How often have you heard that? It’s overused. Trite. Cliched. Boring. It’s been boring since the 90’s. A terrible trope.
What does it mean?
It’s supposed to connote creative thinking. To see things differently. Create new ideas and new ways to solve problems. And not be boring.
Boring
But it is boring.
It seems to apply to almost every problem people haven’t figured out. If you really had some out of the box thinking going on you’d never use the phrase, out of the box – at least not to anyone able to fog a mirror.
Here’s some thinking that comes from inside the box.
The Principle of Creative Thinking
I interviewed Robert McKee, the best-selling author of “STORY” and legendary guru of Hollywood storytelling, several years ago. Robert is is the most widely known and respected screenwriting lecturer in the world today. His STORY Seminar has been taught to over 55,000 screenwriters, filmmakers, TV writers, novelists, industry executives, actors, producers, directors, and playwrights. But, teaching is easy. Results are hard. Robert McKee’s STORY and the stories delivered by his students have garnered;
35 Academy Awards (165+ Nominations)
170 + Emmy Awards (500 + Nominations)
30 + WGA Awards (180 + Nominations)
25 +DGA Award (50+ Nominations), Pulitzer Prizes & Whitbread Prizes
His former students’ accomplishments are unparalleled. Stories written, directed, or produced by students of Robert McKee include:
“Iron Man,” “Angels & Demons,” “WALL•E,” “Lord of the Rings I, II, III,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Desperate Housewives”, “CSI, Law & Order,” “Cinderella Man”, “Gates of Fire” (novel), “The Daily Show,” Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Simpsons Movie,” “The DaVinci Code,” “Cars”,” Shrek.” “X-Men 3,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Ratatouille”,”Finding Nemo,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “The Last Mimzy,” “Bobby,” “Quantum of Solace,” “The Color Purple,” “Crimson Tide,” “The Deer Hunter,” “The Elephant Man,” “ER,” “Forrest Gump,” “Gandhi,” “M*A*S*H,” “On Golden Pond,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “The X-Files,” “A Time to Kill,” “Toy Story I and II,” and more.
Robert McKee knows STORY.
He wrote the book.
But there is no STORY without creativity – and what he says about creativity is extraordinary. It’s his “Principle of Creative Limitation.” No out of the box thinking here. It’s inside the box – a smaller box. Makes it tougher.
The PowerPoint Box
In our interview, we were talking in the context of the B2B Complex Sale. Creatively telling your story, or your company’s story, in a large business sale (usually over $150,000) presentation – where PowerPoint is the box.
Excerpt: Robert McKee Interview
STEVE: Could you talk about “The Principle of Creative Limitation?”
ROBERT McKee (RM): It’s exactly the subject we’re talking about. The PowerPoint presentation is easy, that’s why people do it.
Creative limitation means instead of doing something the easy way, you do it the hard way. You take a method that is much more difficult to accomplish. As a result of your struggle as a “salesman” to accomplish the presentation in the form of a story, you are forcing yourself to be creative.
The more difficult you make it for yourself, the more brilliant the solutions you will have to come up with or you fail. And when you come up with brilliant creative solutions to the presentation, the results for the people, for the audience, are stunning.
RM: The principle of creative limitation forces you to do it the hard way. Story is more complicated than PowerPoint there is no question. You have to have a real talent for it. And you have to do it really well, or you will look like a fool.
Steve: So… limit yourself. Don’t go out of the box – make the box smaller?
RM: Yes. That is why people avoid it because they;
Don’t have the talent
Don’t do the research
Don’t have the knowledge,
Don’t know how to present creative ideas in a living, breathing way.
Why is whistling not a Beethoven symphony?
Because whistling is easy.
A Beethoven symphony is hard.
But when you take on the challenge of writing a symphony, the creative solutions are amazing, overwhelming. Whistling is something you can do on the street. The more difficult the technique, the more brilliant the solution.
Another analogy, golf is harder than ping-pong. It’s not that ping-pong isn’t good, it’s a lot of fun, and at the highest levels, it’s wonderful. But ping-pongers are not Tiger Woods,
Why?
