Please, enjoy, a message from my mother:
WHAT’S THE POINT?!!
69 days from the inauguration, I was having a conversation with my friend Margo about the dangers of there being so many days between the election and the the inauguration. How much damage could be done to our democracy before Joe & Kamala were at the helm? What can we do?
How about create a little community to work on this dilemma together?.... Well, people (in addition to anxiety and love) are made out of vibration. That is why using sound vibrations for healing is so effective. People resonate with this medicine. It goes deep, into our minds, bodies~ all the way to the bone marrow and it also affects our emotions and rides the waves of our Spirits. Sound Healing is healing modality that I was introduced to at Normandale Community College many years ago. Jonathon Goldman, the Sound Healing Pioneer, coined this simple formula:
Sound Vibration + Intention = Healing
After talking to Margo about the futile, powerless and desperate feeling that prevailed, I decided to create a Daily Zoom Activity~ “69 Days of Toning for a Peaceful Transition of Power” noon-12:30 daily.
Toning~singing a vowel sound with your voice for the Sound Vibration + putting our Mind, Body, Spirit, Heart & Soul into the experience creating the Intention results in the Healing ~a Peaceful Transition of Power! 69 days out seemed like an auspicious time to start because 69 looks so much like a Yin/Yang symbol.
There were 2-6 people attending every day. My hubby Don was always in attendance; he’s trained in the traditions of Music Therapy, has a gentle healing heart~ plus he is stuck at home with me every day during this pandemic! Folks, toned, sat in silence, did yoga, had their videos on or off. Shared the sky, their art....
Every day we would focus on a different chakra, a different element of the Inauguration, different politicians, the weather, the rituals, the attendees, the *peaceful* Transition of Power and other related issues such as Covid 19, the runoff elections in Georgia.... People focused on things in their hearts and minds that were private and sometimes shared those thoughts and feelings... dreams... We mostly never toned to silence~ usually to a singing bowl or an open string or two on the rich, resonant cello.
Weeks of peaceful toning went by through the tumultuous and peaceful days in America before that fateful day, January 6th when the Capitol in D.C. was stormed by Rioters who were on a mission to storm the capitol, take over the building, the election, democracy, it was a sad, sad, day. How could this be happening in America? So much suffering in D.C. and around the world.
My inner toning turned into more of a selfish scream.”What’s the point?!!!” Why am I doing this. I’m an impotent toner. I’m crazy and have no humility to think that I could lead this and make any kind of a difference. WTF?!!! As I watched the violence unfold in the day of the riot and as I’ve heard about all of the planning in the days since, my mind has been asking, “What’s the point?.... What was the point... to all of this toning?” 69 x one half hour. That is 34 1/2 hours of singing on a single pitch. To what end? For what good? Why? Why? Why?
Nobody was asking me why or calling me a failure. I have been asking myself that and contemplating the violence that we have all witnessed thru the lens of how could I have done better as a toning hostess? Gotten more people there? Been louder? More focused? Nobody has asked me to rationalize why we are doing this, did this, why should they keep showing up to help us tone our way to January 20th since January 6th was such a traumatic event. Nobody was asking me to explain myself. None the less, I keep giving rationalizations to anybody willing to listen. Explanations like “You can control your effort, not the outcome of what you do in this world. !” Or here is a frequent flyer I spew....”It’s like prayer... we don’t pray to change God, we pray to change ourselves.” Or “All we can do is ‘make an offering.’ That is what Yo Yo Ma said.
So... 2 more days of Toning for a Peaceful Transition of Power. What’s the point? Idk. It has kept me out of trouble for 34 1/2 hours of this pandemic. It has made me feel like I am contributing, making an effort.
I learned at a class recently that there are 2 kinds of Intentions to set~ Ego Intentions & Soul Intentions. The teachers said that Soul Intentions are more apt to work out.
The Intention of Toning for a Peaceful Transition of Power has certainly felt like a Soul Intention that has in ways I can not measure~ hopefully touched many souls. That of the other Toners, some Politicians and maybe even some right wing extremists....perhaps some people struggling during this pandemic.
Saying the toning was not successful because of the horrendous riot or because there were never more than 6 people present at our group... is perhaps pure ego.
Something I read or heard or learned somewhere recently is that if you believe you are making a difference, you are making a difference. So, what’s the point? Idk.
I do know, though, that today I decided I would like to print bumper stickers that say “I Believe in Believing.” For what it’s worth. I believe in believing. I believe that what we are doing to get through these troubled times individually and collectively makes a difference.
PICTURE OF THE CAT
WHAT I WATCHED YESTERDAY
I forgot to tell you about this because I was excited about vinegar, but the day before yesterday I watched Jerrod Carmichael’s special 8. It’s a good special, but it was so wild to watch comedy from the middle of the Trump era now that we’re at the end of it. The reason why I remembered I wanted to see this was reading this article. It’s about how Chris Rock re-edited his special Tambourine, undoing a lot of the interesting directorial choices that Bo Burnham made with the original version. It’s odd, because I can’t hang with Burnham’s own standup — like literally, I’ve repeatedly tried to sit down and watch Make Happy and never made it more than halfway through, which is saying something, because I’m usually pretty good at suffering through an hour of something to cross it off my list. But for some reason this has never worked for me! But Eighth Grade is super cool, and beyond that, I find the way he directs standup really interesting! One of the times I tried to watch Make Happy was after listening to him talk about shooting it on Good One. He’s very intentional, and approaches if more cinematically than most people shooting standup. You can really see this with 8. It’s shot and performed in the round, and the film really uses the space. You feel how Carmichael is moving on the stage. It plays with the contrast of the audience in their suits and fancy dresses, and Carmichael on stage in a jean jacket and timbs. The use of closeups, where you the film viewer are alone with Carmichael, and the wider shots where there are other people in the room are present and their reactions matter. I like thinking about these kinds of things! Let’s think about comedy more like film!
I also watched Prometheus, and wow! It’s messy, sure, but it looks so good, and the cast is so interesting. I remember being interested in this when it came out, but I didn’t see it because I hadn’t seen all the Alien movies (a mistake) but this is barely an Alien movie? Or, like, the way it connects to the movies is not what makes it interesting. I wish I could have seen this in a theater, I’m sure it would have looked great. The last time I saw a 3D/imax movie it was The Martian, and it was great, because Ridley Scott actually knows how to use that stuff and make it interesting, which most 3d movies do not. I just miss movie theaters so much.
SONG OF THE DAY
This Perfume Genius song is used PERFECTLY in the trailer for Eighth Grade and also it is just a fabulous song.
Kazul looks like a bat or a puppy in this photo. A boy with 1,000 faces! ♥️