vitality

vitality
is
like this....

feeling excited to be alive

feeling excited to take a walk


feeling excited to learn a new way of doing something


feeling excited to meet a new person


or dancing

or singing


speaking of which:
Young at Heart
is a jazzy
version
of almost vitality

here's the vitality part:

doing things way out of the "comfort zone"

learning new things

getting enthusiastic about the new things

loving to have something to offer

doing something much more alive than the usual old people life of watching t.v. and going to doctor's appointment

being out in the world

having fun

dancing around with their whole bodies

singing with their whole spirits

getting emotional and happy and putting their whole selves into the music

it's a fun
movie

and yet:

wow,
with some Feldenkrais
or Anat Baniel Method
or even desk trainer
(see links at the side)
these people could have been using
their spines
relating to gravity
learning how to walk and move and not just sing
using air better
learning faster and easier

speaking of learning

the director
was a musician
and had the courage and foolheadedness to
push the old folks into shockingly new venues

and yet:
his way of "teaching" was just
more of the old stupidiy

which is,
if someone makes a mistake,
you don't try for understanding
or clarity,
you don't offer variation
and slowing down
and chances to learn,
no,
just
pounding away with the same old same old,
like this:
"Don't do it that way, that way is Wrong.
Do it this way, this way is Right."

This one sweet old guy
couldn't get a couple of lines right,
and instead of playing around,
getting him to purposely do them "wrong,"
and then creating a variation on that,
and then creating some fun ways to do it "right,"
the director just said,
you aren't getting it,
get it

la
la

and
how fine
to teach these guys who to go from sitting to
standing
how to stand so they are over their skeletons
how to wake up their ribs and spines to have more energy and sing
better


oh, well



see
the work
if you
like me
tend
to judge
the poor
old world

or your
wonderful
and imperfect
self

ciao
chris

Friday, March 31: Other people's idiocies: Why take it personally?

I am right this morning having a wonderful conversation with my sister. She is fed up with a friend of hers and is trying to get everyone in the world to agree that she is right to reject that friend.

Hmm. Life is interesting. It’s no fun to be a friend to someone who blows off and yells at you most of the time, so separating herself from spending a lot of time with this woman makes sense. But her feeling of being at the mercy of this woman’s moods, ah, that’s the rub. If other people’s meanness or stupidity gets to us, we are going to have to live in a rather narrow world to keep away from these traits, since there are boatloads of stupid and mean people on this blighted planet.

Or this wonderful planet. Or this wonderful planet that we forget is wonderful when we are trying to get another person to be something they aren’t. My sister’s friend has a bad habit of yelling at and blaming people. Oh, well. I do that sometimes. Don’t you? So, who’s business is it that the friend is a mess sometimes?

The friend's.

If my sister gets bent out of shape, that’s her business, And sometimes it’s okay to put down your foot, but what we have to realize is that we are putting the foot down to help the other person, not to protect ourselves.

(Although, until we get clear on my busines, your business, God's business, it feels like we have to protect ourselves. But, if some calls us a jerk, or bad or a purple monkey, what's that got to do with us. They are just telling us their perception of the world.)

My mother, for example, likes to call me names. Oh well. The rule that people should have nice mothers apparently she hasn’t heard of. This is her business. If it bothers me, it’s my business. And occasionally, I just tell her, “Now I’m going to hang up the phone,:” when she starts being nasty.

Not because I can’t take it. It’s actually kind of fun to be in a good mood while she slashes away. No, the reason to hang up is so she can have the opportunity to see consequences to her meanness, because I’m sure she’s mean to others and to herself. That’s just the way the world is.

So, other people being stupid and mean and giving us a hard time is a chance to be happy while they are on their trip. It’s a chance to do the work of Byron Katie ( thework.org). It’s a chance to follow our breathing and listen to them and ask about what’s really bothering them. Or it’s a chance to hang up the phone. If we always have to hang up the phone, we are a slave. If we always have to put up with their nonsense, we are a slave,

The point of life is to be present and happy and aware and useful to others, I think. Being a slave mitigates against that, in my opinion. What do you think?