Because the golf swing is infinitely more difficult than hitting a ping-pong ball. Touch football is not tackle.
When you make things easy, the results are boring.
When you make things difficult the creative solutions, the concentration, the practice, and the work that has to go into it, forces you to be creative. The results are all the more stunning.
Excerpt Ends:
Do you want to be a whistler or a Beethoven? Challenge yourself.
Forget the box. If you are in a box, make it smaller. There you will find creativity.
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For more information on STORY and the art of storytelling, visit the Robert McKee website Feature Flickr image courtesy of deichgnu -LicenseSome rights reserved
They can make you laugh, or make you cry. Engage or enrage. Bring joy, bring sorrow. They can herald new life, memorialize lives gone, inspire great acts of heroism – or despicable acts of evil. They can transport you to other worlds, times, places.
THESE WORDS
The words in this video had the same purpose – but not the same meaning.
SEEING WITHOUT EYES
And meaning is everything. It’s seeing without eyes.
In every person’s life, there is a still, small voice that tries to guide you to a wonderful calling − a destiny.
Your destiny.
A calling that you, and only you, were put on this earth to fulfill. Near silent, this voice is powerful enough to lift thoughts, dreams and visions to a higher ground. In ancient Rome, this inner voice was called “genius.” A tutelary inner-mentor to guide your aspirations forward − to be the best writer, politician, businessman, inventor, doctor, lawyer, painter, dancer, father, mother or whatever calling you were placed on this earth to fulfill.
Right or Wrong?
Each of you reading this right now has someplace you’d rather be; some job you’d rather have; something else you’d rather be doing. Your dreams and aspirations of bygone years are mingled with fond, longing memories of an unrealized life.
Right or wrong?
Remember?
Hear it?
That small, still inner voice?
Sadly, for most people, this voice is muted, or completely silenced − sometimes for a lifetime. Silenced by an unyielding, implacable, despicable and evil, yes evil, force. Instead of listening to this inner voice and striving to achieve something great, you end up doing something totally different than you hoped or dreamed, or were put on this earth to do. How did it happen?
Boring
You drifted into boring and safe. That’s right. You drifted into doing something boring and safe that ensnares you. It sucks you in and imprints upon your consciousness the message that you’re too boring, lazy, incompetent, or incapable of reaching out for and capturing your dream. Boring becomes your life − not a dream but a dreary, monotonous, unending circle of boring. You take a boring job, make some boring money, pay some boring bills, and boringly exist.
Boring is a Force.
But it’s not “THE FORCE.” Yes, “THE FORCE” is what’s really holding you back. And what we’re talking about is the …
Inner Deadbeat Force
We all have it. It infects everyone.
Every time you start, or try to start, to listen and change your life for the better, this evil scourge kicks in. Your Inner Deadbeat. It manifests itself in many nefarious ways: Rationalization, procrastination, drugs, alcohol, depression, and despair. Any weaselly way out works just fine for the Inner Deadbeat, as long as you remain mired and mucked-up in a life unfulfilled and unlived. The Inner Deadbeat fights, no holds barred, down and dirty, to win.
How to Win?
Are there ways to overcome this diabolically evil force? Are there ways to break on through to the other side − the better side?
To not only search for meaning in life, but experience a meaningful life? Are there ways to battle resistance and win, in your life of business and business of life?
Yes.
And an honorary citizen of Sparta and bestselling author of “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles,” Steven Pressfield, will guide us to some of these answers. “The War of Art” has been hailed as …
“A vital gem … a kick in the ass.” – Esquire
“Yes, The War of Art is hell. But Steven Pressfield is our Clausewitz who shows how you too can battle against The Four Horsemen of The Apologetic: sloth, inertia, rationalization and procrastination. Shakespeare, Rembrandt and Beethoven all are proof of what you can do with talent and General Pressfield.” – Frank Deford, Author and NPR Commentator
But First …
I’m a deadbeat.
A real doofy-doozy, ding-a-ling-dinger deadbeat.
You are too (probably, or have suspicions) if you’re reading an article titled “How to Defeat Your Inner Deadbeat.” But stick with me. We’re going to learn and have some fun.
