If you stumble, pick yourself up and search for your place under the sun.
Make the best of everything and do all things to the best of your ability. There is a place under the sun waiting for you.
Rock the boat, but do it no harm.
Leave no footprints, Leave just legends.
Most have heard of this book. Some haven't. Let me find you some thought provoking excerpts -
**
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
"In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice."
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."
**
I am beginning to realise slowly that I, perhaps, shall never find the meaning of life. But, I can make my life more meaningful. It will be more meaningful when I rise to all the challenges, moral and ethical, I face in every moment of my life. That I live up to my expectations. That I set high expectations for my sense of justice and wisdom, truth and courage, for my integrity.
That I am my own legend, in my own way, in my circle of influence.
[ Note- Apologies if the last sentence seems to have been inspired by the new Will Smith movie title.]
The other day, during one of the many arguments with Sgt Tpy, he uttered something outrageous- "Guys need to be witty, girls just need to be pretty."
No, Sisters, he is still alive. I didnt kill him. I know. I am slacking. I shall. Soon. Promise.
I am going to vacation here -
Am i excited? Sorta. Well, I cant rub it into my sister's face though cuz she beat me to a more fancy place - Hawaii.
Am I packed? About two days ago.
What will I be reading on the trip? Machiavelli's The Prince
Have I packed sunscreen? The anti tan doesnt work on me. So, I am gonna come back only 23 shades darker.
Have I cleared work? umm. ummm.
There is a secret club out there – a club that belongs to die hard fans of the movie The Lion In Winter (ever heard of this movie? At least seen the play? No? Shame on you! Weep tears of repentance this very instant!) I belong to it. Before I continue raving about it, I should probably tell you what the heck this movie is about.
The Story
King Henry II (the aging king at 50 .. hence the metaphor, the lion in winter) wants his youngest son, John (later Mad King John), to succeed him as the King of England. Eleanor of Aquitaine, his estranged Queen, wants Richard to be king (later King Richard the Lionheart). Henry's mistress Alais, sister of King Philip of France has her own ideas. Verbal assassinations, broken alliances, wanton liaisons, and sharp-tongued banter spice medieval intrigue with contemporary wit.
What LA Times said, "The Lion in Winter has more wit in every speech than some hits have in an entire evening...a growling, snarling, skin-piercing, skull rattling exhibit couched in marvellously articulate language with humour that bristles and burns." -Los Angeles Times."
The Talent
Katherine Hepburn won an Oscar for this. Never seen why people go gaga over this actresses. She is good, but she aint Bette-Davis-good in my opinion. So what if she wore pants on screen when no woman dared to in the 30s and 40s? But, after this movie, I grudgingly admit that Katherine Hepburn's performance is unparalleled and incomparable.
Now, lets get started with Peter O'Toole's performance. Words fail me.
All those people who have never seen a single O'Toole movie in his heydays, remember the recent animation, Ratatouille? Don't you think the voice of the food critic Anton Ego moved the movie from the Average lot to the Good lot? Remember the critic's monologue towards the end? "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment…" Well do you know who rendered the voice for Ego? Peter O'Toole. So, if a voice can do so much for a movie, can you imagine what a form and a face can do? Need I say more? His bellows, his insecurities, his wily ways, his courage, his desolation and his wit...
There is this one scene in which he discovers the treachery of all of his sons. He utters the below dialogue to a room with his sons and King Philip but addressing no one in particular with a look of utter desolation and yet towering strength that .. that… well, you get the point.
"My life, when it is written, will read better than it lived.
Henry Fitz-Empress, first Plantagenet, a king at twenty-one, the ablest soldier of an able time. He led men well, he cared for justice when he could and ruled, for thirty years, a state as great as Charlemagne's. He married out of love, a woman out of legend. Not in Alexandria, or Rome, or Camelot has there been such a queen. She bore him many children. But no sons. King Henry had no sons. He had three whiskered things but he disowned them"
The Dialogues
Marvellous! Wicked! Leaves you gobsmacked! Few movies come this close to intelligent, meaningful dialogue.
A sampling of the dialogues:
[Upon seeing his wife after she arrives for Christmas Court]
Henry II: Ha! What shall we hang... the holly, or each other?
Eleanor: How dear of you to let me out of prison.
Henry II: It's only for the holidays.
Eleanor: What would you have me do? Give out? Give up? Give in?
Henry II: Give me a little peace.
Eleanor: A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there's a thought.
