Chautauqua

I had a wonderful week at Chautauqua Institute last week for several reasons.

First, the preacher was just inspiring. Her name is Vashti Murphy McKenzie and she is from Maryland and is the Bishop of the AME Church. Every morning I found myself in tears as I heard her preach as she was touching something deep inside me. Her sermon on Thursday was about staying the course - as "faith is trusting what your eyes cannot see." It has been a hard summer with three deaths in the family and it is easy for me to feel worn out. But her preaching reminded me of the power of preaching itself as well as the reality of our God of Newness. I bought her sermons on CD and look forward to listening to them all.

The theme for the week was Cinema and we heard two actors and two directors speak. One of the actors was Matthew Modine and he told about how Stella Adler told him that she would teach him to be a "human being." Robert Altman told him you have to find the "truth inside yourself" and Stanley Kubrick said: "I don'twant you to play act, I want you to be yourself." And that really was the underlying theme - about finding your voice, your authentic self. The other actor was a character actressnamed Beth Grant who talked about the fact that she always wanted to act but didn't want to be a character actress. She wanted to be Joan Crawford and not Thelma Ritter. Finally in her early thirties she went to a mystic who led her on a meditation in which she asked the guru - "can you take me to the place that is blocking my energy from accepting my casting?" And again, the mesage is becoming and accepting yourself.

We heard over and over again that film is a collaberative art. And one interesting statement I wrote down from James Ivory (Merchant Ivory Films) is that actors as a group are deep and not wide and directors as a group are wide but not deep. In other words, the directors really see the biggest picture. Which only makes sense.

So, that was some of what made the week good for me. One other part was hearing stories from people who are my age who are still seeing themselves with lots of plans and dreams ahead. Beth Grant had 6 movies coming out and so many ideas for the futures. We also heard Ken Burns speak and as impressive as he was, he too mentioned at least 10 projects in the futures. All of this is encouraging me to see that there is so muh more for me to do and learn and plan for the future.

I can feel that God is at work within me - restoring my soul and preparing me for the next big thing that is coming.
I wonder what it is.