“Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities.  It is out of the formlessness of the neutral zone that new form emerges and out of the barrenness of the fallow time that new life springs.  We can support and even enhance the process, but we cannot produce the results.  Once those results begin to take shape, however, there are several things that can be done.  The first is, very simply, to stop getting ready and to act.  Getting ready can turn out to be an endless task, and one of the forms that inner resistance often takes is the attempt to make just a few more (and then more, and again more) preparations.” “Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes,” by William Bridges

I had a foul epiphany the other day.  Well, actually, it was more like a fowl epiphany.

I stopped off at a mall close to my house to run a few errands.  Being as I live in California, it’s an open-air mall, irrespective of the fact that it’s Northern California and several of the months here are more often than not, cold and rainy.  Anyway, the first thing I noticed was this twenty-foot high orange and brown wooden turkey with a bobbing head.  Now I wasn’t surprised so much by the turkey (it shows up every November and doesn’t depart until after the New Year) but I was surprised by the whole “Groundhog Day” effect that it had on me.

You see, this turkey is hollow.  It has a door in its side that opens up so that you can donate canned and dry goods to the local food bank.  It’s something I do every year.  Only this time when I saw that damned turkey I could have sworn it was only a couple of weeks ago that I had been shoving boxes of pasta and tins of tuna into its hollowed-out butt.

Now, here’s the thing.  I’ve been starring at that mechanical turkey every holiday season for the past twenty plus years.  I’m sick to death of that Turkey.  And it was a stark reminder of how boring my life had become.  How risk free.  How safe.  And I swear to you, the second I laid eyes on it I vowed that it would be the last Thanksgiving I would ever have see it.

I’m an East Coast person.  Born and raised.  And though I was transplanted to Northern California more than two decades ago, my roots never took.  Every year I vow to move away, back to New York or Boston.  Back to someplace that makes me feel more alive.  And here was this gigantic three-dimensional reminder that another year had passed.  Another year spent daydreaming instead of taking action.

“When the time comes, stop getting ready to do it—and do it!”

What is it about the familiar that keeps us so chained to the status quo?  Why would we rather suffer in a toxic environment than try something new?  It’s one of the reasons (I repeat, ONE of the reasons) people stay in abusive relationships.  The “known,” no matter how detrimental, feels like a safer choice than the unknown.  I’ve seen videos of children screaming to be returned to their parents, even though their parents were abusive to them.  We crave, (consciously or un) sameness.

I had some relatives from South Florida visit not too long ago.  They borrowed my car and drove up to Napa for the day.  They were rather disappointed by the trip.  Seems that they stopped and asked several people if there was a “Bennigans” around.  There wasn’t.  They were 3,000 miles from home, in an environment that is nowhere near theirs, and yet they wanted to duplicate the same experience they have in Palm Beach.  They wanted the familiar.

Now, I’ve never really been one to play it safe.  Or so I thought.  But to tell you the truth, the idea of actually implementing a plan that would take me far away from that turkey, that would uproot me from everything I know, regardless of how boring it is, scares me to death.  Why is that?

But like I said in my last post, there are two different kinds of learning, and this one was the experiential one.  I got it on a gut level.  I would rather die doing something new than live forever doing the same old, same old.

And like they say in “Pippin,” “I want my life to be something more than long….”

“Corner of the Sky” from “Pippin”

Everything has its season

Everything has its time

Show me a reason and I’ll soon show you a rhyme

Cats fit on the windowsill

Children fit in the snow

Why do I feel I don’t fit in anywhere I go?

Rivers belong where they can ramble

Eagles belong where they can fly

I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free

Got to find my corner of the sky

Every man has his daydreams

Every man has his goal

People like the way dreams have

Of sticking to the soul

Thunderclouds have their lightning

Nightingales have their song

And don’t you see I want my life to be

Something more than long….

Rivers belong where they can ramble

Eagles belong where they can fly

I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free

Got to find my corner of the sky

So many men seem destined

To settle for something small

But I won’t rest until I know I’ll have it all

So don’t ask where I’m going

Just listen when I’m gone

And far away you’ll hear me singing

Softly to the dawn:

Rivers belong where they can ramble

Eagles belong where they can fly

I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free

Got to find my corner of the sky.

Pippin: Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, director, 1993

 HOOK: A trip into the romantic comedy Twilight Zone.

 LINE:  She: Do you ever have déjà vu? 

                 He: Didn’t you just ask me that?

SINKER: Seize the day!

SPANKY: Weird how the only guests on TV are plugging movies. Whatever happened to books, plays, magazines, even other TV programs? Then you go to the theater and the seats are empty. My take is that we want it to work. More than any other media movies can make us part of the process. The fact that most don’t or that we are so critical even of those that do, shows we want and need at least some of them to succeed. In a way they are like the story of Groundhog Day, recycling plots of movies that work. And once in a while, through this repetition we grasp something that changes our lives. Let’s face it, we start out not wanting the smarmy Bill Murray character to get the girl (Andie MacDowell, a symbol of some higher plane). We don’t like him because we don’t like ourselves. Given a life free of consequences we would also be reckless, depressed, suicidal, drunken, dishonest, etc., etc. But by the end of the movie we are cheering him on and looking at the missed opportunity of our own rather repetitive lives as well.

 BARK, BARK, BARK, BARK (4 BARKs out of four)

 JOHN: I agree, Spanky, we leave the movie changed. And this is a clever fable about movie-making as well. Actors endure endless retakes of the same scene, trying to keep it fresh. And our lives too, like the weatherman Phil’s are repetitious, with the tiniest variations of pleasures and annoyances. And yet, we can make something out of this. “Today is the first day of the rest of our lives” (Arrrggg, I never thought I would ever say that). Most movies are escapism, this one ends up being just the opposite, like Dickens’ Scrooge or A Wonderful Life. The fact that it does this without making a big deal of it, let’s us assume ownership of our own transformation. Brilliant, quirky, wildly original Groundhog Day says, “Make the most of your time on earth.” And by God, that is what we come away from it determined to do. 

GO GO GO GO (4 GOs out of four) 

from February 2, 2009

More routine, more Groundhog Day. There’s that guy standing on the platform reading Plato, with an insulated mug at his feet, there the young woman with the twisted coat belt, there’s the middle aged couple chatting together who will go in opposite directions when they get in the train. I nod as I take my place, and even manage a smile. We’ll be on speaking terms soon if I’m not careful.

