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jakebe
We drove up to SF last night to see Frozen!: the Musical. I can't say I was very excited for it. Tangled was a better movie in just about every possible way, and it still annoys me that it was ignored for a movie that feels genetically-engineered to be a mega-hit. But hey, Disney's gonna Disney. Frozen's a mega-hit with its own Broadway musical adaptation and Tangled remains an overlooked piece of animated perfection.
Still, the musical was pretty good! Projection-light technology has come a very long way, and you can do some impressive things that makes it a lot easier for set designers. The actors were game; "Let It Go" (the Act I break, natch) was the showstopper it was meant to be, and folks lost their minds when the theatre went dark. Honestly, the crowd being SO INTO the show made it a lot better. Kids were singing along to "Would You Like to Build A Snowman?", offered delightful commentary through the show, and one child in particular could NOT handle it when the "mild peril" moment of the play dropped with a dismembered Olaf strewn across the stage. All in all, a pretty fun time. Sometimes, it's just enough to be in a crowd really invested in buying into the magic.
Thankfully that's the last thing I really have to do this quiet week. Tonight, we'll be making our premium Blue Apron dinner and watching...something. Maybe. It's practically the holidays, so our time is our own!
At work, I really need to just write down everything that needs to be done and tick things off. There are too many things just floating around in my head and it's hard to pick something to get started. It's a little frustrating because I already know all this stuff but keep forgetting to actually implement it. There's nothing wrong with forgetting -- life is a journey of cycles, right? But still, I wish I hadn't wasted half the week already with this kind of project paralysis.
A realization: I've mentioned that I want to be respected in my dealings with other people, but...I also recognize that I don't really project vibes that tell others I respect myself. I don't want to fall into the trap of vanity mirror-gazing, but I could put a lot more thought and effort into how I carry myself. Treating myself as a person worthy of love and compassion is one of the best ways I can encourage others to treat me that way.
So...maybe the work I really need to do next year is figure out how to treat myself as the person I'd like to be. Pay more attention to my grooming and clothes, view better eating and sleeping habits as acts of kindness for myself instead of...chores that I have to handle. Honestly, the malleability of perspective and how MUCH it changes your attitude is one of the biggest lessons I've learned in the past few years. I'm still discovering new applications that feel like cheats. :)
I saw a video on Zen Buddhism yesterday that really got me thinking about my approach to meditation and the self in general. I keep forgetting that one of the central ideas in Zen is the "illusion of self" and what that really means. What we think of as a fixed self is really just...this tangle of emotions, experience, and memory that doesn't necessarily coalesce around anything stable. We don't view reality from a fixed point, but we cling to the idea that we do and it causes us great suffering. Changing yourself is an illusion, because there is no self to change. There is only the change. We're far more mutable and adaptable than we ever give ourselves credit to be.
That isn't to say change is easy. The tension of the strings that create this bundle of awareness increases when we try to shift it. It takes skill to manage the attachments that make us feel "stuck" in a certain belief or attitude. We can create slack here and there, but we have to know where the pressure is coming from and how best to relieve it. And because what we think of as "self" is actually this interrelated tangle of stuff, it can be very difficult to follow tensions back to their sources. Maybe this is the function of koans and Zen stories. They actually sever the attachments we've made over our lives and the shock of that sudden shift provides illumination.
It's an exciting thought. Mainly because it means that if I can absorb that lesson and approach my own journey with that understanding, a whole new world of possibilities open up.
Still, the musical was pretty good! Projection-light technology has come a very long way, and you can do some impressive things that makes it a lot easier for set designers. The actors were game; "Let It Go" (the Act I break, natch) was the showstopper it was meant to be, and folks lost their minds when the theatre went dark. Honestly, the crowd being SO INTO the show made it a lot better. Kids were singing along to "Would You Like to Build A Snowman?", offered delightful commentary through the show, and one child in particular could NOT handle it when the "mild peril" moment of the play dropped with a dismembered Olaf strewn across the stage. All in all, a pretty fun time. Sometimes, it's just enough to be in a crowd really invested in buying into the magic.
Thankfully that's the last thing I really have to do this quiet week. Tonight, we'll be making our premium Blue Apron dinner and watching...something. Maybe. It's practically the holidays, so our time is our own!
At work, I really need to just write down everything that needs to be done and tick things off. There are too many things just floating around in my head and it's hard to pick something to get started. It's a little frustrating because I already know all this stuff but keep forgetting to actually implement it. There's nothing wrong with forgetting -- life is a journey of cycles, right? But still, I wish I hadn't wasted half the week already with this kind of project paralysis.
A realization: I've mentioned that I want to be respected in my dealings with other people, but...I also recognize that I don't really project vibes that tell others I respect myself. I don't want to fall into the trap of vanity mirror-gazing, but I could put a lot more thought and effort into how I carry myself. Treating myself as a person worthy of love and compassion is one of the best ways I can encourage others to treat me that way.
So...maybe the work I really need to do next year is figure out how to treat myself as the person I'd like to be. Pay more attention to my grooming and clothes, view better eating and sleeping habits as acts of kindness for myself instead of...chores that I have to handle. Honestly, the malleability of perspective and how MUCH it changes your attitude is one of the biggest lessons I've learned in the past few years. I'm still discovering new applications that feel like cheats. :)
I saw a video on Zen Buddhism yesterday that really got me thinking about my approach to meditation and the self in general. I keep forgetting that one of the central ideas in Zen is the "illusion of self" and what that really means. What we think of as a fixed self is really just...this tangle of emotions, experience, and memory that doesn't necessarily coalesce around anything stable. We don't view reality from a fixed point, but we cling to the idea that we do and it causes us great suffering. Changing yourself is an illusion, because there is no self to change. There is only the change. We're far more mutable and adaptable than we ever give ourselves credit to be.
That isn't to say change is easy. The tension of the strings that create this bundle of awareness increases when we try to shift it. It takes skill to manage the attachments that make us feel "stuck" in a certain belief or attitude. We can create slack here and there, but we have to know where the pressure is coming from and how best to relieve it. And because what we think of as "self" is actually this interrelated tangle of stuff, it can be very difficult to follow tensions back to their sources. Maybe this is the function of koans and Zen stories. They actually sever the attachments we've made over our lives and the shock of that sudden shift provides illumination.
It's an exciting thought. Mainly because it means that if I can absorb that lesson and approach my own journey with that understanding, a whole new world of possibilities open up.