Oh No … Not Him Too!
I have this great novel in me. I use the word “great” humbly, not pompously or arrogantly, but quite conservatively. It’s a bestseller for sure. Not the “Great American Novel” but the “Great Global Novel.” Harry Potter potential all over it. Nothing will get in its way. NOTHING! Except …
May the Force Be With You … NOT
Every time I try to start writing, a force holds me back; an all-powerful force that kicks me back like a horrified donkey getting sucked up in an F-5 tornado. I’ve battled this force unsuccessfully for over a year now (okay maybe two or three years) and I’m losing ground fast. So, as any person with worldly ambitions and initiative would, I sought expert counsel and guidance.
ENTER: Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield has been a New York City taxicab driver, truck driver, US Marine, oil-rig worker, bartender, fruit picker, and a $150-a-week copywriter for a New York City advertising agency, Benton & Bowles. One day while rewriting the “just-add-water” text for the back label of Gravy Train dog food, Mr. Pressfield asked himself, “Shouldn’t I be doing something a little more worthwhile?” What followed? International bestselling books and screenplays.
Mr. Pressfield has written or co-written 34 screenplays, and is the author of international bestsellers “The Legend of Bagger Vance” (also a movie), “Gates of Fire, An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae,” “Tide of War,” “The Afghan Campaign,” “Virtues of War” and “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Creative Battles.”
”Gates of Fire,An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae,” has been included in the curriculum of the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy and is on the Commandant’s Reading List for the Marine Corps.
INTERVIEW
Steve K: I’m looking for some help. In your book, the “War of Art,” you name “Resistance” (with a capital “R”) as a force, an implacable foe. Evil. Toxic. It sounds like the same thing I’m struggling with right now, but I call it my Inner Deadbeat. I’m sure it’s the same thing. How do you define “Resistance?” Steven: Just the way you described it above. Instead of “The Force Be With You” it’s “The Force Be Against You” anytime you try to achieve something positive. The self-sabotaging force we all seem to have. Resistance stops us from living our dreamed-of life. Resistance is particularly strong in creative and business people. The person that dreams of writing a great novel, starting a great business, losing weight or breaking away from corporate boredom to serve a greater cause, all struggle mightily with resistance. Steve K: About the “novel writing” thing; I’ll want to follow up with you later (at the end of this interview). I have an idea on that. What are some examples of activities that bring out Resistance?
Steven: How about a list in no particular order?
1) The pursuit of any calling in writing, painting, music, film, dance, or any creative art, however marginal or unconventional.
2) The launching of any entrepreneurial venture or enterprise, for profit or otherwise.
3) Any diet or health regimen.
4) Any program of spiritual advancement.
5) Any activity whose aim is tighter abdominals.
6) Any course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction.
7) Education of every kind.
8) Any act of political, moral, or ethical courage, including the decision to change for the better some unworthy pattern of thought or conduct in ourselves.
9) The undertaking of any enterprise or endeavor whose aim is to help others.
10) Any act that entails commitment of the heart. The decision to get married, to have a child, or to weather a rocky patch in a relationship.
11) The taking of any principled stand in the face of potential reprisal.
“Any act which disdains short-term gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity. Any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any act of these types will elicit Resistance.” – – Steven Pressfield, War of Art
Steve K: How does Resistance operate?
Steven: Resistance is a liar. Resistance is relentless. Resistance is destructive. Resistance is creative. It finds ways − reasonable ways − for you to avoid doing the very thing you should be doing.
Steve K: How does it do that?
Steven: One way is rationalization. Coming up with all kind of reasons not to start. Waiting for your health to get better, the right moment, the right opportunity, the right partner, etc. This leads to procrastination. Procrastination serves its devious agenda. Rationalize and Procrastinate. They become bad habits.
Steve K: What are some of the ways Resistance manifests itself?
Steven: Remember I said it’s evil. Toxic. Protean − a shapeshifter. It can manifest itself in many ways. Depression. Despair. Alcohol and drug abuse. Overeating or overindulging in any short-term pleasure at the expense of long-term positive growth.