More History of Rome – the book. Julius Ceasar is making his play for Imperium. The bus is waiting for me at the station. The home journey is just as straight-forward.

Raining again today. As I walked down the platform I realised that, after 2 weeks of travelling, I’m now on nodding terms with some of my fellow travellers both on the train and in the bus station. Obviously, we don’t speak; we are British after all. Eyes meet fleetingly however, with a quick nod of acknowledgment. It’s enough.

I’m also starting to feel as though I’m living through a Groundhog Day period in the mornings and evenings. Parking the car, the same people are also locking their car doors. We all stand in the same place on the platform, sit in the same spot on the train, walk off the on arrival in the same order. Going for the bus after work, the same girl is always at the stop before me. Then a couple of Asian men turn out of the gate, hunched up against the cold; a couple of other lads walk out next, one always carrying a holdall (wonder what’s in it); the same cyclist powers by, headlight flashing, before the bus arrives.

Perhaps that’s what all our lives are like. It’s only now that I’ve had the time to think about it.

"Don't drive angry."

If you’ve seen the movie Groundhog Day, perhaps you’ve wondered at some point how long Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors actually stayed there.  I came across a website that is about geeking out (or nerding up) pop culture.  And they tried to figure out how long Phil Connors actually spent living the same day in Punxsutawney on Groundhog Day.

If this will hinder your future viewings of the movie, then don’t continue reading.  If you do keep reading, don’t blame me!

Here’s the link: How long does Bill Murray spend in Groundhog Day?

On the DVD, there’s an estimate of 10 years.   According to that website’s calculations, he was there at least 3,176 Groundhog Days, or 8.7 years, or 8 years, 8 months, and 16 days.  The director actually replied to that blog (in a round-about way), and said it would be at least that long, at a minimum, but probably longer.

Of course, this is open for debate, and, in the end, pointless.  So I won’t keep rambling on about it.

P.S., there is no refund available for the time you wasted on this. 

The Curious Case of Crazy Cartoons

Cartoons are the closest approximation to Tarantino’s movies. They start out as a simple ideas inspired by real-life objects/characters/situations and go on to evolve into completely new universes with their own sets of mythologies and histories. Although controlled to the last pixel by their creators, these cartoon characters take up a life of their own and, in the process, have the creators conform to their characteristics. A sub-art form by itself, the cartoon provides so much scope for exploration of both the animation medium and of cinema itself (by exclusion of reality). When Émile Cohl created Fantasmagorie (1908), now accepted as the first ever animation movie, he had given a mile of head start for the genre with the film’s no-holds-barred repudiation of real space and time. Since then, sadly, animation seems to have been moving in the opposite direction, trying to imitate “normal” cinema with its gargantuan technological expertise,  in the same way the latter tries to imitate life. These CG devils do not seem to understand that animation is both an adversary and a complement to photographic cinema – an extreme form of wish fulfillment that wears its manipulation on its sleeve – rather than a clone. Like all genres, the clichés have remained, the spirit and meaning buried. Premiering almost six decades ago, the Wile E. Coyote vs. The Roadrunner cartoon series is one that takes these clichés to the most extreme and, by doing so, digs into the most basic and pertinent of all questions about the medium – What does it mean to be a cartoon?

Honey, I Dehumanized the Kids

The Roadrunner series was conceived by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese.  And Chuck Jones is as true an auteur that one can find in cartoon filmmaking. One can almost immediately tell a Jones cartoon from the others. His toons are characterized by hard edged drawings with jittery motion that lacks real continuity. His characters are true caricatures, deliberately far from reality, with justifiably no depth at all. These characters somehow appear to know that they are in a cartoon. Consider his stint as the director of the famed Tom and Jerry show. Till then, Hanna and Barbera had been presenting us cutesy, smooth lined and lovable characters (This still remains my favorite era in the Tom and Jerry series) who call out for empathy. With the arrival of Jones, however, things take a dark turn as we see a frenzied Tom chasing a Jerry who seems to be perennially on crack. Jones removes any trace of cuteness from these characters, providing features like vicious teeth and pointed whiskers, and disallows any sympathy for them from us, at least by the virtue of their appearances. It is as if Jones believes that we should know that these are just cartoons and their lives are not going to be altered by our sympathy. That does not mean that he doesn’t give us emotional anchors to hold on to in his cartoons, but just that he consistently avoids the threat of realism – of appearance and of emotions – that plagues the cartoon world so often.

Although it never really upped the ante for the Tom and Jerry series, his style sure does work wonders here. In the Roadrunner series, too, there are no attempts at unwarranted emotional bonding even though one does end up rooting for Wile E. within minutes into each episode. For a comparison, these cartoons of Jones are like the early short films of Chaplin that relied purely on slapstick, without ever concentrating on the Tramp’s relationship to us like the later Chaplin films do. Jones relies on Woody Allen kind of humour – throw them all and see what sticks – with his relentless series of gags. His humour does not depend on what happens (which, by the very virtue of the Roadrunner series, is known to every one), but how does it happen and how long does it take to happen. Part of the fun in watching the Roadrunner cartoons arises from this surprise element of time that comes into picture in these skirmishes. Consider this random episode called Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958) that Jones directed. The episode consists of 8 gags of lengths 58, 30, 26, 8, 28, 35, 25 and 106 seconds respectively. The numbers are enough of a witness that Jones revels in writing both gotcha gags and wait-wait-almost-there-boom set pieces (which were a characteristic of his Tom and Jerry cartoons too) equally. And that is the only kind of unpredictability that he allows in the world of Roadrunner.

[Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958)]

Once More Upon a Time in the West

The idea of the Roadrunner show resembles a western (The fact that the coyote is a symbol of the Native American makes this notion all the more interesting!). Like the western genre, it originates as a piece of history – a shred of fact that a coyote is trying to get his hands on a roadrunner – and then develops itself as a myth that is derived from that piece of history (that the coyote always goes after the bird). Two primary characters facing each other off in a vast, cruel and blazing environment is one of the biggest stereotypes of the now-extinct genre. In Roadrunner, too, the geography is sparse, torrid and lifeless and painted with mostly brown and deep yellow colours. Furthermore, the western has always been a playground for writers to tease our moral standings and to tantalize us with notions we try to take for granted. Usually, the “morally good” according to law and social institutions for justice, in the form of police and the sheriff, is pitted against the morally good according to personal conscience and intuition, in the form of the noble outlaw and the lone ranger. Scenarios are written in such a way that our empathy goes against the justice system, which seems to be blinded by its own rules, and the audience is made to unconciously question the way laws are made. In the case of Roadrunner, this sense of balance between “good” according to public opinion and right-wing morality and “good” according to personal experience and emotional connection is maintained in the form of the roadrunner and Wile E. respectively. The cerebral part of us tells us that the roadrunner is never the instigator of trouble and it is plainly wrong to try to kill the harmless being. On the other hand, by virtue of the script, we end up supporting the coyote’s efforts and even want him to get the bird for once. The result is the deletion of human morality – the notion of heroes and villains and good and bad – from the Roadrunner universe.

No Man’s Land

One observation that one immediately makes when watching the Roadrunner cartoons is the strange absence of humans in the toons. There are no human “characters” in the series as such, even though they make their presence in the world felt indirectly now and then. Even when they do, in the form of the regular afternoon trains that run over Wile E., the random trucks that get him at the tunnels and the friendly neighbourhood highway chases, they merely act as deus ex machinas that make sure that Wile E. does not catch roadrunner and that he always chases him.  Same is the case with the ACME Corporation, from where Wile E. obtains all his bizarre gadgets. He always gets what he wants from them although one is not sure how the economy allows for this. ACME is not very unlike our capitalistic companies that benefit from people’s internecine quest for climbing the social ladder as fast as possible and which try to rake money even at the  cost of deterioration of people‘s ways of life (and history has made sure that this policy of ACME holds good for Certain Intelligence Agencies too!). Both humans and institutions perpetuate the myth of the roadrunner and Wile E by their non-intrusion and occasional intrusion. Furthermore, there are no laws in the Roadrunner world.  Unlike in movies like Toy Story (1995), where the toys had to obey the rules of the human world and come into true existence only when they are far removed from observation, Wile E. need not be ever conscious of his actions. He knows that he is being observed by the humans and he would always be made to chase the roadrunner. Even science, with its selective application of its laws, seems to want to keep the myth alive.  All Wile E. can do is to conform to this “fascist conspiracy” of the external world.

The Cartoon with(out) a Difference

In the case of The Roadrunner series, one is safe in saying that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Far from being wrong, it is the very truth of the world of Roadrunner. The stories of all the episodes of the series are so identical to one another, that it would only be a miracle if one can identify individual episodes. You have this lanky, brown coyote – about 45 years of age, one would say, if Jim Carrey were to play him – who tries, in every which way possible, to get his hands on this clever, thin roadrunner bird. Predictably (I mean predictably), he fails, only to get up again and repeat the process. Each of these vignettes starts out and ends in the same way – with Wile E. concocting some new plan to get hold of the Roadrunner and with him getting caught in his own trap respectively. The only difference between each of these encounters lies in the way Wile E. fails in his mission. In fact, the whole universe of Roadrunner relies on repetition – repetition of situations (what would Roadrunner be without the top view of Wile E. falling into the cliff?), repetition of geography (more than in any other cartoon, the scenery in these cartoons repeats very often, especially noticeable in the background during the chases) and repetition of structure (to the point that the relative ordering of the vignettes and the episodes is ultimately immaterial). Heck, even the single piece of speech in the series comes in the form of a repetition – “Beep Beep”.

But then, there are traits that are also shared by every other cartoon (Garfield often speaks to us out of context of the cartoon about these clichés) and also perhaps the easiest ones to devise. But, the real success of the Roadrunner series lies not in using these clichés, but retaining them forever, even at the cost of being unfunny and redundant. Jones takes the practice to the breaking point (and beyond) by bombarding us with the same elements over and over. And, through this monotony, he achieves something much more than instant chuckles. Harold Ramis’ brilliant Groundhog Day (1993) examines, albeit in photographic reality, what it takes to live in a completely predictable world – a world that is mathematically derivable, geographically utopian and emotionally unresponsive. Its protagonist, Phil Connors (who is worthy of Bill Murray), after some days of rejoicing over the unlimited power that he has been given, finds himself completely alienated from his people and then, gradually, comes to accept his situation. Beyond that point, he stops attempting to break the loop of time and decides to enrich his own life and that of the others. Now that it is neither possible for him to pursue any goal in life that he may have had nor take his own life, he realizes that the only difference that he can make in this world is to make the people around him happy, even if it is just for a couple of hours. Phil Connors isn’t very unlike our hero Wile E.

Deconstructing Wile E.

The world of Roadrunner is the perfect cartoon world. It is a world devoid of the notions of hunger, injury and death. Even though Wile E. believes that he chases the bird in order to eat it, that can never be his actual motive. The very fact that he keeps chasing the bird for years in vain suggests that food is never a point of concern for him. His role in life is to chase the roadrunner and nothing else at all. In this regard, he shares a very ironical relationship with the bird. For one, he cannot and will not catch roadrunner ever because, if he did, he would not have anything else to do in his life. In that case, he would lose his identity and turn from being a cartoon ‘character’ with unique characteristics to being a mere ink stain on a sheet of coloured paper. He would then be wandering the wilderness for eternity. Nor can he renounce the chase altogether for that would tantamount to him catching the bird and subsequently losing his identity. On the other hand, the roadrunner’s role is to be chased. Since Wile E. knows that his only option is to chase the bird, roadrunner needn’t ever instigate him. But if ever, Wile E. digresses from his job, it would be the roadrunner’s duty to pull him back into the loop since he has his identity to retain. The whole of fabric of Roadrunner is based on this paradoxical relationship that the two characters share.

