I was thinking about my last post on Stillness, and something came into my head. I’d written a post on stillness about 7 years ago but from a very different angle – a lighter and more humorous one. So for those of you who weren’t checking me out back then, here’s a revisit of something I learned about relaxation, a corollary of stillness. Pictured is my handsome Claude, still missed, the Master of Relaxation.
Have you ever noticed the positions your animals get into? They make it look as if they invented the word `relax’. They stretch out, especially in the heat, so every potential draft will ease slowly over their languid bodies. They make it look so damn easy.
Now you might think that this is a comment on my own inability to relax, which is far from the truth. In fact, it brings to mind an experience of many moons ago when my then-husband came home to find me lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling or into space. He asked what was I doing?
I said “nothing.”
With an incredulous look on his face, he said, “What do you mean, nothing?”
“I mean nothing. I’m doing nothing. As in, nothing.” Seemed pretty clear to me.
“How could you just be doing nothing,” he asked. “You have to be doing something!”
Now THIS was a man who had a hard time relaxing!
I tried to search for what it was I was doing, and all I came up with was … in trying to satisfy the question … “I guess I’m daydreaming .. or just thinking.”
And then, with the same confused face, he asked, “How can you just lie there and do nothing?”
Well, I thought I had just come up with an answer as to what I was doing, but I let that go, and said, “Here, just lie down, and kind of stare into space and let your mind relax. You know, just drift around a bit.”
He lay down and for all intents and purposes, assumed the position one would take if they were to relax. He looked up at the ceiling.
Then he looked at me.
“I don’t know how you can just do nothing. I can’t do nothing.”
I don’t really remember what happened after that, except that he wasn’t next to me anymore. Probably feeling guilty for now having the audacity to have actually spent a few moments of my life doing nothing, I’m sure I joined him and made it my business to start doing something.
But I think the animals still have the right idea. They have learned the fine art of doing nothing, of just being in the moment. They stretch out … close their eyes … take a deep breath and they’re off into dreamland or wherever animals go when they close their eyes. We have such a lot to learn from them … and this is one of their best lessons.
Still A Dreamer 
Oh, Jeanne, I’m sorry to say I’m more like your husband, mostly do to having WAY too much I HAVE to do which keeps getting in the way of what I WANT to do, which includes writing my novels which, in turn, will lead to some daydreaming 🙂
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In all fairness, that was a loooong time ago, and I, like you, have way too much to do nowadays. Life was simpler back then and there was more time to drift and dream. However … it is that drifting and dreaming that also allows creativity to come through,for the magic of ideas and words and images to flow through us. It’s hard to be a channel for creativity when we have all the doors closed because we’re so busy. Alas, today I am more like he was, and not happy about it. Still aiming for stillness. 🙂
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Hey, Jeanne 🙂 I saw you pop up in my email! It’s been a long time :-\ Life is crazy (health issues are keeping me unpleasantly busy and stressed for quite a while now), though I’m at least doing bits of more writing! I also have a little granddaughter now who’s the light of my life. I can’t believe that tomorrow she’s officially 6 months old already! I hope you’re well, my friend 🙂 oxox
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Hi Donna! I was checking my stats and noticed this post had a lot of comments, so I went to revisit it to see it was that I’d said! While there, I thought I’d pop in and see how you were (cuz I knew you’d get a notification on a Like.) Me, too, on the health issues. Better than I was, but not yet where I’d like to be. But moving forward. I out together a new graphic design site – https://jeannebalsamgraphics.com – and finally started getting my Frenchie stuff on Etsy – https://www.etsy.com/shop/JBalsamFrenchieArt – and moving forward at a snail’s pace on a new dummy for one story to submit to a publisher. Not enough (feeling fab) hours in the day. Congrats on the little newbie in your life! Going to the conference? Should we do this in real e-mail? xoxoxo back at ya! 😀
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So glad the cat remains and the hubs is gone…;-)
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That hubs … oh, yeah. 😀
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I love this post. It takes a lot of practice to lie there and do nothing without becoming antsy. i had to learn it in the rehabilitation hospital after my car accident. But it was very tough going for someone who was always on the move.
