The first is Throne of Blood from 1957 which is considered to be the best adaptation of Macbeth for film ever, and many consider it to be Kurosawa’s finest film.   Even Harold Bloom considers it to be the best adaptation of Macbeth.   It is absolutely exquisite.   Much of it mirrors the Japanese Noh theater.

Kurosawa asked Isuzu Yamada to portray her character as though she were wearing a Noh mask.  It’s chillling.  Toshiro Mifune plays the Macbeth character.

The other is Hidden Fortress (1958) which is a comedy and is told from the point of view of its lowliest characters.  George Lucas actually based 3CPO and R2D2 on the two lowliest characters in Hidden Fortress - peasants whose facial expressions and bodily movements are hilarious!  It’s funny to think of the comparison in retrospect.   Toshiru Mifune plays one of the “villains” (but is actually a General) and is absolutely gorgeous.  I love his intensity!

I am grateful that my library fine was only 60 cents!  Friedman’s book is back at the library and ready for the next person waiting to read it.  (There are two books and an audio and each has a long waiting list - very popular book.)

I am grateful for my favorite Japanese restaurant by my daughter’s dance.  I eat there about every other week and always love it.  Tonight I had a Salmon Bento Box which was fantastic.  And for the first time ever, I ordered dessert.  (It’s that time of the month - had to have it!!)   I ordered the Mango Mochi ice cream.  It was so good and very pretty!  They are little balls of ice cream wrapped in a mochi covering.  (Mochi is rice cake.)

I am grateful for the old (but new again) Wordpress theme.  It’s beautiful but it’s so hard to work with because it isn’t widget ready!  Not sure how long I’ll keep it but bold works so much better for me than understated.  :)  I’m glad I was able to make it at least somewhat functional again.

I am really glad my husband is able to help my daughter with math.  She had the most bizarre homework tonight - doing Mat plots or something like that with cubes.  I was able to figure it out, but I tend to confuse her more than I help her with my explanations.  My husband thankfully took the time to explain it to her and it’s now crystal clear.

Today, she is 29 years old, a Yale graduate, writer, and environmental activist.

The transcript is here.

Salvation of the world depends on me.  Sounds so arrogant but ACIM claims this is the one statement that will take arrogance away from every mind because…

Here is the thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own but that which has been given you. It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. It does not judge your proper role. It but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. It unites all wills on earth in Heaven’s plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven’s peace…

Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this image which quails and retreats in terror, as the Voice for God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom and the holiness to go beyond all images. You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless. Sin can not tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.

When we accept the function God has given us, we find our peace.  That function is nothing less than the salvation of the world. :)  Humbling, isn’t it?

Do as God’s Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything? Let not its voice direct you. Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.

This fully resonates somewhere within my being.  I vaguely remember what it means.  I remember periods of time when I was able to accept whatever it was the day gave me and made my way through it gracefully, not trying to second guess all the consequences of every action.  Or, even more silly perhaps, playing tennis and feeling like I was playing on air because I made so few mistakes.  And even more silly (because I was so terrible at it), playing golf and chanting to myself just before I swung, “The peace of God is in me.”  If I could relax enough, I was fairly accurate.   It’s a trust.  A knowing.  It’s not a belief is different.  To say, “I believe in myself” means I hope I’ll live up to the expectations I’ve set for myself.  That’s really all belief is - the fulfillment of expectations.  Trust is something altogether different.

His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

The Voice isn’t an external voice.  It’s no an internal one, either.  It’s something altogether different.  We don’t hear it in the same sense that we hear.  We don’t understand it in the rational sense.  It’s the willingness, on our part, to walk into that cloud of unknowing and take comfort in the unknowing rather than trying to create meaning where none exists.   “His Name” is not God - what is given in the name of a label cannot be love because labels are nothing more than our attempt to impose collective meaning.   Labels are not based on trust.

“His Name” IS trust.  I can even thump the Bible and prove it.  OK - The proof part is a joke!   But one of my favorite passages in the Bible is from Jeremiah and it speaks to this:

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse–who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Forgiveness begets trust and trust begets forgiveness.  God has no need of forgiveness because he IS trust.  Our trust is God because God is a verb!

These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here.

I am grateful for my daughter’s extremely cute, cuddly, curious dog (she’s the little one).  On the days I pick my daughter up from school, I take the dog with me and she so enjoys watching the kids coming out of the school that I can’t help but enjoy the event right along with her.

I am grateful so many people have put up Christmas lights around the neighborhood this year.  I know it’s not environmentally responsible, but it adds so much cheer to our dismal economy.

I’m grateful to have taken a hiatus from the news the past few days.  I’ll catch up with it tomorrow, but it truly is a relief to take a break from it every now and then.

I’m almost finished with Hot, Flat, and Crowded and will be able to turn it in tomorrow.  It was due midnight Sunday so if I turn it in tomorrow, then that makes it three days late, right?  Maybe just 2?  I think it’s just 2 days late.  Whatever it is, I’m extremely grateful for having the time to finish it and especially for the person who is patiently awaiting it’s return.