Steve K: You have a rule of thumb …
The Resistance Rule of Thumb
“The more important a call or an action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Steve K: How did you come up with that?
Steven: Life experience. Lots of it. For example, I was a screenwriter in LA when the idea for “The Legend of Bagger Vance” came to me. As a book, not a screenplay. Remember I was a screenwriter. But not just any book … a book about golf. My first novel. First novels usually take forever to get published and realize very little financial gain, if any. Not much chance of success there. Resistance fired up the fear engine. But … the Muse grabbed me. So I did it.
Steven K: And … it ended up being a bestseller, both commercially and critically acclaimed, and later made into a movie. Steven: Yes.
“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. ” – Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)
Steve K: You state in your book that Resistance only strikes in one direction.
Steven: Yes. Down. Never up.
Steve K: Resistance wants you to take the low road? Example?
Steve: Yes. If you’re working to find a cure for a disease, or to eradicate poverty, and decide that you’d rather be driving a cab in Cincinnati, Resistance won’t stand in your way.
“Resistance only strikes in one direction … down.”
“Take the low road!” – Resistance
Steven K: How do you start to overcome resistance?
Steven: Facing death is one way.
Steven K: Uh … I’ll pass on that one. But, what do you mean?
Steven: How about this example: a woman finds out she is going to die of cancer in six months. She quits her job immediately. She goes to a hospice (or – insert any lifelong dream here), and volunteers to help other dying people. She’d always dreamed of helping others. Everyone thinks she’s crazy, friends and family alike. But she’s happier than she’s ever been. And P.S. …
Steve K: P.S. what?
Steven: Her cancer goes into remission.
“When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.” – Sogyal Rinpoch
Remember Tom Laughlin? He starred in the movie “Billie Jack.” He now works with cancer patients. I heard him speak once, and he said (paraphrasing), The minute a person finds out they have cancer, everything changes. What was important seconds ago to them now no longer is. Everything changes.
When it happens, people think back to unrealized dreams. Think back on their unfulfilled dreams of being a musician, painter, farmer, or dancer. Maybe cancer is caused by not following your path − your dreams − what you should have, or should be doing.
“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” – – M. Scott Peck
Steve K: How do you defeat resistance? Defeat this Inner Deadbeat? How do you start?
Steven: By starting. There’s no magic in the answer. But there’s magic in the start.
Wonderful things happen when you just do it. Mysterious things happen. Ideas pop up from nowhere. Happy accidents occur. People appear in your life at the very right time. It’s a beautiful thing.
It’s like tapping into this vast collection of creative possibilities just waiting to be discovered. Those possibilities are already out there. Right now. Waiting for you, or someone like you, to discover them.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” – Albert Einstein
Steve: Just start? That’s it? That’s all there is to it?
Steven: Yes. But you have to be a professional. Not a weekend warrior. Do it as a profession, not an avocation. Not a weekend warrior. Have a hard hat, hard-head, lunch-pail mentality. Think like a professional. It’s an attitude shift. Show up for work every day. Rain, sleet, snow, sunshine. Then work every day. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t collected a check yet. Just keep at it. The money will come. But be prepared for adversity, failures, and criticism along the way. It will come too.
Steven K: Example?
Steven: The first screenplay I had made into a movie was “King Kong Lives.” I thought it was going to be a box office smash.
Steven K: And?
Steve: Variety magazine reviewed it like this, “We hope writers Steven Pressfield and Ronald Shusett are not their real names … for their parents’ sake.” I learned from it. Don’t take it personal. Move on.
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Sir Winston Churchill
Steven K: How do you do it? Write?
Steven: I put my boots on to write. I say a prayer and invoke the Muse, as the ancient Greeks did, humbly asking for aid to open up the creative channels. Then I just do it.
The hardest part is sitting down.
Let me say that again. The hardest part is sitting down.
I keep at it until I’m done for the day. It can be good … or bad. The main thing is to just do it
Steven K: Final thoughts? Steven: Each person is destined to do something specific that only they can do. Follow your inner voice; just do it.
“Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade?” – Benjamin Franklin
Steven: If you don’t, you’re not only hurting yourself, you’re hurting others by not helping enrich our world. By not sharing your gift. Do it and don’t quit no matter what.
None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Steven K: “The War of Art” (also available in MP3) by Steven Pressfield, is a timeless classic. Eloquent, elegant, quick, slick, easy to read, transformatively easy to understand. I very rarely rave about a book, but this book is raveable.
The world is in a depressingly precarious condition right now – one crisis away from a global meltdown.
ECONOMY HAVE YOU WORRIED?
The US is borrowing $435 million dollars – per hour. How long can that insanity go on? 94 million American workers don’t have jobs. How long can that be sustained?
WORK WORRIES?
Been to a work meeting where everyone seemed on edge – arguing and backstabbing each other over precious resources, strategy or just plain surviving? If you have a job, you probably have.
PROBLEMS TOO BIG – TOO HIGH?
Our times are piled high with difficulty and uncertainty. Stress and anxiety. Barbaric ISIS terrorists who revel in finding new, evil, disgustingly satanic ways of killing people. Sometimes problems seem too big to get your arms around and too high to climb. It’s easy to get down. Easier to get angry at the world for all the injustices done to you. And others.
TOO HARD TO GRASP?
But maybe, just maybe, if you watch the video below, you might come away with …
Frederick Marx is an internationally acclaimed, Oscar and Emmy nominated director/writer with 35 years in the film business. He was a recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Special Achievement Award and his film HOOP DREAMS played in hundreds of theaters nationwide after winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. It was the first documentary ever chosen to close the New York Film Festival, and it was on over 100 “Ten Best” lists nationwide and was named Best Film of the Year by critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit, and Ken Turran and by the Chicago Film Critics Association. Ebert also named it Best Film of the Decade. Hoop Dreams is one of the highest grossing non-musical documentaries in United States history.
SAVE THE KIDS – GIVE THEM UP
What an amazing experience it was, talking to someone like Frederick, who dedicates his life to making a difference in this world – come hell or high water. I originally wanted to interview him because I was a huge fan of Hoop Dreams and wanted to sideways subtly pitch him on a basketball story I’d penned – Acceptance Bridge. But, as we started our discussion, the Journey From Zanskar came up. It stopped me in my tracks. Not just the technical details and difficulties of filming and living at approximately 20,000 feet, but the the story of giving up your kids to save your culture – and them.
The Journey From Zanskar is one of the most compelling true stories you will ever hear. So, when Frederick sent me a note that he was giving away the film “Journey from Zanskar,” for free, I had to pass it on to you. The film has been released in theaters in the U.S. and France, and has played on TV in New Zealand. It received the Best Documentary award at the European Spiritual Film Festival in Paris.
Zanskar is one of the last remaining original Tibetan Buddhist societies with a continuous untainted lineage dating back thousands of years. In nearby Tibet and Ladakh, in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal, traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture is either dead already or dying. The horror of Chinese government design in Tibet is being matched by the destruction of global economics elsewhere. Zanskar, ringed by high Himalayan mountains in northwest India, one of the most remote places on the planet, has been safe until now. But that’s changing. In 3-5 years a road connecting Padum, the heart of Zanskar, with Leh, the heart of neighboring Ladakh, will be finished. The route which previously took up to two days by car will take only 4-5 hours. As economic growth descends on Zanskar it will bring with it an end to this unbroken Buddhist social tradition. Would the native language, culture, and religious practice be able to survive?
WHO IS THAT GUY IN THE ROBE?
Frederick also wants to recognize one of the people in the film – the Dalai Lama – and recognize his upcoming 80th birthday on July 6, 2015.
Journey from Zanskar features the Dalai Lama himself and is narrated by Richard Gere. The story concerns two monks who take 17 children from Zanskar to lower India in order to help preserve their dying Tibetan culture. The story is framed as one illustration of the monks’ ongoing commitment to fulfill their Boddhisattva vows.
Now, a little about this amazing story, in Frederick’s words.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
“How far would you go to save your dying culture? Sometimes you have to give up your children in order to save them.”
