11 Jun 2009
A Talent to Amuse
London is certainly not smiling with the tube strike but platitudes abound about blitz spirit, grateful we have legs to walk on,
( unlike Sir Douglas Bader CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAes, DL. ) shared by straight backed types who waste time responding to HAVE YOUR SAY news updates. It’s all very Daily Mail.
As a 10 year old "The Swarmite" was taken to Kingsbury Gaumont Cinema by his father to watch a black & white film called Reach for the Sky starring Kenneth More as the above Bader minus his legs, lost in war. I think it was supposed to be some sort of education. What I remember staring at the screen in 1956 was the laughter spawned by legless Bader, his comrades and the cinema audience.
Typical True Brit, no fuckin legs but by jove I’m gonna fly that spitfire. People wanna see Bob Crowe, (the RMT Union leader who keeps announcing London tube strikes), with no legs at the moment and watch him crawl to work waiting for a bus that never comes. That would make US piss with laughter.
It has often been said by onlookers attending open 12 Step Anonymous meetings ( a meeting that family, friends, healthcare professionals & others can attend freely ) that what surprised them most was the laughter in the room. They expected dour stories and heads hung in shame and found heads thrown back with tears down cheeks laughing at misfortune. Yes it’s true, Laughter really is the best medicine.
To fight with fortitude demands the art of lightening up. Spirituality reflects life as a cosmic joke, rejection as a game of trust and humour as it’s noble lord so no need to go all childish on yourself when the heavens above say NO to your great plan. No more throwing rattles out of prams – where would we be if Bader had said " it’s not fair ". Instead he said " bugger it", and got on with fighting the Hun.
In my seminars I focus on just 3 words – REJECTION, RIVALRY & REBIRTH. These three words are the answer to codependency release. So let’s just take Rejection. Learning to view rejection with amusement will get you farther than any university degree. Rejection is normal, you have not been specially selected for humiliation – get over it. Develop the humility to greet it with a smile plus this affirmation in your mind : Every time I lose something a bigger Win is on the way. Practice this each day and your life will change dramatically because you are saying "bugger off " to fear. Bader would be proud of you. Rejected? so what? – we need to reject many things to feel like a Winner. Take resentment for one, or low esteem, that’s two and thirdly self-pity. Delete these monkeys from your brain zoo and be heroic.
Taking yourself too seriously is what the ego wants, telling you you’re not good enough and that time is running out. On shit days, it’s easy to believe it. People who have been in Rehab or attend 12 Step groups will know that the first 12 Step Programme – Alcoholics Anonymous – use slogans, one of which is H.A.L.T. Never get too HUNGRY, ANGRY, LONELY or TIRED. These are danger points for resentment, low esteem and self-pity. This does not mean that you can’t have feelings or be emotive about tube strikes, lost loves or employers who reject. Express it, but know when to let go. AA comes up with another slogan that spells this out : Feel it, Claim it, Dump it - for recovery does not mean we can’t get on a high horse sometimes but suggests we get down from the saddle once expressed. Recovery is also about the length of time we hang on to negative vibes, recovery is not about avoiding these feelings but simply managing them in balance with our spirit self.
Recognizing that we can’t be good at everything is a huge relief, nor do we need to be a master of all we do – to enter the game is enough. It was not an off the cuff remark that caused Noel Coward to be called THE MASTER, it was his breathtaking dominance of British theatre, film and musical comedies in the 1930′s and his perchant for style that made this Brit a hero. In 1942 Coward wrote and directed THE patriotic war film " In Which We Serve " proving that homosexuals can come out of the theatre and onto a U Boat with ease. Before the war Coward bravely introduced gayish characters into his plays, albeit tormented ones. One of his famous song lyrics " If love were all" - recently covered by Rufus Wainwright – is about loving a man (when homosexuality was a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment ) " I believe the more you love a man, the more you put your trust, the more you’re bound to lose ". He completed the verse by saying " But I believe that since my life began, the most I’ve had is just a talent to amuse, Hey ho – if love were all.Maybe he thought that having a talent to amuse was not so heroic, so important, but this vital skill is all your need to be your own hero or heroine and is essential in overcoming adversity. Amuse yourself with your ego games and the game is up.
Come on chaps, this is a spiffing trailer for a jolly good war film : Reach For The Sky.
Spot bollock on, as we say!
Droid
June 12th, 2009 at 3:24 pmpermalink
Thanx old bean!
theswarmite
June 12th, 2009 at 3:30 pmpermalink