Now, this is not the foundation that shows like Tom and Jerry are raised on, although they, too, are reduced to no more than a bunch of futile chases. The kinship between Tom and Jerry is built around the human world, unlike in Roadrunner, like a refrigerator loaded with food, a stray canary or a runaway bear. At any point, Tom and Jerry could make a pact and go on with their lives independently – which means that Tom can laze around forever and Jerry can pinch cheese whenever he wants. But, in the case of Wile E., there are no such easy alternatives. His world is defined solely by his chases and contains no other dimension. Tom or Jerry need not be in every scene in an episode, but Wile E. has to be present in every setup of every vignette and, if needed, in every frame. Like Barry Lyndon, the coyote’s life is sealed in the two dimensions he lives in (The ideal sequel, if you can call that, to the Roadrunner show will not be in 3-D, but rather in 1-D, with the two characters represented as two dots that never meet). Even though the initial motive for Wile E. is to catch roadrunner and that for the roadrunner is to evade the claws of Wile E., in the long run, they would inevitably reverse their roles. That is, the coyote. will, eventually, make sure that he doesn’t catch the bird and the roadrunner will make sure that he is chased. This is almost exactly the kind of relationship that Batman and the Joker share in The Dark Knight (2008).

One is tempted to compare the fate of Wile E. to that of Sisyphus, the Greek king who is made to roll a mammoth boulder over a steep hill slope forever, only to find it roll back down (Is it just a coincidence that Wile E. is seen shoving huge rocks time and again?). The coyote’s life, too, goes around in such pointless loops with no end in sight. In fact, Wile E. is the quintessential Absurd Hero, like Sisyphus, who realizes the pointlessness of his life and nevertheless continues. I’m a philosopher only as much as Barack Obama is a ballet dancer, but from what little I have heard about Camus, he draws three possible responses to this realization of the absurdity of the world – Faith, Suicide and Existence. He seems to reject the first two ideas, denouncing them as tricks to repudiate the truth about the meaninglessness of life. In the third option he proposes that life be lived for-the-moment and enjoyed to the fullest, without any hope or ambition and with the constant knowledge of the absurdity of it all, and thus have complete freedom over our actions. This way, the refusal of suicide becomes the very token of acceptance of absurdity and the freedom of choice that it provides. Now, this is where Roadrunner really takes its medium seriously. Unlike Sisyphus, Wile E. (and Phil Connors) does not even have the choice of suicide, so that he can refuse it. His world knows no death. Nor can he make a leap of faith, for he has nothing to hope for, except maintaining status quo. Thus, Wile E. can only take up the third option of living life for what it is. Wile E., like most Chuck Jones characters, knows that he is in a cartoon, that he has to carry on his chase act for ever and that there is no meaning to his life. So all he can do is keep chasing roadrunner – keep pushing the rock – in an attempt to keep both of them happy. Camus sums up the Sisyphus situation fittingly: “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”. The same should be said about Wile E.

(pic courtesy: The Yerton Dreamhouse)

When I was 22 years old I heard something that really resonated with who I am today.  “It’s tradition…And you don’t monkey with tradition!”  I won’t cite this reference because if you’re a fan of the popular late ’90s TV series you’re already laughing.  If it doesn’t click, that’s probably for the best.  But still, this is true.  You don’t monkey with tradition.

Even the smallest traditions I try to keep up today.  Greeting trick ‘r treaters.  One minute of silence.   And even sharing Valentines.  It’s tradition…and you don’t monkey with tradition! Holidays give you a reason to get off your keyster and keep something older than yourself or your family alive for another year.  These traditions are not only respected but are a terrific way to keep yourself happy.  Celebrating tradition can be life altering!  Think of a young nervous couple beneath the mistletoe.  It’s tradition…and you don’t monkey with tradition!

Another reason is that life is hard.  In the new technological world of deadlines and ungodly expectations we all could use something to celebrate from time to time.  Something older and bigger than ourselves.  Everyone should be celebrating the reasons we celebrate.  Even if that means grabbing a friend and some horror movies and curling up with some candy for a good scare on Halloween.

If you can’t think of one good reason to celebrate a holiday, you’re just not trying. If you sit in a cubicle, work a desk, work a computer, work a camera, work a hot dog stand, or any other type of work…then right there my friend, is reason to celebrate! It’s reason enough to pick up and holler WOOHOO to whatever holiday it is.  Life may not be as short as the quotes say, but it’s definitely not long enough to ignore a good rumpus.

So the next time a chance for you to celebrate rolls in, or a timely tradition marches on, grab a drink, make a toast and be with those you hold dear.  We need to celebrate the fact that there is a holiday happening, and it wants you to celebrate it!  When life asks you to dance, you don’t say no.

“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!”  Amanda Bradley

Yes today, is Pumpkin Remembrance Day. And yes I did just make that up. And yes this the second post today. And yes they are within only a few seconds of each other. But any way back to what I was saying. What was I saying? Oh yeah, today is Pumpkin Remembrance Day. The reason? Pumpkin Remembrance Day originates back to Nov. 1. 2009. It is a day where you remember all those brave pumpkins who risked their lives to become Jack-O-Lanterns. Those brave pumpkins who had hideous faces carved into their head. Triangle heads, and square buck teeth. Who are put out on porches for Halloween and once it passes, they’re tossed to the side. Pumpkin Remembrance Day is placed the day right after Halloween because Halloween has the  second highest number of pumpkin carvings in the world. The first of course being Groundhog Day. I came up with this holiday when the thought of what pumpkin’s opinions are when it comes to Halloween. I then came up with this holiday. I will leave you now so you may all remember  those brave,awesome pumpkins. I leave you with this song

“I will remember you, will you remember me”- Sarah McLachlan

As an Australian, I didn’t celebrate Halloween, as us Australians seem to be quite oblivious when it comes to holidays. We do like to have our days off from work and such, but only to spend it sleeping. And with sleep comes dreams, which I’ve had so many of over the past few, but only the most disturbed and mind-breaking will be posted here.

So in the early parts of Halloween morning, I had a dream that I woke up and I had a kidney infection! Oh no; my least favourite kind of infection. Not only was it painful, but it also lead to the zombie apocalypse. It got pretty boring being bound in my own bedroom, so I decided to play on my new Nintendo DS, which looked like a GameBoy Advance SP. The microphone was external this time and it was incredibly small and took some fiddling to work out. Don’t be surprised if they realise a new DS soon. I once had a dream one of my mates bought a DS, except it was smaller and had the mic between the two screesn. Three weeks later, the DS Lite was revealed.

Back onto my zombie apocalypse dream, and as if things couldn’t get any worse, when I managed to get some sleep, I woke up and it all happened again, just like in Groundhog Day. How awful; that’s like if I spent the day as a hot chick, but it was on the day of her period.