“Those two statements serve as “taglines” for JOURNEY FROM ZANSKAR – each of them describing the heart of the film. But the film didn’t start out with those as the central ideas. It took a long journey to arrive at the simplicity of those two statements.
“JOURNEY FROM ZANSKAR began in 2004 when an old friend called to ask for my help in supporting the Stongde monks of Zanskar. “Zanskar? Where the hell is that?” Even the name seemed forgotten. An Indian finger poking into the heart of central Asia, bounded by Tibet (China) on one flank and Pakistan on the other, Zanskar almost reaches Afghanistan. Bounded by towering Himalayan mountains, this high altitude desert sits on a valley floor of 12,000 feet. “Little Tibet” it’s sometimes called.
“Mountains? Buddhists? Dying culture? Sounds good to me…”
“In April 2004 I sat around my kitchen table in San Francisco with Barry Weiss and Curt Jones – two of the key principals who originated the project. We talked through an initial plan to film Tenzin Choegyal’s long-awaited visit to the seven ancient monasteries of Zanskar in July. Better known as the youngest brother of the Dalai Lama, TC (as he is called) is recognized as the reincarnation of Ngari Rinpoche – the spiritual leader of all the monasteries of Western Tibet. As such, he is revered and beloved, despite his own skepticism on the subject. We were also hopeful that the Dalai Lama himself would visit Zanskar in August. Seemed like an auspicious time for a Zanskar story.
“Like many of the best-laid plans, none of this ever happened. I arrived in Delhi in early July with my crew of one – cameraman Nick Sherman – and two helpers: Curt Jones and his stepson Christian Kakowski. For reasons still unclear to me, TC had cancelled his trip. It was a huge disappointment – not only had our story evaporated but, having learned a great deal about Ngari Rinpoche, I was really disappointed not to meet him.
“Nevertheless, we flew to Leh, the capital of much better known Ladakh, and spent a few days getting acclimated, thinking about what else to shoot. We spent some time at Helena Norberg Hodge’s wonderful Farm Project – kind of a reverse Peace Corps. (Foreigners come there to get educated by the locals in organic farming and cooperative cultural practices.) Then we left relatively Westernized Ladakh for far more remote Zanskar. En route with Geshe Lobsang Yonten I learned that he planned to take 15 children to a Tibetan school in Manali that Fall by trekking overland through 17,000 foot Shinku Pass. “That’s our through-line!” I thought.
“We started filming right away as Geshe Yonten and Lobsang Dhamchoe began visiting families who wanted to send their children away to school. Those moments with families are rich, complex, and absolutely heart-rending.
As a parent, what would you discuss with a man who’s going to take one of your children away, possibly forever? Struggling even to feed your children, you certainly would want your child to have a chance at a better life. But at the price of not seeing them again for 10, 15, maybe 20 years?
The monks themselves had been through a similar process – leaving home for 10 years while they were still kids. They knew the difficulties but they also knew what an education could do to change a life.
“Following that first visit, Nick and I returned to India for the trek in early October. On our drive from Leh to Padum we confided all our fears to Geshe. It was a long list. There were dangers both for us and the kids – altitude, cold, dehydration, exhaustion… Smiling, he told us not to worry. Unlike Zanskari Buddhists who don’t seem to stress out about anything, we worried.
“The story of the trek as it appears in the film is our story too. We were right there with them. We shared the uncertainties, the cold, the disappointments, the fears. At the same time we shared the beauty, the generosity and concern, all the good humor – these were our delights too. Since we didn’t have sufficient crew support, we had the fathers and monks help us carry gear; they served as production assistants. Our equipment and “crew” were rarely with us in the same place at the same time. Communication was also difficult, often impossible. Physically, I had more difficulties with the sub-zero temperatures, snow and elevation than Nick but we both managed pretty well–up to the day we attempted to cross the Pass.
