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Causeway
“Friendship asks and wants, hollows and fills, ages with us and we through it, cradles us, finally, like family. It is ecology and mystery
and language, all three.”
-Beth Kephart in Into the Tangle of Friendship
Interest in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been growing since the 1970s when thousands of severely traumatized veterans returned from the Vietnam War and then from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trauma-related symptoms were also tracked in other populations including rape and assault victims, individuals suffering from the fallout of natural disasters, and those witnessing the terrorist attacks of September 11.
The nature of PTSD and the dilemma of ruptured identity causes many physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms including nightmares, intrusive thoughts, agitation, depression, panic attacks, restlessness, and memory lapses.
Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) is an engineer for the U.S. Corps of Engineers who has returned to her hometown of New Orleans after surviving a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan. She has undergone intensive physical and mental therapy sessions with a patient health aide (Jayne Houdyshell). Lynsey’s doctor (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is shocked when this self-confident soldier tells him that she wants to redeploy instead of returning to her “normal” life. She needs him to sign a paper saying she is ready.
Anxious about the future and uncomfortable living with her emotionally chilly mother (Linda Emond), Lynsey lands a job cleaning pools. When her truck breaks down, James (Brian Tyree Henry) a kind-hearted African-American who runs an auto-repair shop, befriends her. Like her, he is a shy and lonely soul. He lost a leg in a car accident and feels guilty about causing the death of someone he loved.
In her directing debut, Lila Neugebauer has fashioned an emotionally rich character-driven drama that reveals the dark side of PTSD and the complications of homecoming. As she demonstrated in her breakthrough film Winter’s Bone, Jennifer Lawrence proves herself to be a gifted actress playing a woman who is able to harvest friendship out of pain and trauma. The unfolding relationship between Lynsey and James is a marvel to behold. Its authenticity is reinforced by the fact that it develops out of their sharing the stories of their lives.
A convincing story about two wounded people who harvest a friendship out of pain and trauma.
Thomas Moore, The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life
One benefit of travel is the opportunity to see the world's soul in the concrete and discover the many ways life can be lived out. If we reduce travel to transportation, we withhold soul from our movements, and then, for all our moving around and getting from place to place, the soul goes unfed. Travel is a profound mystery, but for it to speak to the soul, we have to go about it with care, especially inviting the soul to share in the experience.
Opportunity to see the world's soul
John Dear, Jesus the Rebel
Jesus loves great feasts, good food, fine wine, and celebrations. In fact, one gets the impression that his short life is filled with parties. While he daily faces the forces of death and deliberately heads down the road of resistance to a sure execution, he loves life and lives it to the full. He enjoys his evening meals with those he meets on his journey, and makes sure that his joy is shared with outcasts.
Jesus loves life and lives it to the full
Chogyam Trungpa, The Essential Chogyam Trungpa
Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.
Letting the world tickle your heart
Roger Joslin, Running the Spiritual Path
"Pure Land" [in Buddhism] is a place, or a state of mind, where the practice of mindfulness is easily shared with others. There exists a common spirit of love, compassion, and understanding. It represents a safe place, a refuge where one's spiritual journey is nurtured. Running in the company of those you love, or running with those whose purpose in running is to move with the Transcendent, is a natural, easy step beyond the comfortable solitude of running alone.
Sharing mindfulness with others
The Broader Sharing Economy
In a thought-provoking article for Medium, Lily Cole and Adam Werbach describe how the term "sharing economy" has become the buzzword for Silicon Valley's most recent group of billion dollar companies including Uber and AirBnB. "Share" means "to divide one's own and give part to others" and describes the community-building ability "to distribute resources and sustain relationships." The authors are critical of using the word to describe something as limited and rigid as turning the production of goods and services into a market. They estimate that the real sharing economy consists of libraries, buses, roads and parks, courts, rummage sales, charity shops, gardens, and universities. The entire sharing economy may well be worth over $15 trillion in assets. This compares to the venture-backed enterprises that are worth about $130 billion.
In a thought-provoking article for Medium, Lily Cole and Adam Werbach describe how the term "sharing economy" has become the buzzword for Silicon Valley's most recent group of billion dollar companies including Uber and AirBnB. "Share" means "to divide one's own and give part to others" and describes the community-building ability "to distribute resources and sustain relationships." The authors are critical of using the word to describe something as limited and rigid as turning the production of goods and services into a market. They estimate that the real sharing economy consists of libraries, buses, roads and parks, courts, rummage sales, charity shops, gardens, and universities. The entire sharing economy may well be worth over $15 trillion in assets. This compares to the venture-backed enterprises that are worth about $130 billion.
