Connections Are The Theme Of This Great Movie, And This Great Ad

See this movie! 

The other day I watched a fantastic science fiction movie called "Arrival."

In it, 12 spaceships land on various places on Earth.

A scientist and a linguist are dispatched to Montana, where one of the ships has landed, to determine what the aliens are saying and what they want.

This is no big War of The World kinda movie, but, without being more of a spoiler than I already am, is a meditation on perspectives, fear and bravery.

The movie encourages us to view things in different, novel ways, to see the other side, to see how connections work rogether, to see how people could potentially work together.

See that movie!

Along the same lines is a viral video that advetises a Dutch television network. They have groups of people come into a room: A rich group, a poor group, an immigrant group, a rural group, an urban group, etc.

Then the MC mixes and matches the group. Everybody who was the class clown stand together. Anyone who was ever bullied stand together.

There's a series of these mix and match groupings in the video, with this message: We can slice and dice any group we want, and no matter what, there are going to be commonalities and differences.

Us vs. Them goes out the window.

Here's the great video:

Boy 6 and 3/4 Years Old, Asks Neil deGrasse Tyson "What Is Meaning Of Life?" Answer Beyond Perfect

It turns ou Neil deGrasse Tyson knows what
the meaning of life is.  

Scientist and Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson gets some really tough questions while out on speaker tours.

Really tough.

But he seems to answer the queries just fine. More than fine.

Like the other night in Boston, when a kid named Jack, age 6 and 3/4, asked Tyson, "What is the meaning of life?"

Watch the video at the bottom of this post for Tyson's perfect answer, but here's a spoiler, in the form of part of Tyson's response:

"People ask that question on the assumption that meaning is something you can look for....'Here's the meaning. I've been looking for it.' It doesn't consider the possibility that meaning in life is something you create. 

You manufacture it for yourself and for others. Did I learn something that I didn't know yesterday, bringing me a little closer to knowing all that can be known in the universe?

To learn is to become closer to nature and to learn how things work gives you power to influence events. It gives you power to help people who might need it, power to help yourself, to shape a trajectory."

Tyson then urged Jack to jump in puddles, to pull out all the pots and pans in the house and bang on them with spoons. Jack's parents might object, but Tyson said he was overriding them and giving Jack his permission, because jumping in puddles and banging on pots are ways kids explore and learn.

It's a habit, Tyson said, that people should carry with them all their lives.  Tyson said he considers a day in which he didn't learn something as a day wasted.

Which makes me glad I stumbled upon the video, below, because I learned something today. You will, too.  

All Dogs (And People) Deserve To Roll Around In the Green Grass

Jackson the Cocker Spaniel tells us to
stop and roll in the grass, and smell
the spring air.  

Here in northwestern Vermont, Thursday evening brought us perfect spring weather. The sun was out, the sky was a deep blue.

The air had the first hint of summertime warmth and a strong, steady breeze made the air invigorating, and kept the black flies to a minimum.

In other words, I had to get busy, busy, busy with the gardening, the landscaping, the yard care. Pronto.

Jackson the Cocker Spaniel would have none of that. He ordered me to go outside with him, pointed at the new green grass, and said he must lie down in it.

And stay there.

Yep. The dog told me to Sit! Stay!

I complied, but was antsy at first. But soon I watched Jackson rolling around in the grass, and then face the wind. His nose twitched in a thousand different directions at once, absorbing every scent in the gusts.

Soon, I found myself doing the same thing. Just enjoying the different fragrances that flew past me in the breeze. The musky smell of the daffodils. The organic tone of the nearby forest coming to life. The season's first sweet hint of lilac.

I felt myself truly relaxing for the first time in days during this busy season.

Jackson the Cocker Spaniel was right as always. We're lucky to have the opportunity to enjoy moments like this, so enjoy them, dammit!

Which made a video I came across yesterday all the more poignant. It was another one of those beagle rescue videos from the Beagle Freedom Project that have been circulating around the past few years.

The beagles had been kept in cages all their lives for medical and beauty product testing. The video shows the beagles experiencing sunshine and green grass for the first time in their lives.

These are the moments Jackson, me, and most of the rest of us take for granted. That the beagles in the video, at first terrified of the brightness and the soft ground, waited so long to enjoy that is disgusting.

I can arguably see the need to test medical procedures on animals, but lipstick and eye shadow? Please.

Soon, the beagles in the video come to life, and discovered what Jackson the Cocker Spaniel already knows and what Jackson had to remind me of the other day.

To have a truly productive life, you need to stop and have "unproductive" moments of springtime bliss.

That means rolling around in the grass from time to time, and literally stopping to smell the roses.

Here's the beagle video, I told you about, but warning: Kleenex alert!!

"Much Loved" Old Teddy Bears Offer Poignant Photography, Comfortable Memories

Admit it.

