| These past few days have given me ample time to spend acquainting myself with the great movies I had not yet seen. My favorite would have to be "The Godfather" trilogy. Had I only known how wonderful it would be, I would have seen it long before. I loved watching Al Pacino sharpen his character and I have to say that my strongest emotion was one of sympathy. How is it that you can watch these people commit such crimes and still think them innocent--victims, even? Not once did I condemn the Corleones for doing what they did, although this being a movie, that may not be a true representation of my actual feelings should it occur in reality. More on that later. In any case, I was in awe of every character...Brando, Pacino, Caan, Duvall, DeNiro, and, dare I say it, especially Diane Keaton. I loved her Kay, I loved watching the way her face changes on screen, and I can't believe I never saw her in her younger days. Where are the great actors and actresses of our generation? Are there any young stars of today that are not hanging on to the tail end of their 15 minutes? I'm not a movie buff, but it will be interesting to see if any young stars today make it in their old age as well as some of today's older stars have. I think that is one of the most fascinating aspects of celebrity...seeing them age, and whether their talent has any longevity.
Elsewhere, the question of morality and what is "good" or "right" has come up...a popular theme in many films. In one such movie I recently watched, a character advises, "When you stand before God you cannot say 'but I was told by others to do thus' or that 'virtue was not convinient at the time'. This will not suffice." Well, since I don't believe in a Judgement Day, that eliminates that problem, doesn't it? But in actuality, people do rarely seem to live their lives by the moral code they profess to believe. I find hypocrisy to be one of the most intolerable aspects of our species for I believe that most, if not all, people are guilty of it at some point, almost as common as lying. I know I'm guilty of it, and that really irritates me. I'm doing my best to live with it...
In other stories, I like the NY Times because it consistently reaffirms the fact that I am far from unique in my contemplations. Two recent articles seem to be especially relevant. The first article points out that intense self-reflection has the unfortunate tendency of bringing on depression and lowers our self-esteem and happiness. Indeed, it is better, when unhappy, to put aside all our deep and profound ideas and focus instead on the latest Will Ferrell movie. The second article argues that the focus on achieving happiness in our lives is a relatively recent movement, i.e. 200 years old. Before we were expressly given the right to pursue happiness, most people didn't spend so much time thinking about how to obtain it. And, as most are aware, we as a people are no happier now than we were 200 years ago. In fact, I wanted to delve more deeply into the research, but after I Google Scholar-searched "happiness" I became overwhelmed by all the hits and just decided to scrap that. Suffice it to say, I probably shouldn't cogitate so long on the subject lest I convince myself I am unhappier than I really am.
Yesterday I drove around Cayuga Lake. Took a couple of hours, but was a lovely drive. Some parts even reminded me of the drive around the North Shore...yes, a stretch, but I have an active imagination. Really, the similarities probably end at the shoreline. Here, in the Northeast, the snow on one side and the frozen water on the other are pretty unmistakable as signs that we're not in Kansas anymore...I mean, Hawaii. Today, it was snowing my favorite kind of snow. Snow is so much nicer to watch than rain, don't you think? Today it was drifting down in large fluffy cotton balls. I find it so mesmerizing that I sometimes forget that I'm driving, which is pretty dangerous...I almost ran a red light and ended up strieking to a halt partway through the intersection.
I found a website that I thought was interesting. The Mirror of Beauty site...fascinating facts and tutorials. |