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Thanks, Cynthia. I’m sure I would find it much harder to do nothing and be at peace while confined to a hospital for any reason, too. Being at home, we can reserve a little time for ourselves, and perhaps nowadays, with everyone seemingly on the run more than ever, it may be more important than ever, too. We do need to stay in touch with ourselves.
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Stillness–being still does indeed create space for creativity–ideas of all kinds need such space in order to come in and play with your imagination.
It’s hard to do in the world–and that tells us about what kind of world we’re living in on daily basis. It’s addictive in many ways and that’s what makes it so difficult to step outside of the rush and engage in the present enough to let go of all the incoming traffic.
Hi.
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I couldn’t agree more. Even at the end of my work day, detaching from my much-loved Mac can sometimes feel like tearing Velcro bindings apart and I want to detach! (but not all of us always agrees :o)
Hi to you, too.
Don’t know if you check back on comments, but I saw the movie The Lone Ranger. Just awful. What a waste of Johnny Depp’s talents for one thing, a truly non-appealing MC playing the Lone Ranger, was it supposed to be funny? the stereotyping of Indians, (I expected more from Disney), and then the unbelievable trivializing of the slaughter of the Commanche used as a background plot device. You wrote about this at length; this is my nutshell.
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I generally do check back on comments–but I do miss them from time to time. I apologize if I missed yours on The Lone Ranger–and I’ll go look for them after I respond here. I think we shall have to agree to disagree on this film. This may be due to a totally different perspective on the film’s treatment of issues. Commentary via satire can be very risky–just ask Jonathan Swift about people taking literally his comments about the Irish eating babies in order to not starve. Yeah, didn’t do much for his career and MANY people missed the point–and many people still misunderstand the piece.
I stand by my view that The Lone Ranger is a stunning attack on Manifest Destiny, the military industrial complex, the genocide of Native Americans and the treatment of women. If it wasn’t intended to be such then indeed it would be a load of bs puffed off as very, very bad commercial entertainment. I have a problem with that–I don’t think film-makers are that stupid. They may have overestimated their audience. Which is not surprising considering how the American public reacts to all kinds of spin and media manipulation–like great puppets with wire strings. I was serious enough about my perspective that I even made the effort to toss it out in several places online like Al Jazeera when there was all the bs about Depp and the movie at the time it hit theaters. People clearly missed the huge points the film was making. I suspect in part because they don’t comprehend satire, partly out of ignorance, partly because they don’t comprehend the mindsets at work at the time of the context of the film–and nor did they catch the terrible contemporary parallels. This is nothing new. It happens all the time. I know a pair of scientists who can’t comprehend The Cloud Atlas even though they’ve watched it three times. They even downloaded a guide to the storylines for help. Perhaps it’s all a matter of how each of us sees the world around us?
Like I said, we can agree to disagree.
Still–I think the writers took a magnificent risk –and it failed at this point in time, not because the film doesn’t work–but because of all the human factors they can’t control.
“Let them eat babies.”
Do you really think he was serious? I mean, who the hell would say such a thing?
Oh the guy everyone loves for writing the Wizard of Oz said the Native Americans should be exterminated–really–and everyone LOVES the Wizard. Except me. I couldn’t stand the film as kid and I still can’t stand it.
What’s that reveal about my perspective?
Thanks for all your efforts to respond thoughtfully and at length. I truly do appreciate it. Even when we disagree. Perhaps then the most because it forces me to get my own thoughts out of my head.
cheers
Btw, I have theory about Wounded Knee in 1890 that makes everyone uncomfortable. Not posting that online though. 🙂
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I probably wasn’t clear in what I just wrote – I hadn’t commented on The Lone Ranger on your blog – I just saw it Saturday night!
I was never particularly fond of The Wizard of Oz, BTW, though I always liked Toto. (Natch.) And I loved Cloud Atlas – so happy I saw it in the theater. It’s on my queue to watch again.
And yes, we can disagree on stuff – we all can- it’s what makes a respectable conversation. A friend and I discussed a YA novel we’d both read which I loved (and have been meaning to blog about, actually) and she hated! Oh my goodness – I was shocked at how much she disliked it. But there ya go.