Me, relaxing with my childhood teddy bear and
my favorite childrens'  book.  

You're probably an adult, and have been one for a long time.

But chances are, you still have the old teddy bear or other stuffed toy that, when you were little, could not be separated from, EVER.

And I bet you still would never part ways with Teddy. He's in your house somewhere, watching over you, protecting you, making you feel safe just like he did when you were three years old.

Along those lines, a photographer named Mark Nixon put together a book called "Much Loved" a collection of images showing very, very battered teddy bears and similar toys that had been hugged and hugged and hugged in times of childhood stress.

Their owners could never let go of these toys, even well into adulthood, and it's understandable why.

Here's what Nixon had to say about the project on the website BoingBoing:

"......I put the call out for people to bring in their much-loved teddies--the more loved, unwashed, and falling apart the better--to be photographed. I expeted it to be mostly children, but it soon became apparent that the idea appealed very much to adults, and that many of them were still very attached t their teddies. It was as though they had been keeping a long-held secret and could finally tell someone what their teddies really meant to them.

Their strength of feeling took me by surprise. While waiting they would tell some usually funny story about their teddy (How they had nearly lost it at some stage was a common theme) or would speak emotionally about what it meant to them. So the stories and memories became integral to the photographs, adding significance to them and bringing them to life."

Someone's childhood teddy bear
from the photography book "Much Loved"
 by Mark Nixon  

I can so relate to the people who had their teddy bears photographed by Nixon. I still have my childhood teddy bear, and I'm 51 years old.

Compared to the teddies in Nixon's photographs, mine's in pretty good shape. He still has his two golden eyes, and a brown button nose. His fur is matted with age, the bottoms of his white feet are dirty and his mouth is misshapen.

When I first had him, you could squeeze him and he'd say things like "I love you" but that feature broke a long, long time ago.

My teddy sits on a dresser drawer in the bedroom. He's joined by other child-like toys an items I collected as an adult. There's a stuffed Tasmanian devil, from Looney Tunes, that I bought more than two decades ago.

About four years ago, when I had to go into a surgery, my best friend Denis gave me a children's book called "The Gift Of Nothing" by Patrick McDonnell, which charmingly tells us the best thing we can give to our loved ones is time and friendship.

The book is most assuredly in that place of honor in my bedroom.  When I need a little encouragement after a setback that looms large but is really unimportant,  I read "The Gift of Nothing." It always helps immensely.

Lately, I've been obsessed with Minions from "Despicable Me," those cheerful, yellow pill shaped characters who happily soldier on despite all kinds of outlandish and humiliating mishaps

I'm not the least bit ashamed of having these childhood, or childlike items as important touchstones of my life.

We all have bad moments. We all have stress.  We keep our childhood teddy bears and add to our collection because we remember how we felt when Mom yelled at us, or classmate Susie said we were stinky, or we couldn't get the toy we wanted.

The toy panda bear photographer
Mark Nixon had when he was a kid.
He included it in his book "Much Loved"
which shows poignant images
of peoples' childhood teddy bears  

Teddy always made us feel better. We can hug something warm and fuzzy and everything was OK.

That's why a lot of us, as adults, have dogs, isn't it?  If I've had a busy, stressful day, I'll collapse onto the couch. Jackson the Cocker Spaniel will run up, leap up onto my lap and tell me to start giving him a back rub.

Yeah, it feels good to him, but it feels good to me, too. The backrub I give Jackson soothes me more than it soothes him.

It makes me feel like I did when I hugged my teddy bear as a toddler. I bet the you go through the same thing with your dog or cat, if you're lucky enough to have them in your house.

After a few minutes of back rubbing, Jackson leaps off my lap, deposits himself on the floor next to his favorite toy, looks at me, bright eyed and tail wagging and says "Woof!"

That means it's time to play, and chasing Jackson around the house with his toy buffalo or toy cow makes both of us feel great and erases any last vestiges of stress.

Just like when I was a three year old, and Teddy and I, climbing a small hill outside,  pretended we were conquering Everest.

So yes, all adults should have comforting playmates. They could be intelligent beings, like my dog Jackson, or an old teddy bear, or a children's book.

Some people might say clinging to such things is insane.

I say it's the most sane thing any adult could do.

Beautiful Short Film Showing How Dogs and Cats Live Better Than We Do

OK, let's get the complaints out of the way first. There's a point to this, trust me.

It's early Monday morning. I'm stressed. My husband just left for an out of town trip for work. He'll be gone for a week and I miss him already.

A promotional shot for the wonderful, beautiful
"Savour Every Moment" short film.  

One of our two dogs, the older, wiser one, Bailey, is sick. He won't eat, and he's lethargic. We don't know what's wrong. He's probably going to the veterinarian this afternoon. I'm terribly worried about him.

