Notes on Life
Feb 22, 2008
At the end of life, we have but to reflect on the paths we have chosen. Attitudes and behaviors influence our choices. So, I shall begin this epistle with an epitaph.
The span of life has run its course,
By stormy sea and fragile boat,
To the common port,
To enter which one must transcend
The whys and wherefores of all work
Both bad and good alike.
Michelangelo
Reflecting on Francis Ford Coppola’s the God Father Part three; let us begin at the end of this marvelous Trilogy. The last scene opens with Michael Corleone standing alone holding pruning shears in his vineyard, reflecting on his life as one hallucination.
There was no middle ground with Michael Corleone, his will was impenetrable. His decisions were final, “literally”. Yes, he earned the respect he yearned for, the respect of a benevolent despot tyrant. He achieved respect through fear and intimidation; his enemies succumbed to that fear. But he lost the respect of his family and closets friends. In the end he lost his most prized possession, his daughter that was brutally gunned down.
At the end of the movie, he holds his breath while holding his daughter as she dies he cannot scream, because the pain is so overwhelming. His mouth open wide yet nothing came out. Coppola chose one of the most beautiful adagios for this scene, Cavalleria Rusticana, by Mascagni “Click to Play”. Beautiful, in juxtaposition to such an
dreadful scene, ask yourself why he chose this selection of music.
I ask you why, the beautiful, next to such unspeakable horror of loosing his daughter, his most cherished possession. Could it be that Coppola is teaching us a lesson of life that words cannot. Art and Music let me rephrase that; Good Art and Music need no words, they open a part of us to an understanding that words cannot. “Alan Watts”
Too often we abandon the beautiful, and select the horrible. Then years later with regret we ask why we made that decision, when the answer years later seem so obvious. The answer is one of complete simplicity. We choose to ignore, and cling to ideas that have no reality. We grasp so firmly to what we think is right, that we choose to ignore the obvious. Through ignorance by omission of the obvious, “we have eyes, and see not – Jesus Christ”. The Greeks referred to this lack of awareness as enchantment, or rather a fog. The Buddhist, refer to this lack of awareness as “Avidia - (Vid) the Sanskrit root of the Latin Vi-deo, and English Vision”. The "A" in Avidia makes it negative. We can spend many hours in a therapist office trying to understand the whys and wherefores of our life. “Alan Watts”
I dare say, that Michael Corleone never questioned the good opinions of others. To keep or cling to his father’s title he had to not question his father’s methods. He learned well the handbook of “The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli”.
I have found the answers to lives most complex problems through art; if things seem confusing it is because we choose to ignore the obvious. Sometimes we see the obvious, but that would mean it may hurt the concept we have about ourselves, and we say to ourselves that our world may fall apart if that were true.
The simple answer to that is, that our self concept or "ego" has nothing to do with who we really are. Our self concept is a hallucination of an opinion of ourselves that we want others to believe. Our ego does not grow our bones, pump our blood, or any thing else for that matter “Alan Watts”.
Ask yourself what would have happened to Michael Corleone if he chose not to follow in his fathers steps. He probably would have lead a happy life. At the end of the movie he is now old, alone in his vineyard contemplating his life as it were some hallucination… Standing with his pruning shears.
In the end, which is right now, because the past is but a memory, and the future is just an imagination, all we really have, are our choices. When I draw a circle on a piece of paper and ask students to tell me what I have drawn, they may struggle with answers but inevitably they focus on the circle, usually telling me that it is the sun. Why is it then, that I never get an answer that I have drawn the sky? Our focus determines our reality- Qui Gon Gin – Star Wars.
So you ask," Am I in an impossible situation, what do I do now "? Again I take my lesson from that last scene of the last episode of the Godfather. His daughter has just died in his arms; her last words as she let go of her final breath were “Daddy”. Coppola focuses the camera on his open mouth, he has lost his breath, he cannot even scream. He held his breath tightly, as if trying to prevent her death! I say, Don’t hold onto your breath thinking that you will die without it. Let go of your breath, “for he who chooses to loose his life will save it” reduced to its most fundamental meaning, letting go of your breath is what this verse truly means. With letting go of your breath, you gain your breath, your life. Everything has opposites, the only way to hold on is to let go. “Alan Watts”
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