March 29, 2022

THE WAR

 

Watched a movie video this evening with Denis.  It was his day off and he rented it. Never heard of it: “The War.”

 

It was about a guy – Stephen Simmons - coming home from “The War” and then a mental hospital – because of “The War” and how his life impacts the lives of his wife and two kids.

 

The only actor in the movie whom I ever heard of was Kevin Costner. He played his regular part: the caring, the understanding, the struggling person.

 

For me, the key line in the movie, and I also think the whole plot of the movie, was this: Kevin Costner says to his wife in a moment of struggle, “My dad used to say, ‘Nothing you’re going to do in this life is going to make a difference.”

 

That hit me right in my mind. I got up and found a piece of paper – a napkin – and jotted it down.

 

I want to make a difference – but I won’t change the world.  It’s a pretty big place.

 

Is that what his father meant?

 

Yet I hope I am making a difference in the lives of the people I know, love and serve.

 

Then the movie proved that our lives make a difference in the lives of those we meet.

 

In Vietnam, Kevin tried to save the life of a buddy – but he didn’t. He tried carrying him on his shoulders to the safety of a helicopter – but he had to leave him there on the ground and fly away.

 

That became his nightmare – but he also had a dream: to make a difference – and he did.

 

I’ll have to look at that movie again – on some day off.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022

March  29,  2022

 

Thought for Today

 

 

“Life isn’t a science; we make it up as we go along.”

Al Hirschfeld

March 28, 2022

 

 MY  DEMONS

 

 

Found the following scribbled in one of my notebooks, “In Edward Albee’s play, ‘A Delicate Balance’, Mother says we sleep to let the demons out.’”

 

Never saw the play, nor do I know where I found that comment. All I know is that it must have hit me then that I have demons and I realize it also hits me now.

 

Demons ….

 

Never really thought much about demons, Never read much about demons. I do know that the Bible mentions demons.

 

Demons….

 

Well, what about them?

 

Who has done work on demons? Is there a good book on them? Are there lists and types of demons?

 

I don’t know.

 

Next question: do I believe in them?

 

I must think so, because when I read Albee’s words, I found myself asking, “Well, what are my demons?”

 

If according to Albee, sleep is the key, then the stuff of my dream are greed and need, laziness and jealousy, lust and fear.  Those are main energies – capital sin stuff. They are the stuff of my demons – procrastination but mostly fear.

 

They are there when I wake up in jumble of forgotten things I failed to do -  and sometimes – but very rarely does the demon of anger appear.

 

So I don’t feel like the characters in the Gospel of Mark – who seem to have whole boatloads  of demons – demons that shriek out [1:24] and who want a wild ride in pigs down a hill side and into the lake to drown [5:13].

 

According to the Enneagram my sin is pride.

 

Come to think about this -after reading Albee’s comment once again. It fits. Albee is right. I want to be loved and liked and I fear making mistakes in public and being rejected. Who wants that stuff?

 

So I hope this piece is something you can try on as well as me. Amen.

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022

March  28,  2022

 

Thought for Today

 

“What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.”

Aristotle

March 27, 2022

TECHNICOLOR

 

 

How do you see life?   In black and white or in technicolor?

 

How do you dream? In black and white or in technicolor?

 

I’ve heard people say that they dream in black and white.  I didn’t believe them – because I assume dreams are scenes from everyday life – much of the time – jumbled up – but based on real life – and real life is in technicolor.

 

Movies have been in black and white – and television programs – and you can still catch them that way.

 

Then there’s the comment that some movies have been ruined – because they have been colorized.

 

One day my nephew Michael said something that really surprised me.  He died back in 1977 – so I don’t remember if they had a color TV at the time or not.  

 

I had taken him and his brother and one sister at the time to the movies.

 

The movie was Popi.

 

We got home and at supper his dad asked, “Well, how did you like the movie”?

 

Michael said something that intrigued me. He said, “The movie began in black and white and then switched to technicolor.”

 

I didn’t notice that as I watched that movie with them that afternoon.

 

Afterwards I checked it out. The whole movie was in color.

 

I asked myself, “What got a small kid to say, ‘The movie  began in black and white and then switched to color.”

 

So I asked Michael, “When did it switch to color?”

 

He answered, “When they left  Spanish Harlem and moved to Florida.”

 

How do you see life: in black and white or in technicolor?

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022

 

 

March  27,  2022

 

Thought for Today

 

“The heart speaks in many ways.”

Racine

 March 26, 2022

Reflection