Art, Culture, and Lessons Learned

My daughter the artist tells me that she's looked at my blog, and that in her world, nearly everybody has one. She says that she doesn't, because it would be "presumptuous."

Hmmmm. Something to think about.

For me, the lessons of childhood have died hard. To put it another way, behavior patterns that were formed long ago have stuck with me, many essentially unchanged, in all the years since.

Being the epitome of dorkitude, one trait I developed was caution. My instincts are to limit my personal exposure as much as possible. I won't go into the psychological connection between dorkitude and caution, but other dorks will understand.

There was a conflict between my characteristic sense of caution, and my desire to start this blog. After all, limiting your personal exposure and posting thoughts on the internet seem to be incongruent goals. The inconsistency was one I had to ponder quite a while.

The decision I finally reached is obvious if you're reading this. My rationale was that my exposure would be limited to a select group of close friends and family members. After all, the blogs that had inspired my interest initially were those of friends and family members, and I'd never have been aware of their existence if those individuals hadn't directed my attention to them. Their blogs were not something I just happened to stumble upon. Someone had to tell me how to find them.

At least that's the foundation of my rationale. For me, doing this is like having a conversation with myself, discussing things that are important to me. If a few people that I love want to join the conversation, so much the better.

Having written all that, I'll get on with the art and culture part of the post.

My daughter the artist (who at one time had her own website), my oldest sister and I share a love of movies. Our conversations and e-mail exchanges are frequently devoted to the subject of movies recently enjoyed.

Some months ago, my sister, a career gal, asked me to recommend some good movies. She was participating in the Netflix DVD rental operation, and had access to virtually any movie ever made. She just needed to know what to look for.

I suggested the titles of five movies I'd seen that really had an impact on me. My recommendations were guarded, because the films were dark or edgy. One was 21 Grams, and the others were along those lines. Even though they weren't mainstream entertainment, each was interesting to me in its own way.

As I've gotten older, I've discovered that the movies that appeal to me most are those that in some way celebrate the decency of the human spirit. Prime examples are Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List, probably my two favorite movies of all time. Tom Hanks specializes in those movies, which is why he's become one of my favorite actors.

Anyway, I digress. My sister accepted my recommendations and eventually rented most, if not all, of the movies on the list, and her reactions to them were much the same as mine. Having established that our tastes in movies and books were similar, she encouraged me to continue making recommendations. It really feels good when people appreciate your opinion, so I began to seek out movies that I thought would be good recommendations. I found several worthy candidates on The Sundance Channel and IFC.

Today's DVD technology is a wonderful thing, and allows us to bring the world of movies into our homes on a scale unimagined in the days of plain old television and even VHS. Last night, I had the pleasure of watching a DVD movie called Miss Potter, loosely based on the life of the famous author and illustrator of children's books, Beatrix Potter. The movie stars Renee Zellweger, an actress who has really grown on me. You could safely say I have a crush on three young actresses: Renee Zellweger, Kirsten Dunst, and Kate Winslet.

Anyway, Sis, if you're out there, put Miss Potter on your list. It's beautifully done, and meets the human decency criteria. On my rating scale, it's at least a 9.

My wife is the one who initially wanted to see it; I don't remember having heard of the movie until she brought it up. It turned out to be a winner. My daughter the artist would also love it, since Beatrix Potter not only wrote the stories, but painted and drew the illustrations as well. In that regard, the movie makes occasional clever use of animation.