Moody Meditations On Middle Age – Pt. 2 – It Ain’t About How Hard You Can Hit…

I was pregnant and on a trans-Atlantic flight, sitting next to a guy I think was a Harley-Davidson mechanic. I kid you not. He was all tatted and goateed up and I was… well…bulging and hormonal. The movie on this flight was Rocky. Not the original. The sixth one. Where Rocky is truly an old man and looking for one more shot in the ring. I know, I know… I thought the same thing. “Come on…how many times will they make the same movie over and over again…” But I was wrong. So wrong.

This movie is a beautiful mediation on desire. On growing old. On the importance of identity and relationship and accomplishment. On fear and the choices we make. Well written, well acted – and even though I was sure it was going to bomb, it won me over totally. Sort of like Rocky in the ring. Don’t ever count him out.

And somewhere in the middle of it, it made me cry. No, it made me sob. What moved me was Rocky’s speech to his son, where he is trying to encourage him to become all he can be. It is a dramatic reversal in that while Rocky is the one going into the ring, it is his son who is afraid.

He said something so profound, so uniquely targeted to where I was in life that it literally opened my heart right then and there, right next to Harley-guy and in the midst of a plane full of strangers. Let me quote some of the speech and highlight the part that undid me.

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that! 

This is a lesson from middle age. By this time, most of us have figured out just how hard life can hit. We’ve realized we won’t get many of the dreams we had in our youth. We’ve felt the pain of a sucker punch, a roundhouse to the gut that takes the wind out of us. We’ve lost things. We’ve maybe come to grips with our average-ness and the fact that we don’t hit nearly as hard as we thought we did.

And a decision is in our corner now. In fact, I would suggest that middle age is really about choices. For me, much of the first half of my life involved many happy accidents. God’s providence guiding me to the right place at the right time. I didn’t really know what I was doing most of the time. But now…I know… And the questions are, “What will I do with what I know now? What will I do with this Jesus I’ve loved for years, but not really understood? What will I do with the gifts and talents and resources given me? Who will I become as I continue to walk the road of sanctification and transformation into who God made me to be?” 

Will I quit? And there are lots of ways to quit by the way. You can leave the ring literally, or just begin sleep-walking through the motions. Checking out emotionally. Doing just enough to maintain and medicate. Many do. Or am I brave enough to stay in the ring, take the hits and keep moving forward?

Cause that’s how winning is done.

A Connecting Song

Sometimes songs connect. That is their power. Melody, words, rhythm, emotion – they engage not just the brain, but the heart. And God loves to walk into our hearts and meet us right where we live. This is the song that is connecting with my heart right now.

Ricky Gervais Singing A Celebrity Lullaby

In an effort to lighten the mood on the blog…

This made me laugh out loud and reminded my why I 1) think Ricky Gervais is hilarious and 2) think the British sense of humor is just awesome!!!

The Art of Communication

I’m a communicator – hey, we all are! God has wired us this way and we can’t help ourselves. We’ve got things in our hearts that we’ve just got to get out! We long to connect with others and our words are the pathway relationship travels on. Yet communicating well, so people can clearly hear what you are really saying, is a tremendous challenge. With that in mind, this clever and unbelievably well-worded video spoke to me! Enjoy!

Then of course, below is a classic example of communication that totally works while breaking all the rules. Full of slang, bad English and all manner of terrible speaking habits (gum, “so”, and “like…”) Cher still manages to make her point quite effectively in a debate about the Haitians. This is still one of my favorite movies, just for the dialogue.

David Blaine – Holding His Breath For 17 minutes

This is one of the most unbelievable things I’ve ever seen. It is David Blaine giving a TED talk on how he trained himself to hold his breath for 17 minutes. When he gets to the part where he tells the audience of medical professionals how he would practice only breathing for 8 minutes out of 52, you can see the disbelief on their faces. He dropped 50 lbs in 3 months to do this. While he doesn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed, you have got to be amazed at his discipline to accomplish what seems impossible.

America!

Also, in honor of the 4th of July (just a day late) here’s Neil Diamond’s America, which is my favorite pop patriotic song. An over the top performance? You bet it is! It’s Neil Diamond. And we Americans aren’t exactly known for our subtlety. But wow, the man can put on a show! Even if you don’t like this, you can’t deny, he’s got the audience eating out of his hand. And there is something embedded in the heart of most Americans… maybe it is the realization of how blessed we are in this nation, that we can’t help but be joyfully patriotic when the 4th of July comes around. “On the boats and on the planes…they’re coming to America. Today!” Enjoy!

Awesome Fun Around The World

We all knew the Belgians (first video) had a great sense of humor, but the Swedes too (second video)? And of course everyone knows the Americans love a good party. (third video),

I’m A J.J. Abrams Geek

“Mystery is the catalyst for imagination.”

“Mystery is more important than knowledge.”

“No community is best served when only the elite have control.”

I am a big J.J. Abrams fan. For those of you who are un-initiated, he is the creator behind Lost, Alias (my all-time favorite tv show), Mission Impossible III and the new rebooted Star Trek. He’s also coming out with a new movie called Super 8 this weekend. While this talk was given several years ago, interestingly enough, he gives us a glimpse of where this movie comes from. No doubt, he knows how to tell a story and communicate truth about mystery: about relationships, emotion, action, memory and all the things that stir our hearts. He knows that it isn’t the big explosions that make a great movie. Instead, it is the investment we make in the characters beforehand that makes us care about the explosion that creates a compelling story. I heard him give this TED talk a while back and was fascinated. He is discussing what it is about mystery that speaks to us and how he goes about his creative process – which all of us can do. Of course if you’ve read my blog at all for any length of time, you know that where art collides with a heart is one of the Intersections I love to explore. How artists create is absolutely fascinating for me and this TED talk is one of the best.

