For a deeper dive – over 500 posts on life, mind, body & spirit
In my previous post I explained why TV is really junk food for the mind. Now I would invite you to watch something worthwhile and enjoyable. Take 20 minutes to listen to an amazing concert performance worthy of Queen Elizabeth herself, who heard it too.
You may also like The Guest and No “Big Scream TV”
Fideism (pronounced “fee-day-ism”) is a Christian heresy that can best be explained as blind obedience to any external authority, be it educational, religious, governmental or even medical. Basically, whenever we make a decision because someone else told us we should, we have succumbed to fideism. We have handed over our own personal authority and choice to someone or something outside of ourselves.
Choices we make, must be made by learning as much as we can from others, but then ultimately discerning what God wants for us in the deepest interior of our hearts. Put another way, we must form our own conscience well, listen carefully (to those outside, but also to our interior) and then make our own decisions.
But fideism happens in other ways too. We often hear people say something like “I’ll be happy when . . .” fill in the dots; I get married, my spouse stops drinking, get that job, finish school, buy a house, have children, etc. Again, this is also fideism. When we do this we are handing over our own choice for happiness to an external person, situation or thing. Our choice for happiness is a decision that we make for ourselves. It is not dependent on exterior events, persons or situations. Our interior state is not dependent on exterior things.
Actually, you already know this, because we all know people who have been happy in spite of living in terrible situations. Think of Dietrich Boenhoffer or Nelson Mandella. Etty Hillesum is another example. Read her book An Interrupted Life for an uplifting look at a young woman who chooses for love and happiness in the midst of tragic circumstances.
Ultimately, we need to inform ourselves, face reality as it really is (and this is not always easy), listen to our own hearts, then make our own decisions.
You may also like Happiness is a Choice, What is Your Story? and Inner Peace – Healthy Self Talk.
With Thanksgiving weekend upon us, perhaps you are looking for some thoughtful films to watch after the feast?
Here are two provocative Asian films I viewed recently that I can highly recommend. Both are available on Netflix – watch instantly. They will challenge your ideas of cultural expectations – for dying, living and eating.
The first is a film entitled Departures. A subtitled film about the ritual of caring for the dead in Japan. The cinematography is magnificent as are the rituals with their fabrics, and stylized movements. The touching care for the dead and their families parallels the directors handling of the topic of death itself. Interwoven is a love story about the ability of two people to learn that entering into love and life require trust. Food too, plays an interesting role in the story.
The second film is Eat Drink Man Woman. This story (subtitled) takes place in a household in Taiwan where it is the father who cooks. He is a professional chef who also enjoys cooking traditional, sumptuous, Chinese cuisine for his three daughters. However, they are less than enthusiastic about attending his elaborate Sunday dinners. Each daughter has a coming of age story which emerges in the film. There is a surprising twist at the end as the shackles of culture and family expectations are released.
You may also like Fresh, the Movie, The Human Experience, and Movie Waitress – It’s All in the Pie.
As it happens I have another interesting book to share with you – The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel. Author Aimee Bender explores the intriguing idea of the main character, Rose, being able to taste the emotions of someone else in the food they prepare.
Ultimately, isn’t this a skill that we all need to have – to be able to feel another’s emotions as if they were our own? Isn’t this what it means to be compassionate?
This reviewer explains the story well –
“If I had been asked to rate this novel on the basis of the first fifty pages, I might have given it 3 stars; however, Bender is so expert at building emotions through her fairy-tale magic realism that, after I read the final words, I sighed with pleasure at a story well-told. Narrator Rose is burdened with a terrible “gift.” She can taste the emotions of the cook in every bite she eats, whether that cook is her depressed mother or a rushed restaurant chef or the person who grew the herbs. When Rose tastes the bitterness and betrayals in her parents’ marriage, she finds herself on her knees in gratitude for the school vending machine and its array of impersonally processed junk food. Her brother Joseph has a problem as well; he wants nothing more than to be left alone, to be divorced from the dysfunctional family, to disappear from the restrictions of his life. The two understand each other only as siblings can, even though they refuse to accept, at least at first, the peculiarities of the other. It takes George, Joseph’s brilliant friend, to release both of them, albeit in different ways.” Debbie Lee Wesselmann, May, 2010.
I liked this novel because again, it provides another way to view reality that is transformative for the reader. See if this is true for you too.
You may also like The Boy Who Harnassed the Wind, and Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (Harper, 2010) is an entertaining and inspiring story of what just one person can do to transform and entire community.
Using his own life story and the entertaining cultural stories handed down in his African village, William describes how experiences in his own life moved him toward using his own creativity, vision and ingenuity to bring electricity to an entire community and the hopeful changes that come with it.
His rich telling of the story immediately places you squarely within this remote Malawian village, witnessing their daily life and struggles.
But it also speaks to the importance of allowing local people to find local solutions that best fit their community and situations.
“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. It will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual’s ability to change his or her community and better the lives of those around them.”
Watch William explain his book for yourself, on this 1-minute YouTube video.
For another book idea consider The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz posted at Why We Should Listen, or check out New Books and 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life.