Meditation, Healing, Orien Rose

June 24, 2008 / / Comments Off on Meditation, Healing, Orien Rose

This email is from Orien Rose’s mother, Christine, timestamped 8:38 am:

Thank you for the texts received already this morning. She went under about 20
minutes ago…Orien just returning after being with her for the first few moments.

I will post to the blog as soon as I can get to it!

Blessings

Sunday I didn’t post a meditation. Instead, Roberta and I spent about six hours writing a blog post about Orien Rose, a cover letter to send to bloggers (many of whom have responded with grace and wonderfulness), figuring out what our mailing list was, etc. That was my meditation, and yeah, that’s your meditation too. It’s about healing. It’s all about healing. In some ways, even the magic we do that has nothing to do with healing is about healing. Healing the pain of not having a job or a relationship. Healing the ache of the world through political or justice magic. Healing our ability to believe we can do magic. Being the change we want to see in the world.

I woke this morning and thought of Orien Rose. Showered and thought of Orien Rose. Made coffee and thought of Orien Rose. And at one moment, I wept; not from pain or sorrow, but from the wave of energy; of all the thoughts moving with mine towards this girl and her family.

I have a busy frickin day. But I will be thinking of Orien Rose.

Monday Movie Review: The Apartment

June 23, 2008 / / 2 comments

The Apartment (1960) 10/10
Insurance actuary C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a bachelor who allows managers to use his apartment for their adulterous trysts, hoping that he’ll curry favor and earn a promotion. He has a crush on elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), but his ambitions and his relationship hopes may be in conflict. Directed by Billy Wilder.

The worst thing about The Apartment is that it is categorized as a “romantic comedy,” and while technically there is both comedy and romance, it is so far from that genre as to confuse the viewer who might be expecting something more along the lines of, I dunno, Notting Hill. The Apartment is best appreciated as a dark story—with comedic moments and a touching romance—about ambition, compromise, and treating people as less than people.

The first time I saw it, I had rom-com expectations, and I couldn’t get comfortable with the darkness. What is this movie? You want to stick it in a genre, but it doesn’t fit. So the second time I saw it, I knew it would be dark, and I let go of even thinking of it as a comedy. Definitely a not-comedy with funny scenes, but it’s not sorrow or angst that makes it not-comedy, it’s hatefulness, disregard for human decency, and a system working to crush the relative goodness of Baxter and Fran.

Again, when I first saw the movie I thought of Bud Baxter as a nebbish, and again, this is because a nebbishy, put-upon character is a cliché in such movies, and Lemmon’s character fits into the slot where such a nebbish would be. I hate those characters in films; I hate cringing, it’s one of the reasons I don’t watch many comedies.

But I saw a brief summary of the film somewhere that referred to Baxter as “ambitious.” Not put-upon, not abused by his higher-ups. “Ambitious.” And that made me rethink the film quite a lot. When I saw it again, I saw that Baxter isn’t abused by his bosses, although they take advantage of him and treat him like crap, he tolerates it willingly, not because he doesn’t know how to say no (nebbish) but because it will help him achieve his goals (ambitious). The minute the abusive managers can no longer help him, Baxter is entirely able to, and in fact delighted to, say no.

Which paints him in a different light, no? He’s a decent guy, who cares about people, but he is climbing up the ladder, corporate-wise, and he is okay with compromising himself to do so.

The managers are slimey sons-of-bitches, beautifully portrayed by Ray Walston (whose skull you kind of want to crush), Fred MacMurray (who’s more a punch in the face and then stab in the gut sort), and others. MacLaine is a vision, delicate, vulnerable, honest, and Lemmon gives a nuanced performance of a man trying to be true to himself and discovering how complex that can be. Both deserved their Oscar nominations.

There is a lot going on here about American business. Baxter really cares about insurance; he thinks and communicates in actuarial numbers. The higher you go up the management ladder, the less people care, but the product is significant, the numbers are significant. Look at how that changes: By the time of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), no one in the company knows what their product even is. And yes, How to Succeed… is significantly more comedic, but it’s also more cynical. In the seven years between the two films, the notion of a corporate “home” became darker and darker.

The underlying message seems to be that the purpose of rising up the corporate ladder is to crush others, and Baxter has to choose whether or not to be crushed, and whether or not to crush Fran and anyone else who happens to be in the way. What’s interesting, and what makes the performance so great, is that you aren’t really all that sure what his choice will be, even though he’s a lovable guy.

Spare a Thought for a Miracle

June 23, 2008 / / 5 comments

Orien Rose is a miracle. She, and her parents, are my important, beloved friends. She is a nine year old girl who, just over a year ago, was in a horrific boating accident. There was skull, facial, and brain injury. Really bad stuff. Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, June 24th, she is having surgery, and we are looking for as many people on this earth as possible to simply think of her, and send positive energy.

You should see her now; have a look at this article from the other day. Orien is an exuberant and hilarious kid, and the interviewer doesn’t even mention how she burped the entire alphabet for him.

