"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from". - TS Eliot

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"The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings." - Dan Cook, "The Washington Post",June 13, 1978

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The last entry. This entry brings this blog to an end and clears the way for a new venture...a journey without a destination. This blog and the one before it have had a good run. As Eliot said, "the end is where we start from".

Madness vs. Being

"...too often with people who are programmed, or have an agenda, or guard their feelings. Nathaniel is a man unmasked, his life a public display. We connect in part because there is nothing false about him." - Steve Lopez

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I watched "The Soloist" last night. It was such a strange experience. When the movie was over, I had no idea what time it was or how long I had been watching the movie. It was as though I was surrounded by and totally absorbed in the story. Upon reflection, I became curious about the intensity of my absorption. What was that all about? Even more curious to me because of the difficulty I have been having with relaxing enough to meditate regularly. Interesting.

I was reminded, as I watched the work of "The Lamp" organization in Los Angeles, of some of the people I met when I used the handicapped transport system for three and a half years after my accident, before I was able to drive again and afford a vehicle for modification. I met so many people with physical and mental disabilities. I was amazed by their lives and stories, encounters that touched on even deeper places in my heart and reminded me of the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Perhaps this story took me back to the little girl who gathered up homeless stray cats and put them under our house where she could give them food and water until her itchy, red eyes and midnight meows from beneath the floor exposed the secret. Or maybe it reminded me of the third grader who helped another student in my class with her reading and spelling, or of my sister, 18 months younger, who was not able to learn easily and was held back in kindergarten.

I know that this movie touched on a propensity for being a champion of the underdog, protector of the young, weak, and disadvantaged. The pearl of wisdom from the movie that is a true, but difficult to accept fact, is that sometimes things are as they are and regardless of how much we wish for or try to help change circumstances, the bitter truth is that we do not always know what is best for others. We each have our own lives to live.