Tag Archives: Reflections
Aside

Courage Camp: Yes is the Answer

15 Aug

At the end of June I attended Courage Camp, in Avignon, France. In many ways and (to be truthful) quite unexpectedly, it was the start of something potentially transformational. I’ll share more and put it into a more professional context another time. What follows is my very personal reflection. Courage is a practice, and sharing something as personal as this here is part of my own process.

The answer is: Yes.

I’ve been thinking about the symbol I created to represent my personal courage and encapsulate the experience I was having at Courage Camp, in that time and place. And indeed, it was an at-the-moment manifestation of the internal movement that Courage Camp was provoking. The provocations continue, were I to be honest.

When the original idea was pitched – that we were all to develop our own symbol of courage to paint in semi-permanence on the wall – I had a notion about sowing seeds. Growth and renewal. Nurture and harvest. You know, all that crap. I did some sketches and felt settled on the idea.

But as the moment approached, I allowed something else to reveal itself.

  • Why was that particular song playing over and over in my head?

  • Why did the phrase I often use suddenly seem even more apt than ever? You can’t push the river.

  • Why was a blog post I wrote three years ago suddenly in mind? When you get to the fork in the road, take it.

  • Why do I so often say no to being courageous? What am I afraid of?

  • Why is David’s ghost hanging over me today?

Believe me when I say this is not like me. It is not. I closed my eyes and listened… Yes is the answer.

I lost David in December 2016 – truly a brother in every sense of the word but genetic. We’d been friends since we were 12. He died in a traffic accident in Uganda, while working on a documentary film about refugees from Sudan. He was the most courageous person I ever knew. He was also funny as hell, incredibly creative, and a real pain in the ass much of the time. He was a Yes Man.*

Want to take a road trip? Yes!

Jump off this cliff into the water? Yes!

Walk on the wrong side of the fence? Yes!

Go to Africa to make a film?

* I am very aware on the non-gender neutral term here. Since I am using it ironically to reflect off the original negative connotation of “Yes Man,” please forgive the anachronism. 

So, the symbol is a Y, of course. Yes.

Courage Symbols

But it is also a fork, and inflexion point, a decision to make and from which there is no return. Blue, the river flows and spills forward and down to the sea to be taken in by unimaginable vastness. I leave my mark on the wall. I may return to look at it again, but the moment will be gone. Yes is also a kind of impermanence.

There is an apocryphal story about the first time John Lennon met Yoko Ono. Yoko was already a known artist in the London avant-garde scene of the mid-60s (talk about courage – a single Japanese woman travels to London in the 1960s to be an artist!).  One the installations was a high-ceilinged white room with a nothing but a tall white ladder in the center. Above the ladder hung a magnifying glass. John climbed the ladder and used the glass to look at the black spot floating on the white ceiling: YES.

It made an impression. In 1973, he wrote Mind Games, the title song of his album of the same name. It is a beautiful piece, one of my favorite Lennon songs.  As the soundtrack in my head, that song left its mark on me that day in Avignon. The proof is on the wall.

Yes is the answer. You know that for sure. / Yes is surrender. You’ve got to let it go.

Addendum:

Mind Games was the first album that John Lennon produced on his own. To be honest, I think he covered up several beautiful songs with overproduction and unneeded flourishes. It’s my opinion to take or leave.

I have been playing Mind Games (the song) on my guitar for many years, and so I include my own version of it, recorded just here and now (18 July, 2018; Geneva), on my phone with my travel-sized Martin guitar.

I encourage you to listen to the original if you are unfamiliar with it. John Lennon’s was a beautiful voice, instantly recognizable and unlike any other. I believe he, too, was a Yes Man.

Me? A work in progress.

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Things I learned on my trip to India

4 Dec

I recently returned from an amazing 20 days in India (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan). It was overwhelming (in a good way), and I’ll be processing my experiences for quite some time. Just last night I dreamt about being in the beautiful desert city of Jodhpur.

Inspired by Kate Pinner’s frequent reflections on her life and how it relates to our chosen profession, I thought I would share my half-baked reflections even as they are still being sorted.

  1. Chaos is normal, and fuels productive activity
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(Old) Delhi, on the eve of Diwali, November 9, 2015.

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I’m not sure I’d been so happy to see the other side of the street.

I heard it constantly during our journey: “India is ‘organized chaos, but somehow it all works.’” It’s a pretty apt description. I have seen traffic in Boston, Bangkok and on the Bay Bridge, but nothing was like Delhi on the eve of Diwali. The key to getting through the cacophony of cars, trucks, ox carts, tuk-tuks and pedestrians is to be both single-minded and good humored about the moving maze. One large man walked by our rickshaw as it inched forward, and said with a wide smile, “Welcome to India!” Indeed. Chaos, cross-traffic and distractors are the reality for most of us, and best option is determined acceptance rather than short-tempered resistance.

  1. There’s power in diversity

I knew of course that India was a very diverse country, but as compared to North America it is remarkable how people intermingle. Whatever the divides of religion, region, caste, income, education, etc., people are in constant contact with each other (literally). Where in the US, folks can live in a gated suburb or specific ethnic enclave without much rubbing shoulders with others, in India the mix and flow seems constant. I think that is truly to the benefit of all, no matter what tensions may exist.

  1. Specialization works when part of the tight tapestry (network)
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Each vendor sells one thing, and one thing only…

India still appears to be a land of specialization. I saw very few supermarkets or “box” stores. Primarily, if something needed to be purchased or a service provided, you went to the specialist. The knife vendor didn’t also sell saws, the barber didn’t also sell high-end shampoos, and the vegetable vendor sold vegetables, not fruits, canned goods or condiments. But, since each specialist is in close proximity of hundreds (thousands?) of others, one can frequent the expert, the favorite vendor, on the way to and from all the others. All things being equal, I’d rather by my cookware from a cookware vendor than from a department store (or Amazon). You?

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…And there are thousands of vendors. Find whatever you need on the narrow streets of (Old) Delhi. Here, Diwali decorations.

  1. Say “Yes!”

This is true for travel – and life in general: Let your first and last answer to opportunities be yes. But even more so in India, where every single day, all day, there was something new, fascinating, thought-provoking and unexpected. When we spent a day at a tiger nature reserve, I was not feeling well at all. Through the morning drive, where we didn’t spot a tiger or much else, my head cold was terrible. I almost decided to skip the afternoon drive, as the bouncing and dust was hard on my head, and the chance of seeing a tiger was not good. But at the last minute I said yes, and was rewarded for it beyond my dreams….

India Nov 2015 1444

India Nov 2015 1480

Thank you, India (apologies, A. Morissette)

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