I'm behind with work and the work keeps piling up. I can't even find time to keep up with the messes I'm making, or break away for just a half hour to go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription I need.

Sigh.

Alright, done with the complaints. Life isn't bad, of course, it's good. The problems outlined above are trivial. (Except for Bailey, of course)

All that said, I know I sometimes need to change my perspective. We all need that nudge some time.  I found a reminder, in the form of a beautiful short film,  on how to live that moved me to tears.

It's probably just my mood. But still.

Filmmaker Keith Hopkin has come up with a short film called "Savour Every Moment."  All it is is pretty much just dogs and cats playing, being goofy, having sublime, quiet moments.  Their lives seem so complete. I guess there's something to living in the moment.

Hopkin's  Facebook page also has lots of wonderful dog and other animal photos, to Savour some more

The notes on the YouTube video, which you will see at the bottom of this post, tell the story best:

"Dogs and cats seem to possess some inner secret to enjoying life.

They're able to savour every single moment of the day; all the fun moments, and the goofy ones. The playful moments, the loving moments. If our pets could talk, they might tell us: "When you're happy, don't forget to tell your face. Napping is beauty sleep for the soul. Eat like nobody's watching."

Oh, how I wish I could learn to live like that more often!  We all do. The animals in the video are giving us a primer on how to do that, and so do my Boys, Jackson the Cocker Spaniel and Bailey the Wonder Dog.

Jackson and Bailey often make me stop my work, my responsibilities, my obligations, to tussle with a toy, enjoy a nice chest or back rub, or just cuddle on the floor or couch.

They try really hard to tell me to live like this all the time, not just sometimes.

I know I can't live like them, of course. Humans have to be "productive" and "responsible"  I wonder if that frustrates the Boys, or do they just patiently live their happy, in the moment lives, hoping I finally catch on?

At least the Boys, and the film in this post, give us a chance to take a deep breath and just live. And smile. And that's something.

Here's the wonderful video. It's your lesson for your Monday

I Love My Minion (And Other Crucial Toys)

I went out and got myself a Minion.

No, not a real one, they don't exist, silly. It's a plush toy, a one-eyed, yellow, blue overall clad Minion to add to my collection of other cartoon character toys. They're characters that for some reason I relate to quite nicely.

Me and my trusty Minion.  

Maybe my life is like a cartoon. Maybe I've got the brain of a five year old. Sue me.

Minions are those worker bees in the animated film "Despicable Me."  They're the always cheerful, sometimes clumsy, sometimes put upon workers who try to make the evil main characters schemes and projects come to fruition.

My newly acquired Minion  joins Beaker, the hapless lab assistant to Dr. Bunson Honeydew from Muppets, and the Tasmanian Devil, the tornado like, slobbering foil to Bugs Bunny, at a special spot in my house.

Call it my shrine, if you will.

What I have in common with these characters is they are simultaneously simple and straight forward enough, but none of them are easily understood, the way they babble on about the scary things they're exposed to. Their demeanor is a strange mixture of fear and acceptance, though they all have their own way of going about it.

But they're my imaginary friends, if you will, because we all experience life in much the same way. Yes, I know my life is real, and the Minions, et al, are just cartoon characters, but bear with me.

For me and the Minions, Beaker and the Tasmanian Devil, things are totally out control. We feel at the mercy of others, especially in the case of the Minions and Beaker.

For me, the Minions, Beaker and the Tasmanian Devil, things usually end up badly, but comically so.  Here's a video that shows the life of the Minions. They're obsessive like me, get distracted often, and things get weird, like they do for me. OK, maybe not exactly, but close enough

Watch this example of the Minions at work to illustrate my point:





It might seem funny or odd that a middle aged guy like me has an affinity for such toys. First of all, come on, it's not like I relate to them like real human beings. It's not like I have conversations with them, arranged in a circle in a playroom somewhere. I don't take them to bed with me like a Teddy Bear.

But all adults need a nonthreatening, non-human, not terribly complex muse to cling to. These are mine.

They tell me that whenever I feel overwhelmed, threatened, oppressed, I shouldn't get too upset. Their episodes always end in laughs, and mine will too, no matter how bad things seem in the moment. At least I can hope so.

Maybe I'll make the Minions, Beaker and the Tasmanian Devil regular muses in this blog. And I should bring back Darlusz, the ceramic frog I also have. I used to use him in blog, giving him the voice of a wise but naive Polish immigrant that lives with us.

Because sometimes made-up characters give us all more insight that me, or any other human can do.

Do You Have the Heart to Kill A Robot?

Most of us wouldn't kill someone or something that doesn't want to die. At least I hope not.

