Kick-Ass's Hit Girl: My dark nightmare or my deepest longing?

The Monkey and I consider ourselves individuals, dare we say, “on the path” to enlightenment and growth.  Not all the way there by any stretch, but certainly earnestly seeking spiritual connection to other human beings, our natural environment, and the “Source” of it all (insert your preferred name for the energy that fuels all creation here).  Despite these lofty longings and aspirations, there is another side to us that is attracted to the latest serving of hyper-violent fare that contemporary film entertainment regularly offers.  What gives?

How could it be that the same person who is moved by Wayne Dyer’s The Shift could also be giddy with excitement about Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming film, The Expendables?  How can I watch and enjoy Sita Sings the Blues with the same eyes and heart that I sat entranced, entertained, (and later, admittedly somewhat sickened) by Kick-Ass?

How is it that what mainstream American audiences call entertainment contains virtually without exception some form of violence?

In search of an answer to this question, I came across this quote, whose source is unfortunately unknown:

“Americans don’t spend billions for entertainment. They spend it in search of entertainment.“

Assuming this quote to be true, we spend billions of dollars not on something, but in search of something, which implies that that “something” is elusive, ephemeral, mythical, and perhaps even ultimately non-existent.

As I was taught years ago on my way to a useless Bachelor’s degree in literature, one of the first steps in analyzing something is to define the terms at stake.  So what does entertainment actually mean?

A common misconception is that entertainment equates with amusement, joy, or happiness, or at least diversion from the struggles of this human existence.  Which begs this beguiling question: if entertainment is supposed to amusing, why I am amused by death and suffering portrayed onscreen?

Dictionary.com tells us that the term, to entertain, has the following origin:

1425–75; late ME entertenen to hold mutually < MF entretenir  VL intertenere, equiv. to L inter- inter- + tenere to hold

This origin is revealing in that we learn that entertainment is not simply the act or spectacle of amusement, but rather it is something which “holds” us. something we spend many hours and many dollars in search of, something to hold us, and perhaps even take us away.

So I am not being amused by violence displayed onscreen.  Instead, I am being held by it, suspended, diverted from the realities of the actual world.  If we similarly discover the etymology of the word, “violence,” we learn that it’s origins come from the roots “ulent,” meaning “having in quantity, full of” and “vis,” meaning ”force.”  In other words, I am seeking to held by something that is full of force, strength, and power.

So why I am seeking to be held by something?  What is it about my existence that requires something commonly considered painful and destructive to hold it?

You don’t have to be a professor to know that the story of human history cannot be told without acknowledging our connection to violence and the attraction to things that embody strength and power.  So does that mean we should finally stop talking about how much we can’t stand violence?  Or give up railing on about how Hollywood and other film producing centers of the world pollute the collective consciousness with more and more violence, urging us to act out in our daily lives what we see onscreen?  And If we were really all so against the violence that we’re seeing, wouldn’t market forces simply take care of this and cause film producers to depict subjects other than violent ones in their latest films?  Are we a reflection of the violence we see onscreen or is the violence onscreen a reflection of us?

Without an answer to that question I can only say this: I am still going to see The Expendables this summer.  Perhaps violence is okay for the strength of my soul but maybe not okay for the strength of yours.

What do you think?

Wayne Dyer on the set of the movie version of his book

Wayne Dyer’s new book, The Shift, is a sublime tome. A rather short book (112 absorbing pages), it is a satisfying primer of Dyer’s philosophy. Written in the author’s signature gentle tone, it is welcoming to any newcomer to the field of personal development, while also substantial enough to satisfy those in every stage of their spiritual journey.

The Monkey and I first came familiar with the subject matter of this book when we saw the film that the book is based upon, called: “Ambition to Meaning.” The title of the film has since changed to the more cinematic The Shift, but Dyer winds up literally structuring the book’s message according to the original title, word for word, under the chapter headings: FROM, AMBITION, TO, and MEANING.

