The Wild Green Grasses

I'm on always on the hunt for intellectual, artistic and spiritual mentors. Not to follow in anyone's footsteps, but to challenge the way I see the world. It's refreshing to try to imagine seeing life through new eyes. My meditation work has confirmed for me that we are all islands of energy, spinning and self-validating; we do not live in a vacumn, we are alone, and at the same time we are connected to all that is alive with energy - everything is alive with energy.

I read a profile (in the New Yorker) of Hayao Miyazaki, the 'auteur of anime,' a kind of Walt Disney of Japan, and although anime is not really my thing, I was bowled over by the man and his approach to his work. He is an animator, who draws his inspiration from the natural world, 'Have you ever seen a snake fall out of a tree?' In his world there are really no villians, or even his villians have their reasons, they demand some sympathy.

The Miyazaki Way: when facing a problem, try to find a breakthrough by coming up with a much bigger problem.

Miyazaki is somewhat horrified by mass consumerism (America's export) which has ravaged Japan's environment, his happy vision for the future: 'I'm hoping I'll live another thirty years, I want to see the sea rise over Tokyo and the NTV tower become an island. I'd like to see Manhattan underwater. I'd like to see when the human population plummets and there are no more high-rises, because nobody's buying them. I'm excited about that. Money and desire -- all that is going to collapse, and wild green grasses are going to take over.'

Kind of reminds me of Richard Brautigan's 'Revenge of the Lawn.' Long live the wild green grasses! Anyway the article ends with one of my favorite words: dichotomy. Here's the dichotomy that seems to apply to Mizyazaki -- (as per Antonio Gramsci) 'pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.' Mizyazaki sees the world as it is, and evisions another, one of magic and beauty. Have you ever seen a snake fall out of a tree?