Of Love and Hope: The things we cherish most

    As we all set out on this journey called life, and as we all go throughout our days, let us always remember that we are all on this crazy journey together. All we have is each other and that is all we may need to bother to remember. Instead of being angry with one another, let us look toward the stars and towards love and go forward in faith together never ceasing to remember that we all come from the same source; we are all brothers and sisters, and we are all searching for the same thing everyday. And if all we did was reached as far as could and looked inside of ourselves and found our human sides and hearts we could and will always find the only truth that really matters: and that is the fact that we are always searching for something and we are usually doing it together. Whether that day it is the truth or love or we are just searching for some glimmer of hope to keep us going to get us to our next destination in this life, we must remember that the best and most often place the Lord will answer our prayers is through another person just like ourselves! Friendship, hope, love, the things we yearn for everyday are right their for the taking! We must dare to disturb the universe, and though we may be lacking in our Prince Hamlet like stature, and though we may be the fool or the Polonius of our own lives, we must always know that we may be lacking in self confidence at times, even Hamlet himself, mostly all the time, or we may be the fool, that is the point of all this: That we are all just faking it, we are all frail, and we all may be scared or make unwise decisions, we are all human. And though Hamlet was the Prince, look at Polonius and some of Shakespeare's other great folly filled characters, they all hold some of the great qualities and most oft quoted lines of our lives and of the most quoted playwright of all time. Anyway to reach farther and move away from some of my favorite poets and authors, Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot, let us take a look at another great and oft quoted poet Mr. Walt Whitman: 

    

    Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) ... The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                     Answer.

    That you are here—that life exists and identity,

    That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

  

    We all have something to offer, we all are here for a reason, so let's just figure out what it is and go and do it! Whether it be to change the world or just our homes, the small and simple things can and will make a difference. For my message of hope today, I offer one final thought: Keep going, keep pushing, you never know when a mundane thought or message, or another mundane Tuesday could change your life. All I am saying is to stay open, you never know when lightning could strike.

    Thank you for listening to my musings,

    Your ever faithful friend on this journey,

     Brian Robert Gardner

    

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory"

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory," the great Ingrid Bergman has been quoted as saying. I wholeheartedly agree! Bergman, a Chekhov disciple herself, is great in the film Spellbound with the great Gregory Peck and of course Michael Chekhov himself as Dr. Burloff. It is a Hitchcock film and it is a wonderful thriller! I would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing classic film making and acting at it's best! I also was just watching the incredible classic film Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront starring Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint the other night, which won an incredible eight academy awards including one for the great Brando himself and I believe Eva Marie Saint's performance as well as best picture. Anyway two other classic films to check out, another Kazan classic starring the always passionate and wonderfully talented James Dean as a young Cal Trask in the Steinbeck adapted novel East of Eden, "I don't know where he is, I'm not my brother's keeper," with a more lighthearted and fitting ending than in the novel and of course the bible itself. Dean's, Chekhov's, and Brando's performances are all brilliant, and I have to mention the great Montgomery Clift's performance in the gigantic silver screen classic, and a personal favorite of mine, now cemented in my brain, the film A Place in the Sun directed by the great George Stevens. Interestingly enough Brando said there was no way Clift wouldn't for his performance at the Oscars and while Brando actually voted for Clift for the award, Clift did the same for his friend Brando in another Kazan classic "A Streetcar Named Desire," in which Brando did end up winning for his ferocious performance as Stanley Kowlaski. So we go from "Stella!!!!!!!!!! to "I could of been a contender," to Montgomery Clift's scene stealing performance as George Eastman, In a Place in the Sun, where his character meets the wonderfully beautiful and fabulous Elizabeth Taylor's character for the first time, and the look and glance on his face will be cemented in silver screen history forever. Life imitated art in that moment, because even though Clift was gay in real life, and his character wasn't, he and and his character were mesmerized by Taylor's beauty and his face reflected himself being truly lost in the moment, and then found on the screen. Clift met the holy grail of acting in and at that moment: the truth. Clift and Taylor's screen presence are cemented as well in film history by being voted in and going down as the most physically beautiful power couple of all time to ever grace the silver screen. Anyway just wanted to share my message of hope for today in the best way I can!: through the art of film and through all of art meeting truth!

Thank you so much for listening,

Your ever faithful friend on this journey,

Brian Robert Gardner