To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time. Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized.

I remember a Methodist Minister who was also likely a mystic claiming that if we truly believed in Jesus’ “good news”, we could change the world.  The problem is, most Christians don’t truly believe in the peace Jesus offers.   Instead, Jesus ends up getting used for various political agendas and fearful beliefs rather than an extenuation of God’s peace.

I guess part of the problem is that we don’t really know what peace means.  Typically, when we think of peace, we think of a lack of conflict.  But that’s not necessarily peace.  Every now and then, I’ve experienced a profound sense of peace and it has nothing to do with the absence of anything.  It’s a fullness.  But how do you describe that logically?

…Minds cannot unite in dreams. They merely bargain. And what bargain can give them the peace of God? Illusions come to take His place. And what He means is lost to sleeping minds intent on compromise, each to his gain and to another’s loss.

This is the problem with peace as it was pushed by previous generations, especially the baby boomer generation.   It was based on a utopianistic dream which was more about fear than a true desire for peace.  We wanted the absence of conflict.  We wanted security.  We wanted a blissful, happy world where all is well and everyone is fed and no one fights with each other.  Even though we think this is about everyone, it’s really nothing more than another selfish dream based on what “I want”.   It’s an egoic illusion.

To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. For no one means these words who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions. He has looked on them, and found them wanting. Now he seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others. Dreams are one to him. And he has learned their only difference is one of form, for one will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.

Look what that utopianistic dream has brought us - especially politically and religiously.  If people just do things the way we say they should be done, we can create peace.  Create the right religion.  Create the right political structure.   Then, get the rest of the world to dream our dream.  And so we have a lot of Americums around the world, as Friedman puts it.  The American dream is becoming a global environmental nightmare.

The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.

So the question is - do we want our dreams more than we want God’s peace?  And how do we tell the difference?   This is one of those paradoxes - even though all minds are joined, knowing the level of our sincerity can only be understand individually.

I am grateful for Charlie Rose.  His guests on Friday night (which doesn’t air here until very late Sunday night) were  Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Gus Van Sant discussing a soon to be released film about Harvey Milk.  I remember seeing the 1984 documentary by Rob Epstein.  I was a fairly conservative kid at Texas A&M at the time and that documentary totally altered my views on the gay community.   With the recent passing of Prop 8 in California the film is timely.  It’s completely befuddling that this would pass in California.  We had a similar proposition pass by the overwhelming majority here in Texas a few years back - which was truly upsetting - but this is Texas.  Who who would have guessed it would pass in California??!!!  Can’t wait to see the film!

I am grateful to Netflix for being able to add Eptsein’s, The Times of Harvey Milk, to my Netflix queue.  It’s been a long time since I first watched it.

I’m without a car again.  I’m grateful we have two cars in our family and that my 12 year old car has been such a reliable source of transportation all these years.   In fact, the reason I was without a car last time was because my husband borrowed my car because his much newer car was having engine troubles!  We finally traded it in.  The only problem with my car right now, hopefully, is a glitchy battery connection.  Should be an easy fix.

Speaking of cars, maybe one of these days I’ll be able to get an RESU - rolling energy storage unit.   What a great idea!  I’m really getting a lot out of Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded.   I’m already one day over due on getting it back to the library.  It’s at least going to be two days late.  I’m almost to page 250.  So it may be three.  :)  Again, thank goodness for the library!  And sorry to whoever is waiting for the book.  Hopefully you haven’t noticed it’s overdue.

I am grateful for my sister in-law’s soup!   She served it at her party on Thursday.  I didn’t try it then because I was too full from the Thanksgiving dinner.  But she sent some home with us and it’s fantastic!  Best soup I’ve ever had and it reheats beautifully.  It’s called Pasta Fagioli and I hope she’ll share the recipe!

I am grateful the pumpkin pie made with whole wheat pie crust and agave nectar went over so well.  My son and daughter loved it.  I used the Libby’s recipe and substituted the nectar for the sugar.  Next time, I think I’ll add one more egg.  The taste was excellent but I thought the consistency was was just a tad flat.

I am greatful to have the house all put back together, the bedding all washed, and the left overs almost entirely gone.  (Amazing what two teens can put away over a weekend.)

I am grateful that all the Christmas decorations are up.  I hardly ever get them done this quickly.   The house feels so Christmasy.

I am grateful for Thomas Friedman’s book, Hot, Flat and Crowded.  But it’s due back at the library tonight and I’m only at page 100.  I can’t renew it because there are 4 people behind me who want it.  All the Thanksgiving prep kept me from reading like I should have been and I didn’t realize it was due back so soon until I got the e-mail reminder.   I think I’ll try to cram in as much reading tonight and tomorrow as I can and turn it in a day or two late.  I’m afraid if I turn it in on time and wait until I can check it out again, I won’t ever get around to reading it and I’m learning so much.  Thank goodness for the library and that overdue fees aren’t too outrageous.