Five Hardest Questions in Fearless Dialogues
Question 1: Who Am I?
Question 2: Why Am I Here?
Question 3: What Is My Gift?
Question 4: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?
Question 5: What Must I Do to Die a Good Death?
For each of the five questions we repeat this sequence:
1. The animator briefly frames a question.
2. A fearless speaker responds to the question for three minutes.
3. When the three minutes are up, the room will enter into thirty seconds of contemplative silence.
4. In this waiting moment, listeners absorb the shared wisdom and search internally for an honest, open question that might serve as a guide for the courageous speaker.
5. When the thirty seconds of silence are up, the four listeners will share their honest, open questions, and the speaker will receive these humble inquiries as gifts for the journey.
6. Finally, we give thanks for the speaker and the receptive listeners, and we move to the next question.
With the ground rules set, I pose one preliminary query before the Five Hardest Questions: “Are you scared? Don’t be. Your souls have been waiting for this moment for quite some time.”
A sequence for asking five soul-satisfying but challenging questions.
Practical Interfaith
Steven Greenebaum is the founder of Living Interfaith Church in Lynnwood, Washington, and author of The Interfaith Alternative. Here he writes: "A commitment to Interfaith is no small commitment. Nor is it an easy commitment. But I do believe it can be a rewarding and healing one. Interfaith widens our world. And, if we let it, Interfaith frees us from the imprisoning shackles of one of the most debilitating of all human emotions — fear of the 'other.' " The author speaks and leads workshops on Interfaith and compassion as the core of our diverse spiritual traditions throughout the United States and Canada.
Greenebaum presents a short history of interfaith dialogue and then goes on to discuss the challenges and rewards of starting an interfaith church. The final section is on "Resources for an Interfaith Community" with wise counsel on choosing an Interfaith Minister, what it takes to become an Interfaith Minister, his anatomy of an Interfaith service, and examples of Interfaith liturgy.
He concludes: "Is it not time for the human family, at long, long last, to recognize our common humanity, even as we respect and honor our decency?"
A history of the Interfaith path and wise counsel for those embarking on it.
Share Your Past
Share some significant moments from your past with your partner. The open and expansive. Make sure you include enough details about these events to make the stories interesting, to allow your significant other to understand you more deeply or in a different way.
Did you once take a backpacking trip into the wilderness alone and find that the solitude introduced you to parts of yourself you never knew existed? Did you once spend hours a day humming melodies from Bach and Mozart, which inspired you to take up the flute? Did you ever help a friend or relative through a difficult time — like the breakup of a relationship or the death of someone close — and later find it was your support or encouragement that was crucial to that person's regaining peace of mind? Tell your partner what happened. Search your memory and relive the experience as if it just took place.
Try to tell the whole story from as many points of view as possible. If you are describing how you opened up a bicycle repair shop, tell your partner what your parents thought of the idea, and how your friends reacted as well. Ask him or her to listen carefully, interrupting only to ask questions about particular details or developments of the story.
It's often a good idea to talk about your significant past relationships, to discuss how they affected you, how they changed you, what you learned from them. If you allow your partner to participate in the storytelling by asking questions and providing feedback, he or she will feel closer to you, and you will have fostered that closeness by having opened up your life in a very intimate way.
Helping your partner understand your significant stories.
Churchill's Tale of Tails
Churchill the pig is a happy camper who cherishes many things in his life: smelling beautiful flowers, painting self-portraits, playing classical music, reading good books, and having tea with his friends Billy and Guff. But when he loses the one thing he treasured above everything else — his tail — he is distraught.
His buddies round up other animals — a zebra, a peacock, a tiger, and others — who are willing to lend him their spare tails. Only trouble is that Churchhill spends so much time on this self-improvement project that he has no time left for his friends anymore. Will he find his own wonderful tail? What will happen to him if he loses his friends who care about him so much?
This is writer and illustrator AncaSandu's first children's picture book, and it is a gem filled with interesting animal illustrations. Its involving story has a universal message about the importance of friendship and the things we can learn about ourselves when we embark on personal quests. Churchill's Tale of Tails is designed for children from 4 through 8 years of age.
A touching tale about the importance of friendship and things you can learn while on a quest.