Anyho, why I have a hard time seeing this Lone Ranger as an overall satire, though I agree there were moments within, is that it was made by Disney. Not to say there couldn’t be farther reaching meanings within a Disney film, but I just don’t see them, based on their history, having that as their goal- to make a truly satirical movie of the points you’re describing. It’s so not Disney. Other film producers, I might agree, but not here. If it’s to be looked at as a satire, I’d say it happened accidentally or in spite of themselves. And yes, the incidents you mention surely are satire, but overall? I just don’t see it, but we can agree to disagree. 🙂
p.s. And I can see why a scientist wouldn’t understand The Cloud Atlas. They’re looking at it from some prove-able perspective, and it wasn’t that kind of a movie. (Suddenly I just heard John Travolta say, “I’m not that kind of angel.” Hmmmmmm.)
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Hmm, perhaps it’s just an intellectual Attack disguised as a comedy?
Now about those angels….and Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter….
Get back to work!
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Or an attempt …
I’m back (to work). 🙂
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Hey, gang, I totally don’t want to get into a deep discussion about this kind of stuff right now, but had to ask one question: was it Baum who said Native Americans should be exterminated? I read the first book just to see how they arrived at the movie I love so much. Still love the movie, but absolutely HATED the one book!
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Hi Donna, I did a quick look-see on Google, and indeed he recommended the “annihilation” and extermination of all Indians. That’s pretty shocking. Here’s a short post from NPR – https://www.google.com/#q=Baum+-+exterminate+Indians and another on Huffington Post by an Indian editor – https://www.google.com/#q=Baum+-+exterminate+Indians. He wanted to wipe out the Sioux of South Dakota and wrote about it in his newspaper. Shocking … and very sad.
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Oh, my! Well, as I said, although I know millions of people (usually who read his books when they were children) love the Oz series. As an adult and aspiring writer, I read it back in the 90s because I was reading books which were adapted into movies to see what changes were made. I typically am disappointed with adaptations, but in my opinion, the movie is AMAZING and the ones who did the adaptation actually improved on the books a thousand fold! I’ll take a quick look-see myself, just to see if they state the reason he felt that way : / Thanks, Jeanne!
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I’m sure there are many writers out there that hold views that some (or all) of us would find repugnant, but we just don’t know about them. He chose to publicize them in newspapers, so I don’t really know what to make of that. Just sad.
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Yes, Donna, it was Baum– and his family has repeatedly apologized for this. Isn’t it interesting what comes out of a man’s mind?
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Well, like all people, he had many facets. It’s just that you don’t expect such an extreme, right? I’ve heard things about Mark Twain that were shocking, too, but living in certain areas at certain times can influence the way people think.
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And that is no doubt true, but what is disturbing here is the racism the extreme, as you mention. I hate to make the comparison, but it’s Hitlerian in that he wants to wipe out an entire race of people. It kind of boggles the mind that the same mind that would conceive of the Wizard of Oz could be recommending such a thing!
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Yes, I thought of Hitler, too, or any figure like that. It is that extreme—the Hitler/vs.WizofOz—that is what shocks us most. If he were the writer of something dark, adult and controversial, we would expect it! And my belief system has me in a place of understanding with all of this that I’m not going to get into. It’s ALL tragic 😦
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I agree that context can be very influential–but I don’t think it is the entire explanation. If I remember correctly, Baum’s ‘worst’ comments came after a massacre–and the gist was now that this awful unforgiveable thing had been done there was no other option than to exterminate the remaining people because otherwise they’d never stop fighting back–or something close to that. In a certain way that does make sense—it’s why whistleblowers, rebels, and those who rock the status quo boats are often terminated–it’s the only way to shut them up and stop them. Problem with that reasoning is that then they have the potential to become martyrs and even more influential.
–Consider the case of Dr. Martin Luther King—tolerable to the powers that be until he made his Beyond Vietnam speech which took things beyond the civil rights issue and into other toxic areas regarding the military industrial complex and all its good buddies. It’s OKAY and very PC to love the “I have a dream” speech—much more dangerous to praise King’s thoughts in Beyond Vietnam.
Hmm . . . .where shall we go next?
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