To thine own self be true

(book recommended by Roger Ebert, signed; Lumet films were nominated over 50 times for Academy awards; they included the classics: 12 Angry Men, The Fugitive Kind, A View from the Bridge, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Equus, Deathtrap, The Verdict, Prince of the City, King: A Filmed Record, The Iceman Cometh, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)

“I think I now know, Kostya, that what matters in our work–whether you act on stage or write stories–what really matters is not fame or glamor, not the things I used to dream about, but knowing how to endure things. How to bear one’s cross and have faith.”
(Nina)

One of the best adaptations of Anton Chekhov ever committed to film. Master director Sidney Lumet assembled a super cast including James Mason (later appearing in Lumet’s The Verdict), Vanessa Redgrave (fresh from Blow-up and Morgan, later in Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express), Simone Signoret (veteran French actress), David Warner (before Straw Dogs), Harry Andrews, and Denholm Elliott (of A Room with a View and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz).

Shot in Sweden. Highly recommended for any Chekhov fans.

From where you stand
beside the road,
you can almost see
the house. Fence slats
bow to you & paint
curls upon itself~
a mockery of maintenance.

Overhead
tall spreading trees
threaten sun. Strange
you never understood
what time might do
to plans & seeds.

Cracks in the walk
meander like veins
toward a wooden door.
Open it. Step inside.
Enter the house.

Brush by leaves
& buds that
cover the air
with unremembered names.
Pass calendars & mirrors
that conceal the holes
& smears of yesterday.

A rabble of books
throng aching shelves
with the wisdom of dust.
Photographs on a table.
Who are these faces?
These prisoners
in gilt-edged pose.

In the final room of all
there is an unmade bed.
A pair of glasses
stand upright
on the dresser.

Listen. You can almost
kiss the silence.
Clocks whirr–a heart beats
as slowly time
engulfs the house.

Leave the house.
It’s best that way.
People have grown old
& died here.
Children once laughed
& laughing took
their voices, left for good.
Left to live in
other rooms
of other houses
glimpsed by roadways
through tall spreading trees.

……………………………………………………………

(Written on a warm Sunday afternoon in the ’80s at my wife’s family’s house, while they all had gone for a fall walk. I believe the poem pretty much wrote itself in the time they were gone. I walked around the quiet house and imagined the above. Solitude sometimes automatically invokes the writing mood or impulse for me. I had been reading James Dickey’s poetry and had used some of his work in a school poetry anthology I had written and edited. “Inside the River” was one of his that stood out. I guess you could say I wrote “Inside the House.”)

Both presence and non-presence are simultaneously quite palpable in this poem. The house itself seemed veritably alive with a character and presence all its own, which I tried to capture. On the other hand, it wasn’t hard to imagine non-presence since the family was absent and, one day in the future, the various people would be gone for permanently. I guess you could call this imminent or palpable non-presence there for the imagining.

……………………….

recommended: Peter, Paul and Mary’s “The House Song” from Album 1700

(“The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray; above: grave of Robert Frost in Bennington, Vermont) which I visited in the early ’90s)

-Death is often a release from pain, suffering, and isolation that brings peace to the deceased. Caregivers and those negatively affected by those three things are likewise released in various ways.

-Pain, suffering, and long health decline do change, distort, and twist the dying person into weak, poor, unfortunate, negative facsimiles of themselves. It is supremely important to remember the deceased as he or she was in better, happier times and manifestions.

-In many ways, context is the key definer of the persons we eventually become. If we are the victims of abuse or neglect, for instance, or have a negative parent, these will leave their marks on our lives, for better or worse. Our response is usually to imitate or reject (often by 360 degrees) the parental role models we grew up with. Whatever our specific childhood contexts were will affect our coming of age, adulthood, values and choices.

-Attitude remains the central defining characteristic of one’s personality–how one responds to situations, changes, crises, and others. We choose the attitudes we have or express except in the case of extreme pain and suffering when we are no longer our best selves.

-Understanding and forgiveness of whatever nastiness of or from someone else is always possible in the cases of learning of people’s abused circumstances or backgrounds, or in cases of extreme pain, suffering, or terminal cancer when the person is no longer him- or herself.

-Death is just a natural part of living process and life goes on within and without one. Life continues; change dictates that always. It is important to reconnect with life, self, and others afterward and to perspective both life and death.

-Happy memories and moments of being are well worth revisiting and remembering in sensory detail. These are the best and often happiest moments of one’s life and relationships.

lie, cheat, steal, kid themselves and others, live in illusion or delusion, use or manipulate others, avoid personal responsibility, and choose their own self-satisfying narratives than do otherwise. Honesty, love, and trust remain in short supply today.

violence, inequality, ubiquitous advertising, and non-stop agendas, it is a comfort to know that one’s sensibility and sanity can be restored easily on a Saturday morning by putting on the first CD of the sublime complete Beethoven Masterworks (Deutsche Grammophon). Life without music and musical background is greatly diminished, incomplete, and dispirited. Ah, the positive lift of spirit and palpable soul arising!

(re. the photo chosen, it is important to remember we were all young once, even Beethoven)

Based on Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw (itself a haunting classic ghost story), The innocents is an effectively disturbing movie about a governess looking after two imaginative young children who may have become/been ‘corrupted’ by two adults on an estate who have died grotesquely before the governess (Deborah Kerr in a memorable role) arrived to look after them. Much of the viewer engagement with this film simply has to do with deciphering what is actually going on, what is real or not, and what the individual experiences are of the trio and the housekeeper. (There is also a somewhat subtle sado-masochistic subtext running through the past and present contexts to keep things interesting.)