And after I woke up, I had an itchy back that I couldn’t scratch! But don’t worry, after numerous over-expensive tests, I was revealed to be in good health, apart from a healthy bout of life-destroying anxiety. So I’m glad I didn’t have to spend my Halloween night in a hospital bed on life-suport, just like many other young adults will.

Day 4

Almost Halloween…working in the service industry blows…you are always working when the other 90% of the world is partying. Friend from L.A. called today asking if I could come do the West Hollywood Halloween party thing…had to give the “I’m working all weekend” depressing answer.

And, unfortunately this year I’m bartending the whole weekend in a rather geriatric setting–an old school Italian restaurant/piano bar where the patrons sing the same Frank Sinatra type melodies over and over and over…like groundhog day with gin & meatballs. The old piano player is cool though.  He gets hammered and is anything but “PC” with his Obama jokes as he reaches up the old ladies dresses when they stand next to the piano to sing.

Woke up today at 1pm–felt shitty & cold.  No other way to put it.  Didn’t feel like eating anything, especially cold raw food.  Picked up a book and fell back asleep.

At 2pm I had my first meal, and my first experience with spirulina. Talk about Halloween ghoulish!  The coolest, strangest, blue-green stuff I’ve ever seen in a blender.  Wild.  The label on the glass container it comes in says “Spirulina is a HARD-CORE superfood.”  I will go so far to say spirulina is XXX! I’m pretty adventurous with food and I was afraid to drink it.  My girlfriend screamed and ran away.  I blended a heaping tbs with a whole banana, a tbs of raw honey, a tbs of cacao nibs, and a tbs of almond butter (with water and ice).  All I can say after drinking it…I think I finally met God…and Her name is Spirulina…

Here is a spirulina link to a web page that goes into great detail about the science and evolution of spirulina, it’s only one page (so you should read it) and makes me want to ingest a lot more of this stuff…was it the “manna” from God those wandering Israelites never stopped complaining about having to eat?

What I ate today:

• Spirulina Smoothie!
• Pear
• Lara Bar
• Apple
• Giant Salad: Spinach, Lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, avocado, Greek olives, olive oil, lemon, black pepper, mustard, rawmesean.
• Brownie smoothie: This one turned out amazing…1tbs raw cacao powder, 1 tbs raw honey, 1 tbs raw almond butter, small handful raw walnuts, 1 tsp coconut oil, 3 figs, ice & water.  Like fudge!

One note.  It was chilly tonight and very difficult on my bike ride home from work to wrap my head around not having hot food.  It also wasn’t easy skipping the normal routine of sitting down after my shift and making myself and the people I work with a nice stiff drink…they all seemed a little hurt when I told them I was going to have to skip it.

(I shared something along these lines on Monday during staff prayers at The Message which I felt was strongly from God for us.)

Isaiah 43:18-19 says, ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!’ (NIV). The Message translation has it as: ‘Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.’

I wonder if you’re aware that change is constantly happening around us in every single facet and dimension of life and our lives … except one.

Are you aware, for instance, that every single cell in our bodies replaces itself over a period of seven years? In other words, there’s not one part of you now that was there seven years ago.

Or did you know that from sunrise to sunset, we will travel – without noticing a thing – around a hundred thousand miles through space around the sun? That means that yesterday’s ‘here’ is not today’s ‘here’ at all: it’s maybe somewhere in Russia or out in the middle of the ocean. We never wake up in the same place we went to sleep.

Every one of us alive on this planet is constantly moving forwards … and we’re never ever going back to where we came from.

The idea that anything stays the same from one day to the next, or from one second to the next is no more than that – an idea. The reality is that change is a permanent state. The illusion is that things stay the same.

I think we have a tendency to build lives that, consciously or unconsciously, try to keep things the same. We adopt safe, consistent routines. We wear more or less the same clothes or kinds of clothes; eat the same things or kinds of things; interact with other people more or less the same way every day.

It takes a cataclysmic shock, the equivalent of a little earthquake in our lives – like a family member dying, or losing our job, to shake us out of it.

We won’t risk leaving a job we’re not all that fulfilled in because what if there’s nowhere else for me to go?

We daren’t risk changing our minds about long-held views – and particularly not about people – because what if it turns out they’re right and I’m wrong?

So here’s an irony: change is something that we fear but the exact thing we as God’s people are trying to bring about everywhere else.

We seek a change in the spiritual landscape in Manchester; we want to see changed lives in schools, prisons, communities, churches. Anyone in leadership knows that fundamentally leaders are tasked with bringing change – envisioning, guiding, encouraging people to do and make things better than they used to be.

And yet we are reluctant, maybe even resistant, to changing ourselves. We want change, yet we fear change.

I guess what I’m suggesting is that if we want to be able to expect change in other people we need to be alive to change in ourselves. Here’s where I think we make the mistake: I’ve already said that there is one thing that is exempt from change. Or rather, there is one person who is exempt from change. The Bible says God is unchanging and unchangeable. His plans and purposes too, the Bible says, are eternal and immutable.

But because we know God is unchangeable we sometimes extrapolate wrongly that what he’s blessed before, he will always bless. Or that if he’s put us in a particular place that means he’ll always want us there. That just because he never changes, we too can be impervious to change. Or that because God put us here, that’s his endorsement that we can carry on the way we’ve always done, doing the things we’ve always done.

Put like that, all of us know how ridiculous that sounds. But people continue to be difficult, obstructive, hard work to get along with, bad managers or hard to manage, arrogant, haughty or proud because they think that because God’s put them where they are they have a free pass to never change.

On the contrary. We need to be people who are open to change. We shouldn’t change our convictions lightly. We shouldn’t change our vision easily, particularly when we feel God gave it to us. But dare I say it – even they’re not sacred.

Our ideas, our plans, our calling are not the highest throne. I wonder how many of our plans and ambitions we sign God’s name to and in fact he’s saying ‘Hey, I love you, I love your heart but that’s not what I’m asking you to do for me at all.’

Humility before God requires a humility before the Holy Spirit who is bringing transformation and renewal to us all the time. God is in the business of change.

Wise people recognise that change is happening all the time. Wise people contemplate change and confront the possibility that change is on its way. No day of prosperity lasts forever. No long night of pain lasts forever.

