Monthly Archives: November 2014

Let’s Go Watch That Again…

Posted on by kgoodman

Film Awards

Have you ever watched a movie twice? (or more…) You know how it goes, you watch a movie and you just think to yourself, “That was Amazing, I want to watch it again!”

You get the general plot, and loved the story, but there were parts that just didn’t make sense.

You are filled with questions…

What was doctor’s character doing with the old car?

Why was the wife upset at her hairdresser?

Why did aunt Ethel always wear a blue hat?

Why did Eric turn to a life of crime? Was it his mothers fault?

So you watch the movie again, and sometimes again and again, trying to soak it all in. Trying to make sense of the details. Trying to connect the dots.

 

Really good movies are like that, there is a depth to them that calls out for review and consideration. They touch upon something core to our being and make us ask questions. These questions are sometimes about the movie, but more often then not, they are about us. By understanding the movie we can reveal a truth about our subtle selves that is not obvious.

 

We can ask abstract questions of our psyche… Would I do that? Could I do that? What if I had to make those same decisions?

 

The really good movies don’t entirely make sense the first time through. You get the general plot, but you go back for more, to get the nuance…

 

And that’s one of the big challenges with your own life. You’re watching it for the first time. You haven’t met all the characters yet. You didn’t get to read the script in advance. And a lot of random things happen that just don’t make sense.

 

When you watch a movie the first time, you just don’t know what’s going to happen

That’s the fun and that’s the challenge.

You have the joy of discovery, but you don’t have the advantage of perspective.

 

When you know what’s going to happen, the second time around, you have the advantage of understanding the results of the actions. You don’t have as much fun with the discovery, but you can really dig into the depth of the interactions. The emotion tied up in experiencing something the first time can actually cloud our understand of what is really going on.

 

This is especially true in your own life. When you are experiencing a moment in your life it is very easy to be swept away in the emotion and lose sight of the big picture. Job loss, breakups, deaths, births, unions and new work, always seem dramatic and traumatic, but when viewed back through the lens of time and experience they all become part of a bigger picture.

 

This is one of the ideas that helps me when in the midst of tragedy or turmoil, I am part of a story that hasn’t ended yet. Death and loss are very painful, they are also inevitable and instrumental. They help to shape us, polish us and refine us. And I truly believe that they would all make a lot more sense if we saw them from a universal perspective instead of from the first person view.

 

Whatever is happening in your life right now, well, I hope it isn’t too painful. But just remember, even if it is painful, it will all make sense when you watch the movie of your life the second time through.

 

Imagine you in your last moments, on your death bed, with the credits of your life rolling, experiencing that moment of elation as you think to yourself, “That was amazing, I want to watch it again!”

 

Namaste,

 

Kevin

Film Awards

What Is Truth?

Posted on by kgoodman

Truth-Lie

And the truth shall set you free… Once you figure out what it is.

 

Have you ever pondered the word “Truth”? Have you ever considered what truth really is?

 

Merrian Webster defines it like this:

Truth – the truth : the real facts about something : the things that are true

: the quality or state of being true

: a statement or idea that is true or accepted as true

 

There was a time when the idea of the world being flat, was accepted as truth. And according to this definition that was not a lie, it was in fact true, because, it was accepted as truth. So truth may not always be… well, true.

 

At one point in our society we accepted as truth:

Black people should not have equal rights to White people – This is false

Women should not have equal rights to men – This is false

Children should be seen and not heard – I’m not even sure if this is possible, but some days it would be nice…

 

According to Merrian Webster truth is subjugated to the mob mentality. If something is accepted as true it can then be proffered as truth regardless of it’s lack of factuality. You could argue that truth in fact negates itself, because societies can silently vote on what they believe is true. So lacking complete facts conclusions are based on facts at hand, with incomplete information, facts become truth and truth is founded on a lie. Ergo, truth is falsehood.

 

So where does that leave us? How can truth set us free? Are we throwing out the baby with the bathwater? When did we start cleaning babies?

