Listening Inside – Out
“The Sound of Insects,” diary of a man who fasts and dies.
“Proof,” Gwyneth Paltrow performs a stellar role as a troubled caretaker of a mathematician whose father, (Anthony Hopkins) is lost in his own world. Gripping story of courage.
“The Soloist,” about Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the virtuoso cellist from the Mission District in L.A. who loses his way but not his courage and rewards Paul Lopez with his friendship.
The story of Temple Grandin of overcoming loss and becoming a member of the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
“A Beautiful Mind,” another extraordinary true story of courage and conviction leading us to realize that “the sum of all my reasons for the point of my life is my wife.” Explaining and extrapolating the impact of mental health on families and how they are always the first and best line of defense in mental health.
There are a few others that I’d add to the film series and discussion that would be worthwhile to explore and process. When I am able to remember I will forward them to you.
Nathaniel Anthony Ayers‘ mother treasured him and blended with him in his tormented veil of tears. She lavished him with attention and he responded with frightening and threatening gestures, still, she chased after him in an effort to come to his aid no matter what. She placed her own life at risk and died in part from fear and torment that she could not reach her son, her sweet and tragic hero.
There was no one else who loved Anthony or “Tony,” as many referred to him more than his mother. Mothers have this special place for their families that nourishes and sustains them as stewards in the most profound sense. Anthony would never have accomplished what he aspired to, which was to envelope himself in music if not for the stimulation and adulation of his mother. Unhappily, a genetic disposition of the firing of the neurons of his brain poisoned him and left him unable to comprehend the real world except in rare moments.
His music transcended the darkness and the losses, filling him with a sense of his mother’s passion and gifts for him. The two connected in a deeper more resonant way in which mothers make possible. Everyone in Anthony’s family were good shepherds of their brother and yet they, nor could anyone protect him from the ravages of what went roiling around in his mind. Nor could they affect the world around Anthony that blew through him like a gale. Anthony loved and respected people. Anthony asked for nothing in return but to listen and be his friend. Nathaniel Anthony Ayers asked people to know his name. We remember him thanks to his pervasive spirit overcoming all adversity.
This is what all of us expect. There are lovers and stewards of the earth, whose partners in this world have compassion and spirit to connect with the divine within. Anthony is one of the most blessed of all beings because he has a gentleness and lack of ego that allows him to sit and look at the world as everything is seen in a kaleidoscopic panorama from horizon to horizon, from moment to moment, and in every nuance of the shade and star light that impacts heaven.
We are fortunate for the blessings that we have of good health and a chance to make a home some where safe and warm. We are blessed in having peace and comfort from those who embrace us. We are grateful for the bards who sing us to sleep and whisper, “hush nothing is going to harm you, baby, nothing’s going to harm my baby.” In this refrain we see the promise of forgiveness and beauty that nourishes all kindred spirits and calls us to come home.
♥ The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness. ♥
In all of our efforts to live and breathe we sustain whatever we can do together.. All of our efforts are based on our connections to one another. All of our losses are based on disconnections and efforts to blame whatever goes awry on the other or interminably punishing ourselves for all loss.