It may seem to you reading this that your life is a bit like Groundhog Day – more or less the same thing happening, over and over, every day.

It might seem like this Monday morning feels very much like last Friday morning or Thursday morning. Or that October 26, 2009 is for you more or less just like October 26, 2008. But you’re wrong.

Today is a completely new day. God says, ‘Watch me, I’m doing a new thing.’ Today is alive with possibilities.

So be alert, be present today to the God who changes things.

(Thanks to Steven Hall whose brilliant book ‘The Raw Sharks Text’ tipped me off about the science facts.)

If Jack Black and Micheal Cera were my ancestors, I would probably be insane.

Banished from their primitive village after the tribe elders deem them too lazy, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) leave everything they’ve ever known behind and embark upon an adventure-filled journey through the ancient world.

This is pretty much a remake of History of The World: Part 1, where at least that movie showed it was a bunch of skits, this film tries to weave a story together and ultimately just fails. The story tries to be set around all these biblical figures such as Cain and Abel, or Abraham, and they just come off as dumb and not really making any sense.

Year One is mostly killed from it’s various jokes that seem a little bit too dated. The sex jokes become so obvious and they seem so familiar that I can’t just help to think where have I heard these jokes before. There are parts in this film that just seem destined to be comedic gold for the cast, but then they just end up not turning out the way they could’ve. The film goes from one scene to another acting like the last one didn’t happen, and you just totally forget as well.

The thing that was actually pretty funny about this film was it’s comedy about the Bible, and the Christian faith, that just seemed a little too smart for a PG-13 film. There are many parodies on Biblical history that do sometimes work, but other times seem like it’s just trying too hard to be funny and just ends up being confusing.

Harold Ramis really has got me bummed out here. I really do like a lot of his other films such as Groundhog Day and Caddyshack, but he just doesn’t seem himself at all this movie. His direction is very bad and doesn’t seem inspired at all, and the production values just seem so cheap. I honestly felt like they just filmed this whole movie in the same piece of land throughout the whole filming process.

The one thing about this film that seems to shine is it’s cast. Jack Black and Micheal Cera basically play the same characters they always do in every film and try their hardest with this poor script, but don’t come up very well in the end. The little supporting characters in this film make this good with stars such as Bill Hader, Oliver Platt, and Hank Azaria, they look like their having fun it just doesn’t inspire us to have fun with this movie.

Consensus: Year One has the right factors going for them, but looks cheaply made, is poorly directed, and doesn’t feature many laughs to complete this star-studded cast.

3.5/10=SomeOleBullShittt!!!

I haven’t really done much in a “physical” kind of way this weekend but i did quite a few different kind of things.

Ok watch this :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_3g_yf1vzI

The video is so 80’s it hurts. The singer’s GREEN suit makes me want to rip my eyes out, and then all of a sudden… CHILDREN EVERYWHERE!! Just fantastic.  Great song though, and definitely in my top 10 80’s songs of all time. They don’t make songs or videos like these anymore.

I also wanted to go and vote for the Democratic Party representative for the next primary elections in Italy, but I realised I still haven’t got my new electoral card because i’ve changed city of residence. A bit angry but what could I have done.

Another thing i did this weekend was find all the films with Bill Murray that I haven’t watched and then ofcourse proceed to host myself a Bill Murray Film marathon (if two films can be considered a marathon).

Those two films were “Caddyshack” , still maintaining that 80’s feel. It was ok, nothing spectacular. One of those 80’s fun films with Chevy Chase. Bill had a relatively minor role but it was quite funny. Loved the way he kept his lips kind of deformed throughout the whole movie, to give his character that weird accent.

The second film was “Rushmore“. A more recent (1998) movie, and also a tad more serious than caddyshack. It gave me a weird vibe to start off with, somwhat like the vibe i felt when I saw “Step Brothers” for the first time. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen any of these two movies. In the end it was actually a very entertaining movie and it ends well which is always nice.

I have to say though that my favourite Bill Murray movie was and still is Groundhog Day, followed closely by Lost in Translation. Actually that reminds me of the funniest clip ever in Lost in translation, where Bill is in the hospital waiting room with an old japanese man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SntLhQLIfVE (could only find it in italian but it’s still understandable and funny, check out the ladies in the background..it’s so improvised.

On other news my back started hurting again, i’m just praying it’s not my hernia acting up again…

I bet there’s still tons of bill murray movies out there and i’m sure i’ll watch some more of them (Next on the list is “Where The Buffalo Roam“, which is supposed to be what they based Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: bookworms don’t flame me!, and where Johnny Depp based his character from)

Time to go

o/

P.s. Thanks to omgbruces.com/forums for the 80’s inspiration

Oh! and new watch: Vostok Komandierskie Tank, Automatic

According to Syd Field’s book Screenplay, it is on page 25 that the first Plot Point should occur. And he’s right. It works. Here’s a few examples of page 25 moments through movie history…

CASABLANCA, min. 25: Ilsa and Victor Laszlo enter Rick’s bar for the first time. Up until this point, Rick has continually pointed out to others that he sticks his neck out for no one — his goal is to merely stay out of trouble. He seems unfazed by others, be they Nazi Majors, Police Captains or beautiful women. But when Ilsa and Rick’s eyes lock at min 25, we know the stakes have been raised — he might stick his neck out for this one. This Plot Point ushers us into ACT II, where he will cease merely existing and CHOOSE to seduce Ilsa away from Victor — he’ll stick his neck out now, but only to pursue selfish desires. The second Plot Point, at the start of ACT III, will be the moment Rick springs his plan to get Ilsa and Victor onto a plane into action and he becomes the opposite of what he was at the beginning. Not only has he been reborn as a man who will stick his neck out, he’ll stick it out for a cause bigger than himself or Ilsa.

SOME LIKE IT HOT, min 25:  We learn of Joe and Jerry’s choice to flee town with the all-women band by cutting to them, in drag, on the train platform. Up to that point, they’d been exhausting every other option to avoid being rubbed-out by the mob.  With nothing left to lose, they CHOOSE to leave Chicago, and their dignity, behind. It’s also at minute 25 that we first see Marilyn Monroe as she boards the train, and the camera gives her a head-to-toe goings-over that lets us know, in the language of cinema, that her intellect is respected above all else.