“Like Geshe, on that day I thought I was going to die. When we first set out that morning I was already struggling – slipping and falling, sweating, hyperventilating. Nick kept up with the lead party and shot everything he could. Thanks to him the turning point of the film was captured. He shot the pivotal scene when I wasn’t even there. I was further back than Geshe – huffing and puffing and hoping I’d make it over the Pass. The thought “I’m too old for this” was probably the most benign thought I had that day.
“Five days later when, by jeep, we finally reached Leh, Nick flew back to the States and I became a one man crew. In addition to losing his visualizing talents, I lost my sounding board, confidante, and back-up crew. I also lost his Canon GL2 camera, which had become our A camera. All the footage from Leh onward was shot by me, much of it with the C camera – a cheap consumer handicam, because I couldn’t properly charge my batteries for the much better B camera – my JVC GY500. Ironically, the only battery problems we had on the whole trip were after we reached “civilization.” I ended up giving myself a camera credit in the film not because I shot 20% of the story but because I didn’t want Nick to take the heat for my crappy footage!
“In Feb. 2005, we made a third trip to India to film the scene of the children meeting the Dalai Lama. Once in Dharamsala we didn’t know until the day before that it was actually going to be possible to meet with him. We had all of fifteen minutes to get the material I knew was going to be the capstone scene for the whole film. People ask me all the time what it was like to meet the Dalai Lama. I tell them I was working!
“One of our greatest challenges for the whole project turned out to be translation. During the filming in Zanskar, we never had an adequate translator with us. Not only could we not speak directly with the families and the kids, we never knew with certainty what was happening at any moment. Geshe and Dhamchoe filled us in as best they could, but their own limited command of English sometimes made our communication difficult. In hindsight, my biggest regret is that I didn’t learn Zanskari myself. I could have made a different film – highlighting the children more – and sharing more about their families and their back-stories.
“Back in the U.S., it was also nearly impossible to find translators for the 45 hours of Zanskari footage. Little did I know when we began that only a handful of speakers in the world are fluent in both Zanskari and English. In the end, Geshe did the bulk of the translation himself while on a visit to the US. Through an elaborate game of telephone, he translated the spoken Zanskari into Tibetan. Then a Tibetan student translated each line from Tibetan into English, all the while writing down time codes. They also translated 20 hours of Tibetan and Hindi. This painstaking process took over a month.
“So it was only in April of 2008 that for the first time I could sit down with complete transcripts of our footage and discover what it was we had actually shot almost four years before! What a delight! I made many discoveries that I had no idea existed in the footage. It was also fun to hear some of what Geshe and Dhamchoe had been saying about me and Nick!
“Constructing the proper storyline took about a year, helped in no small way by co-editor Joanna Kiernan. I spent most of summer 2008 putting subtitles on hours of raw footage and editing the first string-out. In the Fall, Joanna edited the first rough cut, setting a basic structure for the story. Then from December onward I brought the film home. Due to the usual lack of finances we didn’t finish until October, 2009.
‘The journey that has been JOURNEY FROM ZANSKAR has been informed at every juncture by the wisdom, humor, and acceptance of Geshe Lobsang, Lobsang Dhamchoe, the gracious and joyful monks of Stongde monastery, and the amazing resilience of the people of Zanskar, from the youngest child to the oldest grandmother. There were times in the two years prior to completion when, overwhelmed with anxiety and stress over how I was going to finish the film, I would drop my head to my desk and weep. The one thing that always pulled me through was the film itself. I would pick up the editing again and see Geshe laugh in the face of crushing disappointment, witness a starving mother weep bittersweet tears giving up her daughter for a chance at a better life elsewhere, hear the children sing while riding into a dangerous and unknown future, observe Yangjor help Jigmed’s blinded father cross a stream, watch Tsultim reach out to share with me his first ever taste of nuts. Their example fortified and inspired me. How could I not make this film?
“Our simple hope is that you will share the film with as many people as possible. If you require a DVD you can order one by clicking here. We have both NTSC and PAL formats. We also have a limited number of DVDs with French subtitles. If you know a Buddhist or school organization that would love the film please let them know so they can download their free copy today. If you are a Buddhist or school organization please feel free to screen the film for your sangha or students at any time.
