NEW DIRECTION

⚪️🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣⚫️ NEW DIRECTION Ed. No. 46 - WE LET THE BADDIES WIN

GLADIATORIAL MUSINGS:

Artwork: "I LOVE YOUSE ALL"©️(Circa 1992)

Artist: Neville Williams

Media: Acrylic, sand, collage on stretched canvas (framed)

Size: 130cm (H) x 120cm (W) (Approx.)

PRIVATE COLLECTION

To see more of this Artist's work go to NevilleWilliamsArt

Denzel and the Old Lady.

Amongst the information overload we expose ourselves to daily this last week had me reading an interview with Denzel Washington who stars as the “big baddie” (amongst many) in the latest movie “GLADIATOR II”. The thing that was striking about this review was the attitude that he brought with him to the interview.
He has quite often previously been quoted as saying we need to have “an attitude of gratitude”. But that’s the very thing that seemed to be missing from the whole interview as I read it.

Denzel Washington as the "baddie" in "GLADIATOR II" / Director: Ridley Scott / Paramount Pictures

I don’t know what Denzel Washington is really like as a person. I’ve read positive things about him and also criticism of him. I do know that he personifies the success of what Western Capitalist democracies are about. Rich, recognised, ultra-confident.

He was saying in this interview that “You know, it’s so easy to stand outside America and say this and that,”…“Turn around, you know? Pick a country. Any one.” - Independent Newspaper.
So true.

But I’m uncomfortable with the tone of what I read in that movie interview.
Hubris of course is going to push its barrow no matter what. It’s in its own self interest.

I’ve looked into my own backyard in more recent years and found myself in need of a complete overhaul so I’m not hesitant in saying that America is out of its tree crazy with hubris and self entitlement. And they are not alone as far as nation states being out of their own tree. Russia I’ve heard described as being a nation of knuckle draggers wanting to live in their own past glory. And of China as a State where they have suppressed their own human creative spirit so much that they are a pressure cooker waiting to explode. These three great strongholds in numbers of human beings must grow in their well being. But are they?*

And what does that mean anyway?

America, Russia and China all need to look in their own mirror and face up to home truths that are well overdue for attention and action.
Denzel Washington is correct in alluding that so too do all of our nation states. The big ones and also the loudest and opinionated ones though can cause the most harm. They are the wettest logs that need to be dragged towards the fire firstly to dry out.

But let’s not ignore the rest of us and where it all needs to start…and that is with us individually no matter what nation state we are a member.

Last week I spent most of the week visiting daily a hospital ward. It was interesting listening to the changing parade of life talk about their own life outlook. Two of those days I listened to an older lady interact with her kindly neighbour a middle aged man who had his own health issues but continued to work three jobs. He already had a full plate and yet was attending to this lady’s needs.

The lady herself was affable and congenial but also forthright in what she wanted. She had had two falls in the last week. Each time the man mentioned that it perhaps was time she and her family talked about her moving into aged care a frosty ambience settled on the room. He repeatedly said this is an issue for you and your family. She wouldn’t have a bar of it. She and her children just didn’t seem to get on. Each time he would mention this he got a brick wall reaction.

She wasn’t going to budge.

But she was quite happy to accept his ongoing kindness even though he was under his own duress.

We are each ultimately responsible for the maintenance of our own well being. If people have made a train wreck of their own lives then should they be surprised if they wake up one day and find themselves painted into a dark corner of their own making?

It is a cleansing and a clearing time in human history.
Whether a Hollywood A lister, grating national states, a stubborn intransigent self centred old lady or our own selves it’s time to look in the mirror and do something about cleaning up our own house (including the backyard).

We are all going to save our world by accepting more personal responsibility for our own well being.

ADDENDUM

Must get to see “Gladiator II” and the decline of Rome soon.