I love to entertain but rarely do much for my husband’s side of the family because his sister lives just 2 miles down the road and is hostess extraordinaire and is a bit of a micro-manager.   We decided long ago that it was much simpler to abdicate hosting responsibilities to her when it came to anything having to do with my husband’s family.

This year, she asked me to host Thanksgiving and I jumped at the opportunity.    She couldn’t make the dinner because family from her husband’s side was coming into town.  But she wanted my husband’s side of the family in town for a Thanksgiving football party she was hosting.    If I hosted Thanksgiving for them, then everyone would be in town for her party - which was a little complicated but worked out just fine.

We had a total of 17 people for Thanksgiving dinner and 9 overnight guests.    I think everyone had a good time and was very comfortable here.  So maybe we’ll be able to play host to my husband’s family again, sometime. 

We made the Turkey ahead of time, before my husband left for Chile.  We used this recipe.   My friend assured me I’d be sorry for freezing the turkey but she told me this after it was already in the freezer.  I was a bit panicked about it but we were told it came out good.  I’m not a turkey eater so couldn’t say.   It looked pretty when we made it…

This is the second turkey we’ve cooked and will probably be our last.  We aren’t turkey eaters.  Also, my husband made an excellent vegetarian Mushroom & Cheese Strudel that went over great!  It was featured on the cover of the November/December 2008 Vegetarian Times Magazine - A Moosewood Thanksgiving.  The Vegetarian Times site doesn’t have the recipe available, yet, but I did find it at Tofu and Cupcakes with a lot of helpful info.     Ours didn’t turn out quite as pretty, but we’ll definitely be able to present it better next time.  (I was able to find the Whole Wheat Phyllo Dough at Whole Foods.)

We had a veritable feast because we provided the turkey, cranberry sauce, strudel, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, stuffing, gravy, and rolls.  Other people brought sweet potatoes, various salads, a veggie tray and lots of desserts.   The one thing both my kids were disappointed about was not having pumpkin pie because we took all the left over dessert to my sister in-law’s party (at her request) and they didn’t get any.  So I’m going to make it for them tonight on a whole wheat pie shell and with agave nectar. 

OK - God’s name is not “God”.  :)  I remember that much.

You live by symbols. You have made up names for everything you see. Each one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity. By this you designate its special attributes, and set it off from other things by emphasizing space surrounding it. This space you lay between all things to which you give a different name; all happenings in terms of place and time; all bodies which are greeted by a name.

This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world’s perception is achieved. You see something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, between all things and you. Thus do you think that you have given life in separation. By this split you think you are established as a unity which functions with an independent will.

Very Buddhist - everything is nothing because nothing is every thing.

Reality is made by partial vision through the names we give to everything, including the names we have given the nameless.  What is named is given meaning and therefore seen as meaningful, when in fact, it’s individual existence is meaningless.  Very existential.   We give everything all the meaning that it has for us.

This is the way reality is made by partial vision, purposefully set against the given truth. Its enemy is wholeness. It conceives of little things and looks upon them. And a lack of space, a sense of unity or vision that sees differently, become the threats which it must overcome, conflict with and deny.

Reality threatens our version of reality.  We think learning is about learning the 10,000 names - this is the teaching of the world.  But we all must unlearn the teachings of the world eventually.   We have not made the world.  We have made illusions and call them real.

Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes! But what is true in earth and Heaven is beyond your naming. When you call upon a brother, it is to his body that you make appeal. His true Identity is hidden from you by what you believe he really is. His body makes response to what you call him, for his mind consents to take the name you give him as his own. And thus his unity is twice denied, for you perceive him separate from you, and he accepts this separate name as his.

We need to use the symbols of the world, but we need not be deceived by them.   It’s exactly what the existentialists have realized - our symbols don’t mean anything.  Like Roquentin in Sartre’s Nausea, it can make us sick to our stomachs to realize this.  It’s a harsh realization, but a necessary one if we are to continue to grow.  And that’s why meditation is so important - it provides a much gentler transition into this realization than what Roquentin went through.

God has no name. And yet His Name becomes the final lesson that all things are one, and at this lesson does all learning end. All names are unified; all space is filled with truth’s reflection. Every gap is closed, and separation healed. The Name of God is the inheritance He gave to those who chose the teaching of the world to take the place of Heaven. In our practicing, our purpose is to let our minds accept what God has given as the answer to the pitiful inheritance you made as fitting tribute to the Son He loves.

There is no God, but we have yet to realize it because we still believe our individuality is meaningful!  :)  That makes me smile because it seems opposite of what Nietzsche meant when he said “God is dead”.  But it’s not at all.  The meaning we had assigned to God is dead because we had moved beyond that meaning.   The symbol ceased to be useful.  At some point we have to allow ourselves to be the lion and slay the dragons of our perception so that we can realize the truth of our being.