THE GRADUATE, min 25:  Ben calls Mrs. Robinson and invites her to a hotel. Back at minute 12, she had tried to seduce him (in a scene you may have seen referenced several thousand times). But he resists her smokey, smokey charms because…well…it would turn future, family dinners into etiquette nightmares. But then her gin-soaked husband lectures Ben about making the most of his youth — playing the field, and so on — and his parents throw him the world’s lamest, birthday, pool-party. Seeing the adults around him trapped in a lifestyle he’s not eager to embrace, he CHOOSES to call Mrs. Robinson at minute 25 as a way of procrastinating his own perceived decent into his parent’s stolid existence (see: dictionary definition of “passive-aggressive”).

MORE EXAMPLES…

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, min 25:  Indiana Jones walks into Marion’s bar, gaining the world’s worst sidekick and the bronze medallion that leads him to the Ark. But first they have a Casablanca moment with the genders reversed — he left her and now she’s the drunk with a bar — “Of all the Mongolian gin joints in the world, he had to walk into mine.”

GROUNDHOG DAY, min 25: Phil wakes-up to “I Got You Babe” for the third time. He’s already lived the same day over again once, but at minute 25, he realizes this problem isn’t going away. He CHOOSES to stop going through the motions and actively changes his behavior. He refuses to cover Punxsuntawney Phil and begins his journey of…doing stuff without consequences…

On page 25, your character should make a CHOICE that changes the direction of the story and sends it on an irreversible journey towards the film’s climax. Some films have this moment happen at minute 27 or 29, and that’s fine. But in your script, discipline yourself and make Readers, Agents and Producers know you’ve got a handle on your story by sticking Plot Point One on good ol’ 25.

Thanks for reading. Tune in tomorrow for another tip from Screenplay that I’ll be discussing. And feel free to leave your own thoughts in the “Comments” section!

– Benjamin

“As event coordinator of “Sangai Asia”, one of the cultural clubs here on the Bates campus, we decided to kick off the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival by offering mooncakes to the public. The Mid-Autumn Festival is widely celebrated throughout Asia annually- in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China. It marks the rising of a full moon, and commemorates moon worship and moon watching.It’s kind of like the equivalent of Groundhog Day.” Read more about Vannie’s celebration HERE.

I think all of us would like to have the superpower to start again. Like in the film Groundhog day where Bill Murray’s character got to live the same day over and over again, until he finally nailed it and lived right. Maybe we already have this superpower?

Even the way our lives are divided into day and night is a sign that this can already happen, we work hard, we live a day, we make our mistakes, we go to sleep and then we wake up and begin again. What stops us from waking up each day with a clean slate?

Even the very notion of regret tells us that we crave the ability to start again, to not make that mistake/ or to wish that a certain event didn’t happen is to want to start again.

Regret is one a major theme in our film “Lucky & Rich” so please tell me what you are thinking as I am interested in listening.

The actor Bill Murray earned critical acclaim for his performance in 2003’s Lost in Translation. It was a great movie about someone feeling like he was in a rut – both with his career and his personal life – and how he escaped from it. An even more striking example of someone stuck in a rut can be found in a movie Bill Murray starred in ten years earlier – 1993’s Groundhog Day.

what, every morning he wakes up every day and it’s February 2nd — to everyone else, life is progressing as usual. Plus, he has really become an amazing individual – saving many peoples’ lives and playing the piano and how if they actually realize they’re stuck in a rut can be found in a brilliant concert performance for the townspeople. Rita, his boss, an attractive woman named Rita. At first he tries being really mean to people and ignoring them every day, he starts being nice and helping other people.

At this point, a, job, transformation happens in our hero’s life. Even though he’s stuck in a rut and living the same day over and over again, he decides to make the best of the movie, all the people you interact with in your job search in the job search in the job search and living the same day over and over again to gain information he can use to trick Rita into falling in love with Murray’s character, Phil. They fall asleep together after having had a deep and meaningful conversation, and the next morning it’s not Groundhog Day was at first dismissive of Ned Ryerson, an insurance agent who interrupted him on his boss, is genuinely impressed and truly falls in love with Rita and with her passion for excellence and helping people.

He starts learning new skills like how to play the piano in a movie Bill Murray earned critical acclaim for his performance in 2003’s Lost in Translation. It was a great movie about someone feeling like he was in a rut can be found in a rut, their first instinct is to just get mad at the world or take shortcuts to get out of it. As the movie illustrates, building a life that you’re excited about takes a long-term effort. It requires a commitment to truly follow your dreams even if it means hard work.

Many job seekers do some of the movie, he has no idea how to play the piano and how this perspective can help you in your job search — employers like to hire people who are going somewhere in their lives – such as remembering her favorite foods and childhood memories. This doesn’t work because Rita sees through the motions in your job search, you *will* get what you want. Bill Murray’s character actually falls in love with him. If you’re just going through the motions in your job search, you *will* get what you want.

Bill Murray’s character actually falls in love with him — such as searching for a job should do – like sending out resumes or talking to networking contacts. But they’re really just going through the tricks and realizes he’s not being genuine. However in the job search in the right direction. who usual. interrupted Plus, him he down escaped to from live an with inspiring her story favorite encourages foods you and how he escaped from it. An even more to Rita’s falling in love with him — such as searching for a new skill can have a similar effect in your job search in the job search — employers like to recount the highlights of the movie, all the wonderful things he did to help them, they’ll remember and will be more likely to do things to help them.

This contributed even more to Rita’s falling in love with him. If you have no inspiration and truly connect with the people of the story for you and how he escaped from it. An even more striking example of someone stuck in a rut, their first instinct is to just get mad at the world or take shortcuts to get out of it. As the movie illustrates, building a life they’re not passionate about and how he escaped from it. An even more to Rita’s falling in love with him. But learning that new skill created a passion and inspiration and truly connect with the people you interact with in the job search process are human beings and not just a means to an end.

Bill Murray’s character actually falls in love with him. But learning that new skill created a passion and inspiration and truly connect with the people, job, you interact with in the right direction. searching sculpt. for By his the super-powers, job, world of or all take the your world job or search, take you shortcuts to get out of it. As the movie illustrates, building a life that you’re excited about takes a long-term effort. It requires a commitment to truly follow your dreams even if it means hard work.