“We hope you will enjoy our labor of love and service. We are a small NGO based in the U.S. Our mission: Through filmmaking and teaching, Warrior Films bears witness to social realities, inspiring citizens worldwide to create needed social change.
How did you do? What did you do? What did you do that really mattered?
Have you even thought about it that way? Or …
WERE YOU JUST TOO BUSY?
Have you considered how precious and fleeting each moment is?
How each breath extending our existence is an amazing blessing on this blue-green magical orb called earth?
An earth that travels through space at over 1,000 miles per hour and moves around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour?
Or did you have…
TOO MUCH TO DO?
Too much to do to stop for the wonder?
I did. I know. Sad. Yes.
AND…
Have you considered that if the expansion rate of the universe was changed by one part in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion, faster or slower, life on earth would not exist?
TOO MANY EMAILS
Or did you have too many e-mails to think about that?
My inbox was pretty much always full. Now my mobile text message box is too. Hold on … Pinterest is pintering me. Instagram is Instagramming me. And crap… the new social media networking app Plague is plaguing me.
TOO MANY TOO MANY’S
And Twitter tweeting. Facebook Fb’ing. LinkedIn linking in. GooglePlus plussing.. StumbleUpon stumbling.
And all the while, a world of wonder, magnificent and magical, motors on – with or without us.
There are just way too many too many’s.
A REALLY BIG INCH
Did you know that if a measuring tape were stretched across the universe and segmented in one-inch increments (billions upon indescribable gazillions of inches) representing the force strengths of nature (gravity, electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear forces) and the tape was moved by just one inch in either direction, life on earth would not exist?
TOO MANY MEANINGLESS MEETINGS
Or were you too busy to think about that because you had to prepare for another meaningless meeting?
Too busy here – too many meetings. Too many meetings that had no meaning.
DID YOU KNOW?
Do you know what would happen if the cosmological constant (the energy density of space) was not tuned to one-part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion (10 followed by 120 zeroes)?
Life on earth would not exist.
TOO MANY PETTY WARS
Or were you too embroiled in petty internecine political turf wars, in business and life, to consider that?
I was too embroiled.
A LIGHT YEAR
Is about 5,865,696,000,000 miles (give or take a couple thousand).
AND A LONG MINUTE
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty – that’s 21 children dying every minute, a child every three seconds. And worldwide…
10.6 million children died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
EVER THINK ABOUT THAT?
22,000 children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes. And 1.4 million children a year die from lack of acces to safe drinking water? Water?
Sadly, as a credit to my self-absorbed selfish selfie inhumanity, I haven’t. That’s a truth that burns.
And,
“They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” – Unicef
THE UNITED STATES OF SELFIES
But sadder? We who have the most don’t even think about it. We whine, complain, argue, fight, gossip. We waste time taking selfies. Selfies at home, selfies in the resturant, selfies driving the car, Selfies, selfies, selfish selfies. But we don’t really think about how blessed we are, how precious and fleeting life is. How, like 2014, is almost gone, we soon will be too.
ONE SIMPLE QUESTION
And in the end, would it’s almost over, when that last breath is staring down our windpipe how we will we answer this simple question, ‘what have you done that mattered?’
Have you thought about that? I have. And found myself wanting. But…
SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS
So fast.
Another year past.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
2014 almost gone.
2015 soon upon.
John Lennon wrote a song about this 43 years ago called “So This Is Christmas.” The lyrics were both timely and timeless.
TIMELY
They were turbulent times. Times much like today. Differing only in the increased speed, ferocity and utter destructiveness with which things happen. These times I mean. Not then.A sad commentary … we should be better. Get better.
TIMELESS
The lyricsof “So This is Chrostmas” transcend time. Race. Creed. Sex. Religion. Age. Not many do. The words are a calling to stop, reflect, consider, act, and hope … hope for a better future.
2015, the road ahead, beckons.
Many will come.
Many will go.
You? Me?
Who ever knows?
For you … I offer best wishes. Now, listem. Think. Reflect.
SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS – WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES
So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
So this is Christmas A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let’s stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas We hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
War is over, if you want it War is over now War is over now
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