Rainy Days

We've been having a few days of rain and a few weeks ago while I was in Olds, certain areas in our region were dealing with flood-like conditions. The rain we've been having again this week is really making life difficult for those who were hit not so long ago. Teapot and I remain dry as we are on higher ground but our poor alpacas are suffering in this rain. They are in the new paddock and though there are tons of trees to get under, they are all soaked through to the skin.  I really wish we had a shelter for them in there. But you can't put shelters everywhere, so they will just have to suffer through this wet weather.

This rainy day started with me waking early and not wanting to wake Teapot I felt that perhaps I should evacuate the bed in an effort to let him sleep.

Normally rainy days in summer means that I would haul out a puzzle and go to work on it but not this day. I've been reading blogs and passing time on the Internet. (I'm giving myself a free day from spinning as I twisted my ankle again last night and thought that a day from treadling might aid it somewhat. And it was getting better too...) I happened to read a blog post that quite interested me... it was a review with a philosophical bent of a movie called The Tree Of Life. I've not heard much about this as I'm not getting a whole lot of information regarding current movies these days... (with no T.V. movie info and for that matter popular culture news is not really a prevalent part of life.) So after reading the review I went to IMBd to check out whatever info I could find regarding the movie.  It seems to be a somewhat philosophical look on life in the 1950s and familial relationships in middle America. So having read the review and watched several trailers I'm about to embark on a commentary that might be somewhat off base.  I will have a look at the movie at such time that I can find it on video... until then I must be patient.  So bare that in mind as you read what I have to say...

The movie opens with this quote apparently:

"The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.

Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things."

Opening lines from the movie, Tree of Life

I ran into trouble right away. The one thing that I have noticed in life is that Aristotle still reigns supreme in our concepts of how life is or should be... for I do believe that it was he who initiated the idea that the realm of the spirit and the realm of the passions... i.e. nature... i.e. our baser nature.. should be completely separate. 

I have a very different view of nature... I believe that nature can bring us closer to the spirit. I believe that the two cannot be divided. That they are intrinsically connected and that in trying to separate the two, it tears us apart and turns us into anything but the truly human. By exploring how the two are connected and by keeping them connected we are able to be more human. We are undeniable a source of both nature and spirit and when we try to separate them that is when we get into trouble. 

For example;

I see a dish of ice cream... I want to eat it but I know that if I do I will get fatter.

In Aristotle's way of thinking... I have two questions before me. Do I deny my self my physical want, thereby reaching for the higher moral of the spiritual, or do I succumb to my baser nature. 

I think that way of thinking is just plain wrong. When we deny one or the other that is when we get into trouble. It is the Middle-Road Theory that I prefer. 

For example: 

I see a dish of ice cream and know that if I eat too much it will make me fat and possibly sick in the future. So I eat some but not a lot, thereby not denying my physical wants but also reminding myself that too much of a good thing can be bad.

Nature and spirit are neither denied and in the end it is a healthier choice because I've learned to bring both together, denying neither part of my humanity.
 

This is a somewhat simplistic example but it helps to make my point.
 

If we were taught this from our youth the world would be a much happier place I think.
 

As we go along in life so much comes into play. The more we learn, the more there is to consider in each and every challenge we face or decision we make. In the end we only entangle ourselves further by denying that which is a part of us, be it spiritual or natural.  The natural is not the enemy. Just because we run naked in the rain is not a bad thing.... (I don't do that really!!! I might get a black eye. LOL) But neither is the spiritual the epitome of the enlightened life... have you ever found an intellectual to be someone you really want to spend time with?!  Even the Dalai Lama eats ice cream.

The human-centric idea in the initial quote from the movie is what has gotten the whole world in trouble in the first place.  We cannot separate ourselves as being above the animal world. It is the idea that we are better than animals that I have difficulty with...  I believe that we are animals. We are as much living beings as anything else on this planet and denying that is truly the mistake. We are no better or no worse than anything else... (which could lead me into a whole other area of this philosophy... maybe I'll expand on that tomorrow... or maybe I won't!)

So though I have not seen The Tree Of Life... I look forward to seeing it and exploring what was the view of the person who conceptualized the movie.  But always I will bare in mind that nature and nurture come together to be beautiful... in every aspect and should never be separated.

And that's it for waxing poetic on this rainy day... I'm off to move furniture at the parent's house... and maybe do a little spinning depending on this ankle of mine.

Hope you all like the new look of my blog...