postcards from nowhere

Greetings!

I'm not sure how I made it to the ripe old age of 36 without 
knowing the story of Old Yeller, but I did. So to rectify my 
cultural ignorance, and spare my children the same embarrassing 
fate, we checked the DVD out of the library and watched it 
together a few weeks ago.

Let's just get this part over with right away:  Yes, of course 
I cried when Old Yeller got shot!  

But that's not my point today. Nope. My point is that for the 
first time in my life, I actually learned a valuable life lesson 
from a Disney movie.  Now I'll have to eat all my disparaging 
words about the children's movie industry.  

Although, actually, now that I think about it, I was quite inspired 
and energized by Pollyanna, which I saw for the first time this 
past winter.  At the time I thought it was probably just a fluke.  
Now this Old Yeller movie has touched me deeply and profoundly.  
Will wonders never cease?

OK, until it is proven otherwise to me, I'll exempt only SOME 
older Disney movies from my disparaging remarks about the 
children's entertainment industry.  Good, I'm glad we got 
that settled.  

Now, back to my Valuable Life Lesson from Old Yeller, 
courtesy of Walt Disney and Hollywood:

So the Father comes home after a long absence, and he finds 
his oldest son out at Old Yeller's freshly dug grave, and 
they have a father-son talk.  He tells him ... uh-oh, 
I should have written this sooner -- I don't remember 
the exact words ... but it was something like:

(read this in a low and slow Texas drawl)

Son, every so often, and for no apparent reason, Life deals 
a man a blow that knocks him flat. But in between and even 
during those times, there are good and beautiful things 
happening all around him.  

So a man has a choice -- he can miss out on enjoying the 
good things while he worries about or plans for the next 
knockdown punch, or he can just focus his attention on 
the good things while they are happening, and when the 
knockdown comes, he can pick himself up, dust himself off, 
and keep on goin' ... right back to noticin' and appreciatin' 
the good things again.

Well, now, I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty 
darn good advice!  (ladies, just substitute 'person' in there 
for 'man', and we'll all be on the same page, ok?) 

I especially loved the for no apparent reason part.  Like many 
of you, I'm well versed in the modern ... dare I say it, 
New Age ... concept that we create our own reality. 

I've read Louise Hay, and know all about which thoughts lead 
to problems in which parts of the body.  I've subscribed to 
the newsletters about attracting abundance and inner peace, 
played the prosperity game, and done all of that stuff that 
'conscious' folks do to try to avoid the Knockdown Punches. 

But guess what ... every so often, durned if I don't get hit 
with one anyway! 

So I'm pretty intrigued by this Disney-ified philosophy.  
The punch comes - you lose your job, you get divorced, 
you become ill, you get injured.  And maybe if you don't 
think you brought it on yourself by your negative energy, 
or take it as a sign that you must be putting out very 
low vibrations to have attracted this kind of matching event, 
or whatever, then you can just dust off yer britches and 
get back to enjoyin' the good things that are still happening 
all around you.  

Maybe when we think these awful events are in some way our 
own fault, it's harder to move on.  If we get stuck 
obsessing - what did I do wrong, how did I bring this 
upon myself, what's the lesson in this, what do I need 
to change, yadda yadda yadda, it's harder to pay attention 
to the good things happening right at this very moment.  
Guilt and anticipation are the perfect vehicles to carry 
us away from the here and now.

If our attention is engaged in either heading off future 
Knockdown Punches, or processing past ones, we're not 
noticing the gifts available to us in the present moment.   
We might miss the bird singing outside the window, or the 
dimple on the chin of that baby in the cart in front of 
us at the grocery store.

OK, so here's a Karen-ified version of the Disney-ified philosophy:

Sh-t happens. That's life.  Get over it.  
Look for what is good and beautiful. 

Short and sweet, yes?  

Kinda reminds me of yet another deep and respected philosophy 
that I'll happily misrepresent because I've lost track of how 
much is the real McCoy and how much is my own interpretation 
of it -- the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:  Life is suffering, 
Non-Attachment, and Pay Attention to the Present.  Uh-oh, that's 
only three. Well, anyway ...  you can look them up for yourself 
sometime on Google.  Hey, while you're there, check out whether 
Walt Disney has any roots in Buddhism and let me know ...

Life is suffering:  if you are alive, you will to some degree 
experience suffering.  No one leaves the table of Life without 
tasting some pain, sorrow, loss, or other unpalatable stuff 
like that.  Maybe you won't have to put yer yeller dog down, 
but it's always something.

Non-Attachment:  So don't take it personally.  Don't get stuck 
in suffering. Let go of it, so that when it lets go of you, 
you're both free to mosey on along your separate ways.

Be Present:  Come to the Now, do not get lost in your mind.  
Take a breath, watch the antics of mind without believing 
them to be the truth, and pay attention to what is happening 
in each moment.  Sure, Old Yeller's gone, but hey, that puppy 
he fathered is nipping at your heels and wants to play!

So, there you go.  Pithy wisdom from the minds of Karen and Walt.  
What a team!!

I'd love to hear from you - write on in and say howdy!  
(and by the way, if any Buddhists out there feel inspired 
to correct my botched descriptions, please do!)

take care,
karen

p.s. I have to tell you, when I ran spell check on this email 
my computer started quaking and little wisps of smoke puffed 
out of the speakers.  I took an awful lot o' literary liberties 
here today.  Hope you could follow it better than my spell 
checker could!  I had to promise to give it the rest of the night off.