A Mother’s Prayer by Tina Fey

This is an excerpt from Tina Fey’s book Bossypants. While it contains some language and a few more graphic descriptions than I would personally write for publishing, there is much here that I’ve also prayed in some form or another for my daughters. (O Lord, please, no tattoos! Break the internet forever!) I admit it, parts of this made me laugh out loud. So, in honor of Mother’s Day, hope you enjoy!

Just To Lighten The Blog Mood

I know I’m so late to  the whole Friday Rebecca Black party that I might as well not even show up. But her video has been seen 127 million times? Seriously? While I have to admit, this is probably the silliest song I’ve EVER heard (Cereal, which seat to sit in? The apocalypse is finally upon us!) this kickin’ cover proves that ear worms come in all shapes and sounds. http://youtu.be/x2yMVkWtmdk

Francis Chan on the Balance Beam – Me on the Balance Beam

Francis Chan depicts how our lives must look to God. Sort of like the most boring, safest balance beam routine ever. Makes me wonder about my routine.

My Favorite Commercial Of All Time

It’s the attention to detail (the arm slings, the lint brushes and rolling up balls of yarn) and the way they got these crusty old men to do this with a straight face (“His face is just ripped to shreds.”) …I laugh every time. And the imagery of herding cats – what an appropriate metaphor for anyone who wants to lead people!

An Interesting Analysis of Creativity

(The Why I Love Art series part 6)

Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love and here she is giving a Ted talk discussing the nature, origins and cost of creativity. Why are creatives/artists afraid of the work they were put on this earth to do? Why are artists often so self-destructive? How do we encourage those in creative fields to cultivate their gifts and not let those gifts drive them crazy? She gives an attempt at answering these and similar questions, all in 20 minutes.

Hopefully we’ve all had experiences in creating something, where it seems that “it” just created itself. It is why we talk about being “inspired”, as if it was just breathed in to us at that moment. It is fascinating to listen to her link creativity to the divine and to recognize that there is something bigger and higher than us, allowing and leading us to create, that our talents are on loan to us and not entirely our own. While she isn’t speaking from a Christian perspective, let me repeat, she isn’t speaking as a Christian, her analysis of creativity, from a person in a creative field, is very interesting.

It was also encouraging to hear her describe her creative process as just showing up to work everyday. There is nothing magical about it for most people, just discipline. Then, sometimes God just adds something to it. When that happens, it becomes so much more than it is. But she has to faithfully do her part.

Why I Love Art- it connects

(The Why I Love Art series, pt. 6)

Have you ever watched an episode of Behind The Actor’s Studio? It’s an interview where artists talk about their art and how they got to where they are today. If you’ve seen the show at all, you know there are three recurring themes among most of the actors who appear on the show – they come from a broken home, they have at least one tattoo and they’ve struggled with an addictive/destructive behavior. Interesting that, like Munch whom I wrote about earlier, for some reason creatives tend to be pain-filled and self-destructive.

I find this video fascinating  and illustrates what I love about artists. Artists identify their pain and articulate it for the rest of us. One reason I enjoy the show is that actors, of all people, are in touch with the condition of their heart. It’s part of their job to know what’s going on in there and to be able to channel it to touch the rest of us. They want to move us emotionally, connecting us with a character or a theme, so that we engage with their message. At their core, actors, like other artists are just communicators. They are dying to tell us something. Sometimes literally.

This video is the first of 5 parts and is about 10 minutes long. It really gets going at about the 2 minute mark and if you have time, I recommend watching it in its entirety.  In it Angelina Jolie describes her early years and how she became, not just an actress or celebrity, but an artist. Um, not surprisingly, it’s a shocking and tumultuous path.

As a Christ-follower, I’m interested in the condition of the human heart and soul and how we carry truth to those places. And is she ever in touch with those places. While AJ may say things that are quite mind-blowing for those of us out in the ‘burbs’, her brutal honesty and utter comfort with her pain and past is amazing to see. She is clearly a talented and charismatic communicator. By the way, this is just before the Brangelina hullaballo and just before she seemingly took on über-celebrity, not-quite-human status. Here she is just an Academy award-winning actress with a fascinating past. Interestingly enough, later in the interview she describes how she found her first son (who is all that she has at this point) in Cambodia.

I watch this and realize that so many people live in such a different world from me. Yet I want to connect with them right where they are. Not being stunningly beautiful or a famous movie star, I walked away from this video wondering how can I communicate the truth from inside my soul in a way that others understand and find compelling?

Artists have a clue about the answer to this question, and it’s one of the reasons I love art.

Is It Wrong To Cry At A LightBrite?

(Pt. 4 in the Why I Love Art series)

I appreciate creativity. Since it is one of the places where our lives intersect with God, it is part of what I want to explore and celebrate with this blog. When we take the things God has created and make something beautiful out of it, we reflect something of His image. And when we do it with the most common of things – say, a child’s toy – how cool is that?

I love the part where God grows new life out of tragedy. Even death can’t hold Him.

A Social Network Christmas

Saw this at church today. It made me laugh and cry, all at the same time. ]