wanting to look honestly with genuine interest in tending to the wounds still present and in reconciling the past, with genuine interest in bringing healing and restoration, and in not repeating the harm done, is an act of love. a love for each other, a love for country, and a love for this world.
this is the work necessary for healing, the work love calls us to do, along with setting a new path of non-harming, of inclusion, equity, and justice.
“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the Astonishing Light of your own Being!” ~ Hafiz
we are luminous life, embodied love. now is the time to shine. even as delusion, fear, and hate are on the attack. now is the time to love, perhaps even more so, teaching this passing world to be open hearted, to embrace authenticity, diversity, beauty, empathy, kindness, and compassion. even as some single us out, may we know that we are part of a vast, diverse, interdependent, beautiful tapestry of life. no one can redefine that or take that away.
it’s an unprecedented time for actors and performers, as streaming services abound, and AI launches into entertainment and media. most actors are not celebrities with big teams, lawyers and clout. most actors make little money or work paycheck to paycheck and need protections in place from misuse and overuse of their work without appropriate and fair compensation.
~j
Additional Update:
studio greed to an insane degree. this would destroy many actors’ ability to have working careers. many actors can build a career in Background work, actually make a living. this would destroy that. this is one of the reasons for the #SAGAFTRAstrike and why members must remain #SAGAFTRAstrong.
“The whole cosmos has come together in order to help you to manifest. In you, the whole cosmos can be found.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
and at the Source of all of this is LOVE.
so, be YOU.
we are called in this moment to stand with life, the cosmos alive in each of us, no matter what any religion, court, or government says, attempts to redefine, dismiss, or eradicate.
the arc of history may be long, but LOVE wins now in every heart willing to embrace it and LOVE will win eventually, collectively. how can it not? who can remain standing against love for very long, the most powerful force, the foundation of all things?
i’m confident in this, because i’ve seen it in people willing to embrace it, and act on it, by people willing to answer the call to embody love, despite and in the face of individuals and institutions lost to ignorance and fear.
just this past Friday, the last day of Pride month, the Supreme Court ruled that myself and other LGBTQ+ individuals do not deserve protection from discrimination from business owners who are uncomfortable with our existence, and do not want to serve us. they ruled that such individuals/businesses have a 1st Amendment right to discriminate against us, based on who we are as queer people, because who we are doesn’t fit within what they believe their religion approves.
i love my country, but it’s important to recognize that not all people have enjoyed the same liberty and liberty is continuing to be attacked and chipped away.
on this day in 1908, the heroic Civil Rights activist, attorney, US Supreme Court Justice, and namesake of my alma mater college at UCSD, Thurgood Marshall was born.
oh the distance between his character, integrity, and jurisprudence, and the vacancy of such virtue in the conservatives Justices we have today!
may hearts open, may sanity arise, and may more Justices like Thurgood Marshall rise up and be seated on the Bench.
oh, i enjoyed him so much! people most likely know him best for his Oscar, Golden Globe, and Tony winning performances, and for so many movies (Little Miss Sunshine, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Gross Pointe Blank, Argo, Django Unchained, Get Smart, The Santa Clause 3, Dumbo). if you want to see a fun movie with him, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine check out Going In Style. i’ve also recently enjoyed him in The Kominsky Method opposite Michael Douglas.
he was also a seeker and found meaning and influence within Eastern thought both from Buddhism and Hindu traditions. he taught for more than a few years at the Omega Institute and wrote a book Out of My Mind discussing this.
he lived here in San Diego County in Carlsbad, and a friend of mine studied improv from him and became friends with him. she adores him. at the beginning of the pandemic, with his permission (he told her to “share the hell out of it!”) she shared a little video of him on his front porch playing ukulele singing a song about taking selfies. with all the seriousness of what was going on at that time, it was the medicine needed to remember the importance of joy, laughter, and smiling.
“I don’t know why we have to put things in boxes of superlatives. That isolates them. Life is fluid, and the minute you start trying to put a line around something, it will deceive you and go away. Somebody introduced that idea to me about six or seven years ago. And the more I thought about it, and the more I tried to live by it, the happier I got.”
~Alan Arkin
“I wrote my epitaph: He started out a particle and ended up a wave.” ~ Alan Arkin
The Metta Garden 