 

Perhaps the best thing in this case is the rephrase and reframe. Perhaps, like all words that become overwhelmed with legal precedent and burdened down with cultural bias, we need to adopt a new way of speaking and thinking. Perhaps we need to create a new language that isn’t overloaded in our minds. Or perhaps we should look to an old language that our minds are unfamiliar with, in order to start fresh and build new constructs.

 

This is where the liberation of ancient languages has value.  Ever since I heard it I have had a fondness for the sanskrit word “Maya“. Maya means illusion. The way I learned it, it pointed to a very specific kind of illusion. The illusion that our mind puts over the world around us. In fact it is the illusion of our truth. Truth is so powerful that our mind’s truth is held up as a shadow over everything we see. Our truth is in fact a filter through which those things that conflict with it cannot pass. Our truth, as described through maya, in fact prevents us from seeing the truth.

 

What is the truth? In many ways global truth is as subjective as personal truth. The universe allows us to have a personal truth in order to give us a gateway through which to perceive the larger truth. As with any model, there are bound to be flaws and imperfections. As you can imagine the truth you operate out of has taken years of construction. And the instruments of training our truth have been the flawed truths of all of our teachers before us. Our truth is literally standing on the shoulders of all those truths that came before us. Deconstructing the building of truth to it’s foundation is no small task.

 

It’s also a work that must be pursued. After all, the truth shall set us free. But we have to find it first.

 

We are born with a powerful set of tools are our disposal, and then rarely taught how to use them. Instincts and intuition, when minded and heeded, enable us to see being the truth of our mind. Paying attention to your gut and seeing past your perception is an act of awareness. It often must be approached in the 3rd person outside of ego. And it is an act of patience and compassion.

 

The quest for truth is not an afternoon activity and not for the faint of heart. I assume the end result is amazing… But I’m not there yet.

 

Keep the faith.

Seek for truth.

Love thyself.

 

Namaste,

Kevin

Truth-Lie

Shave the Whales

Posted on by kgoodman

Beautiful young woman shaving her face with a razor

I’m always shaken up when this happens. When one of my core beliefs get thrown into the blazing bonfire of life.

It is not a philosophical debate.

It is not a “what if?…” scenario.

It is life throwing reality right up in my face and telling me that something I believe, fundamentally, is flawed, inconsistent, or just plain wrong.

I hate being wrong.

 

I have always appreciated the Dilbert comic. I remember a book that Scott Adams released back in the early 1990’s entitled “Shave The Whales…” It’s about how messages can often get lost in translation when you start with a good intention, but your words get mixed up.

 

But that’s not my core challenge today. My challenge comes from the original message. Saving the whales… Or more to the point Saving anyone. Well even more to the point it’s about control, and letting go.

 

I remember a comedy special by Dennis Miller that I listened to in the 90s. I laughed a lot and I recall he was very sarcastic and embittered… But I don’t remember exactly what he said. Except for one thing. It struck me in my core and while I laughed and laughed, and I’ve even quoted him several times over the years, it is also an idea that I’ve struggled with, ever since I heard it.

“You can’t save everyone — just try not to be living next to them when they go off.”
— Dennis Miller, April 27, 1995

I think the power of this humor is that it both comforts me and makes me uncomfortable.

 

I am comforted by the release, that it’s not my job, nor even within my capabilities, to save everyone. This removes a terrible burden that my idealism has placed upon my psyche. It lets me off the hook.

 

At the same time it makes me uncomfortable, because a fundamental concept at my core, part of my upbringing and belief system, is that everyone can be saved. I have idealistically believed that everyone could be saved, and with enough time and initiative, I could be the one that does that saving.

 

It’s a terrible burden that I have held onto and in many ways, at times, it has frozen me to inaction. The daunting prospect of saving the world is such an insurmountable task as to be quickly dismissed by the mind as impossible, therefore impractical, therefore, let’s just watch some TV…

 

So as I interact with people that are so different from me and so out of my experience that the mere thought of connecting with them is comical, let alone the thought of connecting in such a meaningful way as to “save them”. It highlights for me that I have taken on, in my mind, a responsibility that is simply unreasonable.

