The long journey . . .
In another one of my favorite films, the late Lester Bangs, portrayed by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, gives a solid and profound piece of advice to a brilliant, young man disliked by his peers–fifteen-year-old William Miller, the autobiographical character based on writer-director Cameron Crowe.
You’ll meet them all again on a long journey to the middle.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs
Since first viewing, I’ve always found that nugget to be a fantastic frame for what we do.
Buddhists believe the Middle Way, or Middle Path, is the path to enlightenment–freedom from suffering. Opposite extremes must be allowed to float away. But it’s never assumed to be an easy road. Enlightenment is what you spend your whole life trying to attain. It’s not a thing people just reach some day, in order to live on some enlightened plateau. It’s a constant struggle, a learned art with perpetual practice.
India.Arie, another deft storyteller, also understands this idea very well.
We suffer when we allow ourselves to think everything is bound to one side. It just does us no good, as individuals or as a society, to over-indulge or deprive ourselves–to cling to our loves or our fears, to lean too heavily to port or starboard. Finding that perhaps mythical balance, is what we’re all trying to do.
And though we do all enter and exit on our own, scary as that is, we’re still together for the in-between.
-Maude
March 22, 2021