Turn on the news, or check social media, and it often seems like the rhetoric is getting worse. Recently, critics of Islam garnered widespread popular support in the U.S. by advocating that we close our borders to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. Others use polarizing language to call for fast military action to destroy all traces of radical Islam around the globe.
Snowpiercer is out on Netflix, and I know what you're thinking: "The Day After Tomorrow meets Unstoppable, right?" Wrong. Snowpiercer looks like total camp, it might even start out that way. But if you can make it through the first five minutes you'll be rewarded with a surprisingly engaging sci-fi parable of global irresponsibility.
This film is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where a climate change experiment gone wrong has created a global ice age. The last remaining survivors live on a globe circling train that has developed a class system. Led by Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), the poor in the tail section slum start a rebellion to take the engine of the train. What follows is enough to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Fairy tales always occur in dark and evil times. No story ever begins with the phrase: “While living happily ever after.” The point of a fairy tale is to express hope in a fantastical world that reveals the hope in the real world.[1] So, they begin in darkness and end in light. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) is a fairy tale—but not the Disney kind. This film draws on a much older tradition; the European stories of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, who were not afraid of the darkness, but used it to paint beautiful, tragic stories that are still with us today. It's hard to believe that Pan's Labyrinth is already almost ten years old, but maybe that is a testimony to its greatness.
[Note: This review assumes you have already seen the film and are familiar with basic plot details] Set in the spring of 1944, Pan's Labyrinth takes place in the aftermath of Spain's civil war between the fascist and communist parties. Ofelia is a young girl with a strong imagination struggling to make sense of family trauma and societal violence. The movie begins as Ofelia and her pregnant mother Carmen travel to a remote wooded town to meet her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. There, in a decrepit labyrinth, she encounters a faun who believes she is the lost princess to a forgotten kingdom. Giving her three tasks, the faun promises her immortality if she completes them successfully. The remainder of the film follows Ofelia as she tries to accomplish this herculean mission.
In a recent episode of On Being, Krista Tippett noted that, "Soundtracks, for some of us, become the music of our church." Where churches, temples and mosques function as communal gathering places to reflect and be transformed through encounters with the divine, to those who have ears to hear, the theater is a place where inspired storytelling experiences become vehicles for the Transcendent.
Grieving happens on a spectrum between two poles. At one extreme, painful memories and raw emotions are stuffed deep inside and buried under layer after layer of thick callous. Any twinge of sadness that manages to work its way through is quickly strangled, along with whatever part of our humanity it attached itself to. On this end of the spectrum, people lead quiet, detached lives, abiding by the unspoken rules of their community, playing it safe so as to avoid the tiresome work of suppressing new trauma.
At the other extreme, emotions are like raw nerve endings. People over here may appear dangerous to those at the subdued end of the spectrum. Aware of their emotions, they have learned to let them out. Sometimes appropriately... sometimes not. There's a wildness about them as they come to terms with the wounds and scars that made them who they are. But sometimes the journey to healing requires an amount of savagery. Several years ago I had a painting business. For a couple of summers after college, I spent my days on a shaky aluminum ladder, methodically moving a roller back and forth across freshly washed, scraped and caulked wooden siding. Painting a house is soothing, rhythmic and meditative. Over time, the repetitive motions become mindless and habitual and you start looking for something to occupy your thoughts. Most painters just smoke (I guess inhaling paint fumes isn't enough). But I was still a wet-behind-the-ears college grad and was eager to learn about the world, so I turned to radio.
Physicists are divided between two alternate theories that explain the universe. How we understand these theories can shape our politics, and even our thinking about religion. The theory of general relativity (think Albert Einstein) explains the universe on a cosmological scale, showing that time-space is a constant, and predictable. General relativity allows us to understand the force of gravity, and the bending effect gravity has on light. Quantum field theory (think Max Planck), on the other hand, reveals a random, irrational, and unpredictable universe at the most submicroscopic levels. According to quantum physics, the tiniest elements of the universe are constantly changing and seemingly jump in and out of existence at random. Depending on the question a researcher asks, the same element may be a particle or a wave. This is best illustrated by Schrodinger’s cat:
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Intersecting is a blog that explores the connections between religion, philosophy, politics, film, psychology, science... and everything else
Innovation is found at the intersection of ideas, concepts and cultures
-The Medici Effect If the medicine is good, the disease will be cured. It is not necessary to know who prepared it, or where it came from -Walpola Rahula When you water the root of the tree, that water naturally extends to every branch and every leaf and every flower on that tree. So when we actually find the origin of true pleasure, in feeling the infinite sweet love that God has for us, and in realizing our potential to love God, that love naturally extends to all living beings. -Radhanath Swami Archives
August 2020
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