Today I realized that I needed to shake off the influence of people who can only focus on the things they hate and refocus on things that I love. To do this, I decided to do the most radical thing imaginable -- take my own advice.
In Road Trip Mind and in movie reviews I have written, I have often spoken of the ability of great films to uplift, to take you out of the less-than-desirable place you have gotten stuck in and allow you to get back to a more desir- able place, a place of balance, of love, of appreciation for the higher things in life. A place of...dare I say it?...serenity. To accomplish this, I have just pulled one of my three favorite movies off the shelf and slotted it into the player. And only ten minutes into the film I have to pause the movie and write this because already I can feel the focus on lesser things and lesser people falling away. I find myself sitting here more than a little amazed that my own advice actually works. :-) Some people reachieve their sense of serenity by re-reading a favorite book or scripture. Some do it by "going on pil- grimage" to a holy site or place of power. Some do it, as Curtis demonstrated recently, by turning off the damned computer and turning back on to life. Whatever works, IMO. What seems to work consistently for me to reachieve my own sense of serenity is to spend 119 minutes with a film called ...uh...Serenity. I share the first 10 of those minutes with you below, before going back to the movie. Serenity is the feature film followup to a 14-episode TV series called Firefly, but you don't have to have seen the series to "get" the film. It opens with a history lesson to bring you up to speed. In nine short minutes, without resort- ing to flashback, writer/director Joss Whedon tells you everything you need to know about the universe and the evil Alliance that runs it, both as it sees itself and as it really is. The Alliance wants you to focus on what *it* wants you to focus on. Sound familiar? But in just nine minutes Whedon reveals the thing that the Alliance fears the most, and that it considers the most dangerous things in the universe: love, a sense of home, and a sense of serenity. Cut to black, and the word 'Serenity' superimposed on that blackness, morphing into the logo of the spaceship that bears the name. Zoom out further and we see Serenity in her element, about to make a fiery descent through the atmosphere to the planet below. This sequence is a thing of beauty in my opinion, one of the great opening sequences in the history of science fiction or film itself. It tells us in 40 seconds all we need to know about Serenity and its crew. Cut to the captain of this beautiful spaceship, discussing this same fiery descent from the bridge, just after a fairly large and crucial part of the ship falls off and burns up: Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: What was that? Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: Did you see that? Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Was that the primary buffer panel? Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: It did seem to resemble... Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorram ship for no apparent reason? . . . Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Just get us on the ground! Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: That part'll happen pretty definitely. . . . Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: [struggling to keep the ship under control] This landing is gonna get pretty interesting. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Define "interesting." Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: [deadpan] Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die? Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [picking up a microphone and speak- ing on the ship's intercom] This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. Welcome to Serenity. Serenity is aptly named because its crew can laugh and crack jokes in the face of very real situations that may just kill them. The crew of Serenity represent for me everything I am looking for to reachieve my own serenity. These wacky space outlaws really LOVE each other, and that love keeps them flying, and keeps them centered. It seems to be having the same effect on me. I am in good hands. So I'll stop writing now and just enjoy the flight, and after it the rest of my day, no matter who or what tries to bring me down. Whatever works. Here's hoping that you all find some- thing similar that works for you. Life is IMO too short to waste focusing on stuff that brings you down, when there are things that you could focus on that bring you up. The title sequence described above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2UPIFQM_Cg <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2UPIFQM_Cg> Opening credits and theme song to Firefly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4P-8oHOiI <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4P-8oHOiI>
