A sometimes Wednesday happening in which I dissolve posting flummoxia by posting a a jambalaya, a comfort basket, a wiry fankle (a Scottish word that means a tangle or a state of confusion), a bit of this and tad of that.
Wiry Fankle #1
Of course, our thoughts and moods shape our perceptions and thus our choices.
It’s an idea that never fails to thrill me.
That said, the Law of Attraction verison of this truth has always left me cold – at least the versions I’ve encountered. When one popular teacher actually said to me, “If you are ill, it’s your fault because of a thought you had,” it took everything I had not to swat her.
That’s why I re-read Mark Silver’s heart food post on the authentic Sufi teachings often. He speaks so clearly and truthfully to abundance and attraction and help me untangle my thoughts and moods in a deep, Source centered way.
Mark, you rock.
Wiry Fankle #2
Julie and Julia - I loved it! I loved loved loved the love between Julia and Paul. I did not let go of Bob the entire movie. It was so satisfying and thrilling to see a middle aged couple so passionate.
More of that Hollywood, please.
I also loved loved loved the contrast between how Julia Child worked with dogged passionate zest for years and years to perfect her recipes, how she threw herself in to learning for the sake of learning with no hope of fame or fortune – at least not in the first, oh eight, years
versus
Julie Powell’s character who also threw herself into learning but with the hope of getting noticed, of becoming someone in the world’s eyes.
In real life, I’m certain nothing was this simple and Julie Powell is fabulous woman and I totally get that being acknowledged, especially as a writer, is a human need and one that I have in spades. I’m only talking about the movie here as a cultural mirror.
Because the movie says something – perhaps unintentionally – which is passion and hard work are all well and good but they better get you something (Internet famous, in the New York Times, a best-selling book) or who cares?
It’s a little sickening but also heartening. Heartening because in the movie, and certainly in her memoir My Life in France, Julia had the better time. She wasn’t getting somewhere, she was already there (Again, just going off the movie. Not real life.)
Julia Child wanted to find her thing and sink her teeth into and master it. Not so someone else would reward her or so she would be more important but because she wanted to.
I’m not making her patron saint of pure passion – she was certainly ambitious and I love that part of her, too – but what the movie reveals about us is the vital difference between doing something for the sake of it rather that for the sake of what it will get you.
One leads you home to yourself, the other… not sure where.
Related posts:
3 responses so far ↓
1 Selina Aug 12, 2009
Hi Jen,
I too adored the relationship between Paul and Julia. One question-what is middle age? While Paul, I think was a few years older than Julia, she was 37, is that middle age?
Love your energy.
2 Jennifer Aug 12, 2009
I think of it as early 40′s, or the probable half of our age span. It was later in the movie, and the book, that made me think the middle aged part… and that they weren’t these young model perfect types, loved that!
3 Deb Owen Aug 12, 2009
Could not agree more! (And that was one of my take-aways from the movie as well.)
I’ve been contemplating a post on the difference between the work one does for the work — and the work one does to be noticed.
And for me, as I mentioned today, I was inspired by the fact that Julia Child came to cooking so late in life, but you didn’t hear her talking about how she was ‘too old’. (Meanwhile, Julie was what — in her 20s? And seemed to think life was already over.)
Thanks for the fabulous Wednesday post.
All the best!
deb