Prince Richard: I am a constant soldier, a sometimes poet and I will be king.
Prince Richard: I will have the crown
Henry II: You will have what Daddy gives you.
Prince Richard <shouting>: I am next in line!
Henry II <bellowing>: To nothing!
Prince John: I thought I'd come and gloat a little.
Eleanor: Mother's tired. Come stick pins tomorrow morning; I'll be more responsive.
Prince John: A knife! He's [Prince Richard] got a knife!
Eleanor: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars.
This dialogue is really powerful, especially in the turbulent 60s with the V war and everything.
Prince Geoffrey: I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know.
[smiles]
Prince Geoffrey: We're a knowledgeable family.
I was reading Xenephon's Memorable Thoughts on Socrates the other day and was quite captivated by this certain chapter that shows Socrates in great light. Read on, you shan't be bored. At least read the bolded parts. I thought they were pretty fantastic.
CHAPTER VI. THE DISPUTE OF SOCRATES WITH ANTIPHON, THE SOPHIST.
It will not be amiss to relate, for the honour of Socrates, what passed between him and the sophist Antiphon, who designed to seduce away his hearers, and to that end came to him when they were with him, and, in their presence, addressed himself to him in these words:—"I imagined, Socrates, that philosophers were happier than other men; but, in my opinion, your wisdom renders you more miserable, for you live at such a rate that no footman would live with a master that treated him in the same manner. You eat and drink poorly, you are clothed very meanly—the same suit serves you in summer and winter—you go barefoot, and for all this you take no money, though it is a pleasure to get it; for, after a man has acquired it, he lives more genteely and more at his ease. If, therefore, as in all other sorts of arts, apprentices endeavour to imitate their masters, should these who frequent your conversation become like you, it is certain that you will have taught them nothing but to make themselves miserable."
Socrates answered him in the following manner:—"You think, Antiphon, I live so poorly that I believe you would rather die than live like me. But what is it you find so strange and difficult in my way of living? You blame me for not taking money; is it because they who take money are obliged to do what they promise, and that I, who take none, entertain myself only with whom I think fit? You despise my eating and drinking; is it because my diet is not so good nor so nourishing as yours, or because it is more scarce and dearer, or lastly, because your fare seems to you to be better? Know that a man who likes what he eats needs no other ragoût, and that he who finds one sort of drink pleasant wishes for no other. As to your objection of my clothes, you appear to me, Antiphon, to judge quite amiss of the matter; for, do you not know that we dress ourselves differently only because of the hot or cold weather, and if we wear shoes it is because we would walk the easier? But, tell me, did you ever observe that the cold hath hindered me from going abroad? Have you ever seen me choose the cool and fresh shades in hot weather? And, though I go barefoot, do not you see that I go wherever I will? Do you not know that there are some persons of a very tender constitution, who, by constant exercise, surmount the weakness of their nature, and at length endure fatigues better than they who are naturally more robust, but have not taken pains to exercise and harden themselves like the others? Thus, therefore, do not you believe that I, who have all my life accustomed myself to bear patiently all manner of fatigues, cannot now more easily submit to this than you, who have never thought of the matter? If I have no keen desire after dainties, if I sleep little, if I abandon not myself to any infamous amour, the reason is because I spend my time more delightfully in things whose pleasure ends not in the moment of enjoyment, and that make me hope besides to receive an everlasting reward. Besides, you know very well, that when a man sees that his affairs go ill he is not generally very gay; and that, on the contrary, they who think to succeed in their designs, whether in agriculture, traffic, or any other undertaking, are very contented in their minds. Now, do you think that from anything whatsoever there can proceed a satisfaction equal to the inward consciousness of improving daily in virtue, and acquiring the acquaintance and friendship of the best of men? And if we were to serve our friends or our country, would not a man who lives like me be more capable of it than one that should follow that course of life which you take to be so charming? If it were necessary to carry arms, which of the two would be the best soldier, he who must always fare deliciously, or he who is satisfied with what he finds? If they were to undergo a siege who would hold out longest, he who cannot live without delicacies, or he who requires nothing but what may easily be had? One would think, Antiphon that you believe happiness to consist in good eating and drinking, and in an expensive and splendid way of life. For my part, I am of opinion that to have need of nothing at all is a divine perfection and that to have need but of little is to approach very near the Deity, and hence it follows that, as there is nothing more excellent than the Deity, whatever approaches nearest to it is likewise most near the supreme excellence."