In FROM, Dyer acquaints us to what it is that we’re coming from, something he refers to as Source. He suggests that readers can juxtapose whatever word they prefer in place of “Source,” like God, for example. Then he makes the connection that because we came from this Source, we are actually part of this Source, or one with Source, just as a glass of water poured from the ocean is as much the ocean as it is a glass water, as it is from the ocean. “We are what we came from,” he reminds us. Finally he offers suggestions on ways to tap into our “fromness,” through meditation and practical application of concepts such as nothingness, oneness, and surrender.

In AMBITION, Dyer discusses the origination of what he calls the “false self,” a persona borne by the EGO, which he defines through the acronym Edging God Out that he uses repeatedly throughout the book. There is a funny and telling line in his section on AMBITION that summarizes the point he is trying to make about how the Ego creates a false self and a false reality and attempts to derail the divine creation that we truly are:

Following that developmental time [in the womb], we were greeted by parents, a culture, and a host of well-meaning folks representing religious, educational, and commercial interests. They held us, admired the miracle of creation, and looked heavenward, saying, Great work, God! Absolutely, amazingly perfect. Thank You, thank You, thank You! But now we’ll take over from here. Thus began our shift to the bizarre twisted world of Ambition.

TO relates the journey of the great U-turn in life, when we begin to discover a lack of contentment on our current path and begin to make changes. In the film, Dyer uses the idea of a single day as a device to relate to the shift occurring in the “afternoon” of our lives. The book touches on this concept but the film drives home the point a little a deeper.

Another important concept to help us understand how we might recognize the changes occurring in our life is the notion of the “Quantum Moment,” which Dyer defines as some kind of surprising, vivid, benevolent, and enduring event that helps to solidify the changes that we’ve made in our journey towards MEANING.

In this the final chapter, Dyer presents a Turkish proverb that in his estimation relates the underlying premise of the entire book:

No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back.

What I like about this quote is that it reminds me of ideas I have about the concept of destiny, a subject with which the author is well familiar (his book, “Manifest Your Destiny,” was my first Wayne Dyer book, which I read as a lieutenant in the US Army).

The Monkey and I think that the quote above implies that with elevated awareness we may be able to discover for ourselves whether or not the current path we are traveling upon in our life journey is actually taking us where we want to go.

In the military I navigated with a compass.  In order to arrive at my destination,  I would walk at an azimuth (definition: an Azimuth

is the angle from a reference vector in a reference plane to a second vector in the same plane, pointing toward, (but not necessarily meeting), something of interest…) dictated by my compass.

Occasionally, I would discover that I would be heading in the wrong direction, in essence on my way towards a destination (or destiny) that I had never intended.  Even still, I still had the power to get back on the right path, no matter how far off track I had managed to find myself. In the this way, it is illustrated that just as we control which destination we point ourselves in each moment of our daily lives, we are also in complete control of our destiny, debunking the notion that our destiny is immutable and somehow beyond us or dictated from “above.”

We loved this book and loved the movie on which it is based perhaps even more so.  Highly recommended.

You may purchase the book from the publisher, Hay House, by clicking right here.

If you prefer, you may purchase it from Amazon by clicking here.

DISCLOSURE: Monkeyinmymind.com received this book at no charge for review from the publisher, Hay House.

Flying home to snowy Massachusetts from California this weekend, the Monkey and I were finishing a chapter on meditation in my latest spiritual reading selection, “THE BOOK OF LIFE,” by Eugene Roy.

Wheels touching down in Boston, I closed the book and realized that if I wanted to take my personal and spiritual growth to the next level, I might want to start actually meditating. Again. For real this time.

My largest perceived constraint, which I am sure makes the Monkey and me completely unique, is lack of time available for daily meditation. Today is Wednesday and I have meditated everyday, but Tuesday I ran out of time in the morning and conducted my first-ever driving meditation.