If she were doing only half as well as she is, the doctors would still be baffled by the speed and thoroughness of her recovery.

She is alive, well, and burping today due to teams of skilled and dedicated paramedics, doctors, nurses, and therapists, the fierce dedication of her parents, and the power of community. Orien Rose has been prayed for by Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Santeros, she’s received energy from witches, Reiki masters, and anyone willing to simply hold a positive image in their minds for a moment.

Tuesday morning she faces the final hurdle: Replacement of the missing portion of her skull; a coordinated effort by neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and infection control specialists. AND by the people who’ve been sending her positive energy of myriad forms for this past year.

Orien, her father, asks that people put a reminder on their alarm clock. A reminder to just think about Orien Rose when you wake up. They check into Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. at 6:30 AM (Eastern time) and the procedure begins an hour or so later, and it will go on awhile, so whatever time you get up will be fine.

You can read Christine’s blog about Orien Rose’s progress, and their progress as a family.

Feel free to repost this on your blog, or link here, or write your own version in your own words (or all three).

Oh! And now that I think of it, if you do go to Christine’s blog, leave her a comment. I’d like to see her blog crashed by the spike in activity.

Thank you for being part of this very real miracle.

Midsummer

June 20, 2008 / / 3 comments

It’s Midsummer, also known as Summer Solstice and, in some circles, Litha.

It is the longest day. The Stag/Oak God is at his peak, so paradoxically, begins to die. The Bull/Holly God begins his reign.

My favorite song of Midsummer is The Raven is Calling, by Gwydion Pendderwen. I can’t find the lyrics online anywhere. It speaks in the voice of the Stag God as he is about to go into battle with the Bull God:

My shield it is broken
Like the covenant sworn
‘twixt the Gods and my mother
On the day I was born
They promised her truly
That I would not die
’til the Sun stood quite still
In the Midsummer sky.

(Except I think the word “Midsummer” is wrong there.)

The notion of a battle that fuels nature is offensive to some, but I find it moving and powerful. The struggle of the great forces of life and death, light and dark, and the reminder that change is eternal, even when the sun stands quite still.

Too Much Information

June 19, 2008 / / 2 comments

I’ve been struggling with a desire to write some personal stuff that is Too Much Information. I blog under my real name. I sell books. I am a Well Known Author™. So every time I think to write something, some of my better angels come to my rescue and say “Y’know, Deb, not everyone reading that is the audience you mean it for.”

Which is hard right now, because the thing I feel compelled to write is inappropriate, and I’m left with nothing to say.

So let’s try this: A relationship I sort-of-had got broken by someone well-meaning who interfered. I am not heartbroken, it was not that kind of relationship, although it might have become such someday. I’ll miss it. And I’m angry. And I’m trying to adjust my internal organs around not having this person in my life anymore, and around having been messed with badly by people who love me. So not heartbroken, but a little bit broken.

It’s going to take me a few days. I almost wish I was heartbroken, because a good cry might get the whole ugly mess out of my system.

Solutions to this week’s trivia

June 17, 2008 / / 2 comments

A nice day’s work, everyone!

» Read more..

Tuesday Trivia with Wednesday Theme

June 17, 2008 / / 22 comments

Theme solved by Evn (comment #6).

1. The “blouse man” shakes things up.
Solved by TehipiteTom (comment #13).

2. Hustling pool with Sing, Sing, Sing on the soundtrack.
Solved by George (comment #20).

3. The star of this biopic has the same birthday as the late comedian he portrayed.
Solved by Evn (comment #6).

4. “She must have a bladder the size of a peanut!”
Solved by TehipiteTom (comment #1).

5. A coming of age romance set in 1957 Louisiana, this is the first movie for an Oscar-winning actress.
Solved by Melville (comment #9).

6. “Is this the way it happened? Was Jack the Ripper in fact a sixty-foot sea serpent from Scotland? Did I take this job to make a quick buck? We may never know the answers to these questions.”
Solved by Evn (comment #5).

7. The daughter of a Hollywood legend plays the title role; her mother died during filming.
Solved by Hogan (comment #8).

Mystic Wicks Interview

June 16, 2008 / / 2 comments

I have an interview in Mystic Wicks Magazine that just went up. I did the interview several months ago—after October ’07 (because it mentions Basket of Kisses, which was founded then) and before March ’08 (because I say Arthur is 17, and he turned 18 in March). I just re-read it, because I’d honestly forgotten about it, and hey, it’s pretty good.

I Love the Smell of Desperation in the Morning

June 15, 2008 / / Comments Off on I Love the Smell of Desperation in the Morning

We’ve had a couple of encouraging signs in the last few days.

On Friday it was Jim Geraghty’s dismay at Obama’s supposed contempt for New Rochelle commuters. (If the lifestyle of Rob and Laura Petrie isn’t sacred, what is?)

Yesterday it was faux outrage at Obama quoting The Untouchables, showing that the Republican War on Metaphors continues unabated. See, for example, Flopping Aces: » Read more..

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