If life is a movie and for nearly one hundred years the cinema has masterminded consistently newer ways to better entertain, stir the pot or maintain a proper attitude leading toward fight followed by victory…what happens when the message from the maker creates an un-introduced landscape?
Without warning, barely a whisper to hold, much louder than a Ted Nugent late 70’s festival concert somewhere in New York State, you’re crazily tossed into a vat of steamy aroma so vibrant your six senses stand up and scream out the lyrics of the CNC Music Factory tune, “Things that make you go hmm.”
Former Saturday Night Live funny girl Maya Rudolph artistically delivers a role in the summer romance Away We Go—she’s pregnant and has decided to raise her undelivered creation outside the realms of mainstream culture. To do that, Maya and her love interest set out on a journey across North America vowing to locate what 93.8% of us never unearth…a place of peace.
Along the way she crosses paths with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal whose spiritual ways of living nearly shatter the sound barrier when explaining why baby carriages aren’t allowed in or around her home, “You’re pushing your child away from you. A child doesn’t see your loving eyes and smile in the way of welcoming their innocence…they take note of each extended arm, shoving their place of protection and comfort away or to the side.”
Ouch!
If we were to stop…look around and start living within the limits of the rules just presented…life on this side of the white picket fence would dramatically change. If pushing a baby stroller showcases the act of thrusting someone or something away…look at what else we toss to the side.
1. Your paycheck. While in the cool comforts of the car we grab a hard plastic tube at the bank and shove the thin sheet of paper with our signature scratched onto its backside into it, slam it shut then send it through a long vacuum pipe to someone we don’t know. Here! I worked for you! Don’t spend it in one place!
2. Shopping for groceries. What are we really telling the world pushing that giant metal basket around a glorified warehouse?
3. Driving your car. Sitting behind the wheel doesn’t put you in control. The engine is the Alpha Dog. You are the follower.
4. Shaking hands with clients and or co-workers. Hello my name is…oh, while you’re at it steal my fingerprints. So, you’re into the fist punch…at least you can see I’m not as hard as a rock, you can now break me. It’s American to thrust that hand out there…Asian’s bow while other nations embrace.
5. Sending emails and text messages. This is who I am right now…tag you’re it, you now feel worse or better than me.
The number of things we naturally push away affects everything. Even as a writer, I can’t wait to get these thoughts, paragraphs and chapters out of me. Words are like Doritos, the mind, body and soul will make more. We feel that way about art, building the perfect backyard deck, floral garden or scraping chalk into the sidewalk so the little people around us can play hopscotch.
Everything received has been pushed our way. Lowes and Home Depot aren’t in the gardening business. You are. So they creatively slide it toward you. Once in the basket that evil inner voice shouts, “No! You don’t need it! Push it away! Push it away!” Like most children, you learn to ignore the fits and take it home.
Took a six mile stroll through Mother Nature yesterday morning…a boardwalk that wrapped itself through incredibly tall trees, over extremely black yet incredibly clear waters that enveloped a fragrance ten bottles of strong cologne or sweet scented perfume couldn’t hide, vines that raced to touch the sky while others never stopped reaching outward toward a horizon that would soon disappear at sunset—the birds sang, the dark brown fully packed with seeds for fall cattails with their razor sharp blades cut through the remnants of a rising fog while white pines with their brilliantly long needles painted between the lines in a way of connecting invisible dots.
I did nothing to push it away. In fact I took my shoes off so I could feel the earth in the way of the snake. I sat next to the trees to hear their stories. Wouldn’t it be great to withstand the winds of constant change without fearing a need to break? When crows and Canadian geese fall from the sky and walk on the paths humans sculpted…do they walk around complaining about the pointed scalding hot stones that make up our streets? Do their tongues drag until liquid is located? But it better be this brand or else.
During the 4th of July celebration I lost touch with the act of being free when noticing the number of birds and bats who had no clue what was happening—they flew rapidly in ways their bodies were forced to invent. They shot to nearby trees, toward instantly created clouds of wasted gunpowder and a few even made it to small families who swooshed them away like pesky mosquitoes or flies.
Maybe we’ve become the push away generation. CNN shoves the news out like it grows on trees. Truckers play hot potato with their daily loads, “Here! You take it!” Giant bulldozers dig deep into the clay then push what’s not needed away. Would realtors truly live in the homes they’re trying to sell? Movie theater ticket takers help push you through to the other side while waiters and waitresses beg you to take tonight’s special because the chefs not having a good night.
Progress requires a little push and shove. Economies become victims, almost like a dried mountainside riverbed when what’s being pushed is no longer welcomed. Without truckers America would stop. Without grocery stores we’d be forced to grow gardens and raise cattle. Maybe baby strollers are meant for something other than signaling the emotion of shoving something away…is it possible Mom and Dad are saying, “You can do anything and be everything…learn to be you. To get there is going to require effort. When confronted with doubt, turn around and we’ll always be there.”
Just something to think about...
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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