 

More to the point, what am I “saving” them from? What do I see as the threat that is so sinister that they must be saved. And what leveraging idea, saving solution, do I have, that would result in their being “saved”.

 

It’s a logic path that I must face to come to peace with the fact that my core is being dismantled. This has happened in the past, and the results are usually liberating and freeing… After the pain is over… Right now, I am in the pain. So I can only comfort myself with past experience and remind myself of another favorite quote.

“You have survived the past. Odds are, you will survive the future.”

 

And so I must deepen my practice of letting go, and letting the universe guide my path. I am here to experience life and to live in the fullest. Sometimes this means that I must lose notions that hold me back, so I can continue to be propelled forward. Baggage is only useful if you need what you store in it. Lose the baggage and free your mind.

 

So as I write this to myself, and find a few people reading over my shoulder, I remind myself in a calm soothing voice. “You can’t shave everyone…”

 

Namaste,

Kevin

Beautiful young woman shaving her face with a razor

 

Deadlines, Friend or Foe?

Posted on by kgoodman

Screen Shot 2014-11-05 at 9.20.39 AM

Well it’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for another blog. Deadlines are funny things. They can drive us to achieve. They can hold us accountable. They can stress the hell out of the prepared and unprepared alike.

 

In software it’s the age old debate. There are 3 goals for releasing a product. Quality, Features and Time to Market. They say you can have 2 out of 3 at any given time, but you can’t have all 3. What that means is that you can add a lot of features to a release and get it out on time, but then you probably won’t have time to test it all thoroughly, so it will be buggy (industry term for full of bugs (defects (broken things))). You can add a bunch of features and make sure they are all thoroughly tested, but that means you will miss your deadline and not get to market in time for whatever holiday shopping season you had your eye on. Lastly you can Test it thoroughly and make your release deadline, but you had to drop a few features that may have been critical to the market place so your product won’t sell, maybe.

 

So here it is, another Wednesday and my blog is shipping more or less on time. So I’ll let you decide if I sacrificed quality or features. Did my blog have a lot of typos? Or was it thoroughly spell checked, but the content was useless?

 

Can you hold art to the same standards that you hold consumer goods? How does art weigh in? Is it appropriate for art to have a deadline?

When was the “Mona Lisa” completed? Did Leonardo da Vinci work on it for a month? an afternoon? or a year?

Turns out he worked on it for 4 years and still didn’t think it was done. 4 years! (citation)

So when is your art enough? When is it ready to ship?

 

When I have painted in the past, mostly art classes in grade school, I have been frustrated with my work. They were not up to the level of quality that I find pleasing to the eye, but still it is my art and practice makes perfect. But I did stop practicing.  If I spend more than a couple hours on a painting it seems like a long project. So to consider painting for 4 years… It’s unfathomable.

 

While I’m quite certain he didn’t focus his sole attention on the Mona Lisa for 4 years, it’s still astonishing to consider a project of this magnitude. When you wonder at the detail and attention put into the painting, think about how each stroke must have been considered and reconsidered as the brush was manipulated.

 

I have heard of companies where software releases took 4 years. Usually the release was less of a work of art and more a flying spaghetti monster. And companies that allow that sort of gap in market presence don’t get to stay in business for too long. The world with it’s global ADHD moves on and finds the next shiny object to gawk at and marvel over.

 

The world seems to be speeding up, faster and faster to a frantic pace of discovery and novelty. We are constantly shifting attention to the next great thing the next big idea without consideration for the impact of our rapid consumption, fatigue and disposal of the last great thing. What is the carbon footprint of an idea?

 

With all of this in mind I encourage you to set deadlines and allow them to be missed. Release your art and make the world a more diverse place. Find your format, hone your craft, and walk your path. You may have the blessings of a person that can focus on a project for 4 years and still not consider it done. But 500 years later there will still be people marveling at what you did. Or you may find that your art takes 5 minutes and is forgotten in 30 seconds… But you reached out, you sent goals, and you experience your life and your art on your terms. That’s really all was can ask for.

 

Namaste,

 

Kevin

Mona_Lisa