Thoughts Happen

My Dream of Doing Nothing

I did not know what to write about today. Usually I have something percolating in the back of my mind at least a few days ahead of time, but it’s been one of those weeks when I’m too pooped to percolate.

The accumulated busyness of the end of the year (how ironic that we manage to squeeze two year-end seasons into every year) is wearing on me— every activity has an end-of-the year “thing” which requires attendance at a minimum, sometimes selling tickets, most often a potluck dish, and occasionally some major practice or significant amount of paperwork. Do they all have to fall within a 4-week period?

I feel like I’ve stepped on a train that is hurtling downhill with no brakes, and I just want to get off. It’s not that these aren’t all worthwhile activities — they are. I just don’t like feeling like I’m being pushed from one to the other without any time to reflect and rejuvenate.

 I want to look around and appreciate the moment that is Now before it is gone. And I’m finally starting to understand the character in the late-’90s comedy Office Space, who when asked what he would do if he had a million dollars replied, “Nothing,” with a far-off, dreamy look on his face.

I am not the kind of person who normally finds doing Nothing very appealing. Even when I meditate, I don’t feel like I’m doing Nothing — I’m meditating. I like to feel productive. But from my seat on the train, doing Nothing is sounding pretty darn appealing right now.

I’ll leave you with a clip from this classic film. Enjoy it while spacing out at your desk.

via www.youtube.com

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance

My husband never met a science fiction movie he wasn’t willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Consequently I’ve seen all the Star Trek movies. I’m a bit of a Trekkie myself, and remember as a pre-teen watching reruns of the original series on my parents’ old black and white TV. Tribbles, the Gorn and Amok Time were part of my personal pop culture, and Mr. Spock was always my favorite.

Since some of the later movies were definite stinkers, I wasn’t holding my breath about the new J.J. Abrams incarnation. The previews made it look like they’d turned it into Starship Troopers, but on taking it in at our local megaplex I found the new Star Trek to be a smart, witty take on the ST mythology that offers plenty for dyed-in-the-wool Trekkies while creating a cracklingly fresh alternative.

As a Spock fan I was not disappointed. Vulcans have always had a monkish vibe (those robes—hello?) and I detected some very Zen-like themes in the storyline of the pointy-eared one. Here are my top three Lessons from Spock as gleaned from the new Star Trek:

We are now heading out of the neutral zone, or in other words, SPOILER ALERT.

1. Fear and Anger are your friends, so let’s sit down and get comfortable, shall we? Spock had the right idea with the Kobayashi Maru test. Who would you rather have as your Captain—someone who has never felt fear, or someone who is so intimately acquainted with it that it is No Big Deal? And when Spock tells his father he has anger that he cannot control towards the ones who killed his mother, what does Dad say? “Then do not try.” Vulcans have a bad rep for not having feelings, but their real philosophy is that you can’t control your feelings, but you can keep them from controlling you.
2. We are all homeless. When the Vulcan home planet implodes, Spock gets a visceral reminder of what is actually true for all of us, all the time. I recently heard an astronaut describing in an interview how he manages launch-pad jitters by focusing on only the next 10 seconds. But when you think about it, that’s all any of us really has. If we’re lucky. Our only real home is the present moment. Anything on top of that is gravy.
3. You’ve created your reality, now lie in it. Can you imagine Future Spock saying this: “Oh if only I left the launch pad a little sooner with the red matter, none of this would have happened. How could I be so stupid? I should have known those Romulans would find a way to blame me! Why did I even bother trying to help them?” No, neither can I. He’s flung back in time away from everything familiar, his home planet is now an Intergalactic Dispose-All and what does he say about the life he left behind? “That is not my destiny.” Talk about grace under pressure. The Dalai Lama himself couldn’t do any better.

I’ll be interested to see how the character evolves in the new timeline, but for now I’ll just say Live Long and Prosper, Spock. Live Long and Prosper.

Those who paved the way

Yesterday I had a chance to see the movie Iron Jawed Angels at a Women’s Rights Movie Night put together by my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop leader. What an eye-opener. It tells the story of the end battle for women’s suffrage and the sacrifice of leaders such as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns for the cause they believed in. I was somewhat familiar with the story of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton from the wonderful PBS documentary Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Stanton & Anthony, and from a visit to the Women's Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls. But I was unaware of the brutal treatment Paul and Burns and many other women survived at the hands of the government after being arrested for silently picketing Woodrow Wilson’s White House. Jailed on a trumped-up charge of “obstructing traffic,” they endured brutal conditions, and when Paul started a hunger strike to protest the treatment, she was kept in solitary and force-fed, with no contact with the outside world. Eventually the word got out and the government was pressured to release them. 

It’s hard to imagine not being able to vote. A right we sometimes take so casually has only been officially acknowledged in this country for less than 100 years. And it took over 70 years of fighting to get to that place. Many suffragists never lived to see the fruits of their labor. 

So today I say thank you to Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and countless others who toiled, some in the spotlight, some in obscurity, so that I and my daughter, and my daughter’s daughter’s daughters can claim our full rights as citizens.  For the curious, there’s a wealth of good information at the Library of Congress site, including Tactics and Techniques of the women’s suffrage campaign, a brief timeline of events leading up to the final suffrage vote in 1920, and lots of historic photos. Happy Election Day.