Last night I re-watched SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, a movie I really do think is fantastic. The more you know about Shakespeare, the better it is, but even if you know next to nothing, I think it shows what the artist’s life is like better than anything else I can recall (at least MY life, that is.)
I love that it begins with financial turmoil –– with Geoffrey Rush about to meet terrible pains unless he can produce a hit. I love sexy young Shakespeare’s complicated love life which reminds me of my own before I became a single Dad raising Belle. I think it’s genius how the film captures the way stray remarks and overheard lines creep into one’s work; the enormous degree of uncertainty and totally unpredictable evolution of the creative process. And, most specifically, I wanted to see it because I like the multiple repetitions of the phrase “It’s a Mystery” when various characters inquire of one another how things can possibly work out. It’s a mystery, indeed.
[By the way, I definitely wanted to see it because right now I have no idea how ANYTHING specific in my life is going to work out; I just like everyone’s complete confidence (and I mean both characters in the movie and friends in my life) that it will and that when it comes to the exact mechanics, well — it’s a mystery.]
[Aside #2: Frankly, it’s also a mystery why Joseph Fiennes did not become a major star after SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, but a little bit of research reveals he more or less opted to return to the London stage; I think he’s beyond brilliant in the role.]
I spent a few hours this morning figuring out the right rigging in the cottage to shoot some B-Roll for my upcoming ab video series with Amy Ahlers. I devoted an ungodly amount of time trying to hang a sheet for a neutral background — and not to give away the sacred obscurity of the Magic Cottage — until I finally managed to find some thumbtacks to insert into the ceiling. Video 1 … COMPLETE.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the video yet. I’m more or less chronicling my journey back into “fighting shape” and feel the real power of this and its fellow videos will be as a Before & After kind of thing. [So if there’s no significant AFTER, it’s kind of like watching a Warhol film for 3 hours where nothing happens.] And please note, these are NOT the actual course which will be an extension and amplification of the core strength workshop I created which I totally love.
My babysitting career is thriving and I hung out with Jonah for a few hours today. Again, he’s fantastic and I would easily and willing volunteer to spend time with him; it’s just a great bonus that Val and Clark insist on paying me.
Finally, Susan and Belle and Val and Clark and Jonah and I met up for a Three Aquarians Birthday Party (of which Clark was one) that had a fantastic cellist named Daniel Sperry who played and recited poetry, much of which included poems I’ve often shared while teaching yoga. Here’s a video of him playing and reciting a little Rumi:
And as a bonus gift to you, Dear Reader, here’s one of the poems I’d never heard before but Susan knew that was one of my favorites that Daniel Sperry shared.
KINDNESS
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the
Indian in a white poncho lies dead
by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night
with plans and the simple breath
that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
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