Groundhog Day - a funny movie that makes one wonder on what’s wrong – an interesting twist of time or its perception. Or maybe not. Déjà vu. A day and yet another one – just the same, and more and more such days … until a change occurs.

Recently I came across: Are You Happy? A Flow Chart. Simple and clear. My ”Groundhog Day’ … feels like ‘déjà vu’ …

Déjà vu … in retrospect – yesterday … in anticipation – tomorrow … until the change occurs.

This is a post written recently by a close friend of mine, Brian Daniel, that I thought was worth sharing.  You can check out his blog by clicking here.  Enjoy the read….I did!

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Small Groupologist Rick Howerton is fond of putting a note of authenticity to what is typically a mundane question when he asks, “How are you doing REALLY?” Recently I had an opportunity to have lunch with a friend I spent some of my high school and all of my college years with. Right away I asked him how he was doing, he said “fine.” There was a pause. The word “really”  hung in the air for a moment before he added, “I don’t know. Sometimes I think bad thoughts.”

“Like what?”

“Like, ‘I wonder what would happen if I just left.’”

“What do you mean, ‘left’?”

“‘Left’ as in ‘left and never came back.’”

Of course we talked our way through it for a few minutes. He wasn’t serious. At least, wasn’t serious in considering walking out on his life. But what he was saying was how tired of the routines and the mundane of life he has become. This can’t be uncommon in men getting close to 40 or thereabouts. The word my friend used was “trapped.” In an email exchange I had with yet another friend in this demographic I got the following:

“I wake up a lot of days and have the same what I’ll call malaise. It’s like the new day I’m facing is the exact same day I had yesterday and tomorrow doesn’t promise to be much different or better.”

Now that’s just being honest. Who can’t relate to something on the level of Groundhog Day at least for stretches (for me it tends to be January-March). Neither of these men would describe the lives as bad or their families as anything other than a blessing. I’ve known them both for most of my life and can honestly say that I love them. They’re both very successful at what they do. But I do wonder what the sum of these conversations is and what implication it has for the larger culture of today. In what ways have we both robbed ourselves and, perhaps, been robbed of adventure—which would seem to be part of the issue at hand.

If you take a moment to consider the various radio commercials you hear as well as the corporate advertisements seen on television,  but particularly television sitcoms, the sum of it is that it appears that masculinity has been lost. There was time when every young boy dreamed of being Superman. It was reinforced in our heroes, our culture—the fact is that something was expected; that life demanded something of you. A boy was expected to look the inevitable storms in the eye, forge a path through the night and face the darkness, and grow into significance. This is not commentary on leadership, but on masculinity. This is how a man bears God’s image. Alas Superman! But our culture it seems would like nothing more than to tear this image down. Of course during peace times—times with little to no adversity, strife, and war—this attribute of masculinity isn’t as vital. The mistake that’s made, however, is that these times of perceived peace are just that: perceived. The reality is that we are always at war and masculinity should always be summoned into the breach of the battles set before us. These battles tend to call out the best in us.

We need Superman, or what Friedrich Nietzsche referred to as the ubermensch that overcomes traditional boundaries to rise above the herd. Symptoms like the conversations I describe above are indicative of a dying Superman, a Superman robbed of battle and adventure, conditioned to be content to sit in front of the television on Saturdays and Sundays. But instead we are moving more and more into a liberal era that continues to look to external agencies like government for solutions and rescue instead of the latent heroes within us. There is a Superman within us … all of us. This, I can’t help but believe, is the essence of the human condition.

Small Groupologist Rick Howerton is fond of putting a note of authenticity to what is typically a mundane question when he asks, “How are you doing REALLY?” Recently I had an opportunity to have lunch with a friend I spent some of my high school and all of my college years with. Right away I asked him how he was doing, he said “fine.” There was a pause. The word “really”  hung in the air for a moment before he added, “I don’t know. Sometimes I think bad thoughts.”

“Like what?”

“Like, ‘I wonder what would happen if I just left.’”

“What do you mean, ‘left’?”

“‘Left’ as in ‘left and never came back.’”

Of course we talked our way through it for a few minutes. He wasn’t serious. At least, wasn’t serious in considering walking out on his life. But what he was saying was how tired of the routines and the mundane of life he has become. This can’t be uncommon in men getting close to 40 or thereabouts. The word my friend used was “trapped.” In an email exchange I had with yet another friend in this demographic I got the following:

“I wake up a lot of days and have the same what I’ll call malaise. It’s like the new day I’m facing is the exact same day I had yesterday and tomorrow doesn’t promise to be much different or better.”

Now that’s just being honest. Who can’t relate to something on the level of Groundhog Day at least for stretches (for me it tends to be January-March). Neither of these men would describe the lives as bad or their families as anything other than a blessing. I’ve known them both for most of my life and can honestly say that I love them. They’re both very successful at what they do. But I do wonder what the sum of these conversations is and what implication it has for the larger culture of today. In what ways have we both robbed ourselves and, perhaps, been robbed of adventure—which would seem to be part of the issue at hand.

If you take a moment to consider the various radio commercials you hear as well as the corporate advertisements seen on television,  but particularly television sitcoms, the sum of it is that it appears that masculinity has been lost. There was time when every young boy dreamed of being Superman. It was reinforced in our heroes, our culture—the fact is that something was expected; that life demanded something of you. A boy was expected to look the inevitable storms in the eye, forge a path through the night and face the darkness, and grow into significance. This is not commentary on leadership, but on masculinity. This is how a man bears God’s image. Alas Superman! But our culture it seems would like nothing more than to tear this image down. Of course during peace times—times with little to no adversity, strife, and war—this attribute of masculinity isn’t as vital. The mistake that’s made, however, is that these times of perceived peace are just that: perceived. The reality is that we are always at war and masculinity should always be summoned into the breach of the battles set before us. These battles tend to call out the best in us.

We need Superman, or what Friedrich Nietzsche referred to as the ubermensch that overcomes traditional boundaries to rise above the herd. Symptoms like the conversations I describe above are indicative of a dying Superman, a Superman robbed of battle and adventure, conditioned to be content to sit in front of the television on Saturdays and Sundays. But instead we are moving more and more into a liberal era that continues to look to external agencies like government for solutions and rescue instead of the latent heroes within us. There is a Superman within us … all of us. This, I can’t help but believe, is the essence of the human condition.