Free Day

4/6/07
So I have a day off today between the classes; I begin another one tomorrow. I’m sitting outdoors very near the area of the photo above, on a glorious 70º day. The goldfinches are singing their dee-dum-dum-dee-dum-dum-dee song. I’ve been taking advantage of the free time today; doing wash, walking down the hill to deposit the recycling, cleaning my room, mending a sweater, sitting outside to read, and doing my banking and e-mail.

Last night Ivan invited me to his rooms for dinner and to watch “The Secret,” a propaganda film that he tells me is “all the rage” in the States. If you haven’t seen it or read the book, don’t bother. It’s one of those, “if you think it, it will come” philosophies. Three things that are most egregious about it: a) they site quotes from Shakespeare, Da Vinci, “Buddha,” Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill to “prove” they “knew” “The Secret,” but of course the quotes are taken completely out of context and historical significance; b) it keeps repeating itself over and over again with different “gurus” explaining how “the secret” works (people who are knowledgeable, reliable, and with a history of good research like the Mars & Venus Guy and the Chicken Soup guy) and ALL of them list “getting the car you want, the house you want, the money you want” first, and “your soulmate” as an afterthought—there is absolutely no talk of making the world a better place or helping other less fortunate than you; c) supposedly this book and movie were financed by an Australian woman who “found the secret,” but I have doubts. Except for two female gurus (one of whom is very scary looking) she is the only woman in the movie. The movie seems geared to speak to men about acquiring possessions, and it is truly dangerous hogwash, as it has just enough bits of truth in it to sound like it could be true. Ugh. I couldn’t even watch the whole thing.

Only one more week at Malérargues. It’s impossible to comprehend while I’m sitting in the sunshine with a breeze at my back, watching the yellow butterflies on the purple phlox. People here keep saying, “take this back with you,” but you can’t tell someone at work who e-mails you asking for something in an hour that you’re “on French time, and won’t have it done for a day or so.” One of my teachers, Ulrich, turned to me yesterday and said, “when I am here, it’s as if I need nothing else, and nothing else exists.” It’s exactly how I feel. Of course it’s a fantasy and cannot last; there are only five people who live here full time; the other 25 work all over the world giving workshops and have apartments in London, Zurich, Paris, Denmark, Norway where they spend the majority of their time. Most of them don’t make much money; but if you got to spend May-August here, maybe it wouldn’t matter.