Beautifully shot in black and white by Freddie Francis who also does a nice nightmare sequence, the film is set in Victorian times with a distinct Gothic flavor reminiscent of Robert Wise’s equally disturbing The Haunting of Hill House (based on Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name. There are many powerful images such as spider crawling out of a statue, the sadistic Peter Quint’s appearances, and the governess’s appearances in the house and at the lake. Director Jack Clayton, likewise, makes several strong choices in which Nature and time stop and start again before and after crises. Kerr is sufficiently neurotic and overwrought as the governess who is convinced she knows what’s really happening to the kids. Truman Capote’s participation on the screenplay probably did not hurt either as he had an oddball fascination with children and childhood experiences.

The process of the movie plot, its unsettling atmosphere, and disturbing scenes come to a significant, effective conclusion when the governess, alone in the house, challenges little Miles as to the source of his odd mature and mean behaviors. I would suggest the meaning and understanding of the events essentially come down to two rather troubling ambiguous kisses near the end of the film.

Overall, I would, unhesitatingly, recommend the movie and original book for anyone who likes a good, old-fashioned ghost story with lots of mystery and psychology to keep viewers and readers talking for sometime after as to what they experienced.. Definitely a film classic for re-viewing and multiple ironic interpretations. More for the 15+ senior high to adult crowd who will have no shortage of things to discuss.

ps/See the nice, clean widescreen version by 20th Century Fox (pictured above)

One of those myriad acceptances as one ages and begins to be more realistic or frank, and ‘lets go’.

All along in the process of one’s life, governments come and go, and things keep running with, basically, interchangeable parts. Most politicians are good liars and the ones who succeed for any length of time are good at ‘spin’ and manipulation of large masses of people. To wit, Justin. For the record, he was clearly the shallowest of the three main candidates (having little of significance and consequence to say), and there were many signs that he isn’t ready and will be a major flip-flopper sans any depth of serious thought and, more importantly, anything beyond egoic perspective and depth of knowledge. The ‘subject matter’ and content is just plain weak and as empty-worded as Obama. He is our new Teflon PM, period. Canada has now officially entered The Shallows bigtime. Our credibility in the great big world just took a seismic hit.

I suppose what was more troubling about the election is what it said, overall, about the electorate and how they gladly sold out to youth and bought the shallowest bill of goods. There didn’t seem to be any qualms, few criticisms from the masses despite all the glaring, childish T-gaffes and truly uninformed or stupid responses to various issues. Personally, given his stand on such things as supporting prisoner ‘rights’ and greater immigration in a terrorist world, I feel Canada has ‘mindlessly’ sold out to a transparently namby-pamby, unrealistic “All you need is love” bandwagon approach his Dad used 50 years ago. (Uh, times have changed.) Being a ‘good guy’ and winning the ‘love’ of the masses will simply not be enough to run Canada in very serious and dangerous times.

But, as I said before, life does go on regardless (as it has in Alberta since becoming Rachel’s World where nothing of much consequence happened in the first months after election, or in Edmonton in Don’s World–with its wheels flying off every day) and these career politicians are all basically interchangeable parts. The world is largely and often in other hands, and nothing changes in the political world re. rhetoric, phony promises, and bare-faced corruption. Somehow the rest of us mortals will all go on with our little day-to-day lives regardless of what one really thinks of, say, a hugely hollow Justin Trudeau and whatever hopes might remain for Canada and a quality of life there.

………………………………………….

ps/ All was not lost in AB. 80% voted Tory. Albertans had the common sense not to get swept up in the irrational little t–trudeamania 2 wave/bandwagon. I feel better anyway about Albertans rather than those areas of Canada where others only-too-easily gave up power lock, stock, and barrel to an openly egotistical, wanna-be ‘messiah-visionary’.

The absolutely perfect expression of my favorite season. Can be watched anytime you want to conjure up images of fall or have fall in your living space. A true 122 minute labour of love by Tony Helsloot, which has a basic fall film with lighting effects, forest scenes with birdsong, falling leaves, and babbling brooks, more rugged landscapes with rivers, rain, and waterfalls. Sublimely majestic with 2 extras of soothing scenes and natural decorations. No music.

Fantastic for those who can’t get enough of fall, for who want to be totally immersed in fall (even at home), and for writers and artists seeking inspiration and visual info. A remarkable relaxing resource for those seeking inner peace, re-centering, or reconnection with Nature.

There are other DVDs by the same cinematographer/author including other seasons, oceanside scenes, and Buddha-inspired garden spaces. Amazon.ca features a pleasurable range which can be accessed by ‘Tony Helsloot nature’  search.

There are many Christmas treats, but one of the absolute best is Second Cup’s Holiday Blend Estate Tea which tastes like Christmas and the holidays and certainly can evoke that feeling and imagery year-round (if you manage to save some bags after the season has ended). Had one today and voila, Christmas! The boxes of these bags typically are sold at their stores in December and get grabbed up fast. Don’t miss out a sublime taste pleasure this time around.

“Every man has to be his own saviour.

Sometimes I feel that you really know me
Sometimes there’s so much you can show me.

And your life is a story like the wind
Your life is a story like the wind.”

–Johnny Clegg