Now I’m not talking about closing your eyes and drifting off to la-la land while at the wheel of moving automobile. Why I am referring to is taking one of the benefits of meditation, heightened awareness, and applying that concept to driving a car. In other words, I turn off the radio, remove the cell phone headpiece and turn the phone on silent, sit up in a position of optimal cockpit visibility, grasp the wheel with both hands, and apply heightened awareness and single-minded focus solely towards the functions of driving the car.

Each time thoughts arose concerning anything at all not related to what was happening on the road, in my mirrors, on my dash’s instrument panel, I dismissed them from my awareness. I had to do this over and over again. Until the Monkey and me could remember that we were actually trying to focus on driving here, not to mull over and over all of the upcoming challenges and obstacles that the present day would soon offer.

It wasn’t easy, but in time, I felt one with my car and the road, confident of the day that lay ahead. All said, only 15 minutes passed in my first attempt at driving meditation.
DISCLAIMER: We hope it’s clear that we’re not advocating doing anything unsafe while driving. In fact, we’re advocating extreme presence and awareness, thereby promoting road safety. So there.

We also contend that one’s view of Brett Favre has a lot to do with one’s view of one’s self:

• Do we believe that individuals should have a right to make decisions for themselves?
• Do we believe that individuals should have a right to pursue their dreams, aspirations, and goals?
• Do we believe that it is on the individual to decide what is best for one’s self?
• Do wish to blame a person or deride a person for being torn about his or her personal decisions, which are solely their own to make?

I mean, the man is a Libra.  Should we be surprised when we behave like “ourselves,” when we live up to our inherited and fully incorporated character traits?

Love him or hate him (and there seems to be a lot less love out there) there are several undeniable facts that should be pointed out.

1) The 2009 NFL Football season was arguably the greatest single season of his Hall of Fame career from a statistical standpoint. In 2009, Favre posted the highest quarterback rating of his career (107.2), the lowest interception total of his career (7), and the second highest completion total (563), and third highest yardage total (4,202).

2) Following the devastating loss to the evidently voodoo-enhanced New Orleans Saints, Brett Favre said that if he is to finish his career, that he would be going out “on top.”  While that statement was met with much derision and criticism from fans and the media, from a personal statistical standpoint, his statement rings true, for the following reasons:

• Most of us are familiar with his “Ironman” record, the most consecutive starts for an NFL football player (309 – including playoffs [as Favre himself said, "Why wouldn't you include the playoffs?"]).  For quarterbacks, #2 on the list is Peyton Manning with 209 consecutive starts, meaning he would have to start every single game consecutively for at least the next 6 regular seasons to surpass Favre on the list, provided Favre doesn’t return in 2010.)
• Favre also hold several other significant passing records.  He is #1 all time in Attempts (8,758), Completions (5,377), Touchdowns (442), and Yards (61,655).  All things being equal, his claim to the number one spot in all of these statistical categories is evidence enough to qualify him as being “on top.”

3) Not only did Favre just complete arguably the greatest statistical season of his Hall of Fame career, but he was rated as the #2 passer in the entire league in 2009, indicating that there is no doubt there is more in the tank for this quarterback.

The idea that Favre could walk into a new team and instantly lead them to a Superbowl is far-fetched.  But there is no doubt that Favre exceeded nearly every single person with at least a passing interest in the NFL’s expectations.  He just played 18 of the most brilliant games of his entire career.  One’s athletic ability, even at age 40 doesn’t simply fall off the cliff.

With the 2009 season Favre demonstrated not only his great toughness, but his great natural athleticism.  The notion that a man of his age, with so many years of beating and abuse under his belt, could negotiate an NFL football season with so much poise, and so few mistakes is evidence enough that he has one more year in him.

Love him or hate, Brett Favre is good for the NFL.  He is a ratings juggernaut.  The ratings numbers from the Championship games were ludicrous.  One-third of all televisions in the United States were tuned into the NFC Championship game between the Vikings and Saints.

He likes his team.  The team has rallied around him.  There is no clear heir-apparent in the quarterback department in Minnesota.  There is a possibility of no football in 2011 due to strained labor negotiations.  It is now or never for Brett Favre.