Even if you're mad at your coworker for messing up the report you've been working on, the worst you'd probably do is admonish him. If your dog chews up your slippers, you'd say "Bad Dog!!" and let it go at that.

Will something like these Star Wars guys
 be our best friends some day?

What if a robot begs you not to kill it?   A robot is a machine. You turn it on and off like you would the clothes dryer or the lawn mower.

But as computerization gets more complex, more interactive, more seemingly emotional, would you have the heart to shut off a complex robot, one that seems like it has some human qualities, one that is likeable, essentially wiping out its data, it's memories?

I know that sounds silly. Of course you'd shut off a machine when you're done with it. We do it to our laptops and iPhones all the time.

But is it such a silly question?  An experiment shows that people are very uncomfortable shutting off a robot when it "asks" you not to, when it essentially says you'd hurt or kill it if you do.

According to the NPR report on Christoph Bartneck's research

"Bartneck studies human-robot relations, and he wanted to know what would happen if a robot in a similar position to the "learner" begged for its life. Would there be any moral pause? Or would research subjects simply extinguish the life of a machine pleading for its life without any thought or remorse?"

Researchers put people in front of, or next to robots that answered questions helpfully, with a voice that seemed friendly. The robot was made to look like a nice, cartoonish cat.

The people working with the robots were told they must shut them off when finished. But humans seem to naturally anthropomorphize the pleasant robots.

According to NPR:

"In videos of the experiment, you can clearly see a moral struggle as the research subject deals with the pleas of the machine. "You are not really going to switch me off, are you?" the cat robot begs, and the humans sit, confused and hesitating. "Yes. No. I will switch you off!" one female research subject says, and then doesn't switch the robot off."

"People started to have dialogues with the robot about this," Bartneck says, "Saying, 'No! I really have to do it now, I'm sorry! But it has to be done!' But then they still wouldn't do it."

There they sat, in front of a machine no more soulful than a hair dryer, a machine they knew intellectually was just a collection of electrical pulses and metal, and yet they paused.


I can understand the reluctance of these people to shut off the machines. Intellectually, I know they are machines, and I'm sure the research subjects did, too. But when will it come to the point where machines - robots- begin to take on enough humanlike and emotional characteristics that we relate enough to become their friends.

Will it be like our relationships with dogs? Or acquaintance? Somebody maybe more akin to close friends?  What if they become something that knows us better, and emphasizes with us more than any of our human or dog or cat friends?

Then what happens to us, and the machines, and our perhaps mutual relationships if the robots need repairs, or need to be rebooted?  And the Next Big Thing comes along every few minutes it seems.

If we get attached to our best friend robot, and she becomse outmoded and outdated, do we trade her in for a better model, like of like a cad does when he thinks his wife is too old?  Or do we stick with our tried and true robot/friends?

These questions are beginning to sound less and less theoretical and fantastic, and more like something many of us will have to actually deal with.

And I thought dealing with my human acquaintances was fun and challenging and complex enough.

News Headlines: Compassion and Hate

I was struck by the juxtaposition of two of the top national news stories yesterday.

One was the dramatic footage of people in Utah lifting a burning BMW off of a motorcycle crash victim, saving his life. As the reports noted, the car could have easily blown up, killing the people who were trying to help.

The victim was pulled out from under the car, and taken to the hospital. He was initially reported to be in critical condition, but he's reportedly improving, with two broken legs, a broken pelvis, cuts and a burned left foot



But at least he'll live to thank the bystanders who thanked him.

On the other hand, at the Republican presidential debate the other night, moderator Wolf Blitzer offered a hypothetical case in which a young man can't or won't get health insurance, then needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care?

What's the solution? The government pays for it? Charity? Some other funding source? Just let him die?

Some members of the audience, mostly Tea Party members, cheered at the idea of letting Hypothetical Man die. 

Cheered? They cheered Hypothetical Man's death? It's perfectly legitimate to debate how to pay for health care. How big is the government's role? Or should there even be a goverment role?  Should we just make Hypothetical Man come up with the money somehow?

But to cheer at the "solution" to let the guy die instead of saving him, as many commentators have already said, is just sick. What were they cheering? If other people die, there's more money for me? That people who don't or can't get private health insurance deserve the death penalty?

I'd hate to think what other things these people think others should die for. Hey, he was unemployed for a month, and collected federal unemployment money. Off with his head!!

Here in Vermont, we continue to have thousands of people mobilizing with money, donations, elbow grease and more to continue recovering from a huge flood a few weeks ago. On the other hand, there have been a few reports of looting, thefts of relief supplies and scams.

I hope both locally and nationally, the compassionate ones, the normal ones, far outnumber the scumbags who cheer the deaths of people and steal from people who are going through an incredibly tough time.

I also hope there's serious karma for the bad people. Because I wouldn't want to live in a world where pure, 100 greed rules everything