Movies as Practice
The same ruminations seem to come up over and over, which has the benefit of allowing it to sink in a little more. And they all seem to move on with time as well, which I appreciate.
A current theme for me is movies as practice.
Watching movies allows me an opportunity to...
- Recognize some of our collective projections and shadows
- Recognize some of my own projections and shadows
- Notice how I relate to everything coming up in me from watching the movie - emotions, thoughts, triggered reactions, and so on.
- Find myself more as Big Mind, that in which everything unfolds within - the events of the movie, in the room/movie theater, and from my human self.
- Explore how the Spiral Dynamics levels can play themselves out.
Twelve O'Clock High
For instance, in my exploration of the world of classics I watched Twelve O'Clock High a couple of days ago.
Although this movie was not quite as juicy for me as some other ones, it helped me recognize what seemed a quite healthy expression of Spiral Dynamics blue.
It seemed to be a good example of how authority, hierarchy, discipline, loyalty and other blue level qualities can play themselves out in an appropriate setting (during WW2) and in a quite healthy way.
And I also saw how I want to bring more of these qualities into my own life again, after a period where they have been more in the background. They are all appropriate, all valuable, playing themselves out in certain ways and certain areas in the tapestry of my life. How do they show up in my life right now? How and in what ways can I invite them more fully into my life? Where can they benefit me and others?
The movie also reminded me of one of the ways our shadow can become completely other, to the point not even being noticed or acknowledged to any significant extent. The Nazis in the movie, and the civilians bombed, were not acknowledged at all, apart from being marks on a map. The ones carrying the shadow for us can - in some instances - become completely ignored as living, human beings.
Of course, we have seen this recently too, in how Iraqis civilians are ignored in the US media, and how people around the world - suffering in desperate situations, are similarly ignored and left out of the media picture and the public discourse. Nowhere is this more obvious than for people in areas of Africa.