Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte

I like many watch The Handmaids Tale and shudder with fear at the possibility of the story being a reality. From what I can gather and certainly referenced by people such as Michael Moore the show represents the possibility of life under a far right regime..our democracy and rights slowly taken away..and a fervent horror story put in place by men to mercilessly and cruelly reign in the freedom of women.

I however of late have come to think of The Handmaids Tale with a more sinister twist, and that it represents a lot of what is happening in our town called Hollywood..the town so against the evil right with it’s judgement and rhetoric..and filled with celebrities lined up daily to yell in protest at the evil dictatorship.

I cannot help but think of the beautiful Charlotte Rampling.

Charlotte was finally nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for her wonderful performance in 45 Years.

Charlotte had the most incredible body of work and was long overdue for a nomination..long overdue

Charlotte went on a French radio station during the Oscar publicity campaign and was asked a question re the Oscars being so white.

Let me preface this by saying I know Charlotte to be the least racist, judgmental person you could ever meet. She is a free spirit, she has no presumptions of who she is or might be..she is bohemian and interested in everyone she meets and she is deeply deeply kind.

When I heard Charlotte’s answer it did not occur to me in any way that she would be called ‘racist’ because this was so far from being truthful...she answered quickly and from what i discerned perhaps did not phrase her words in a way that best explained her meaning.

Given the political climate about the race discussion  (rightly so ) circling the Oscars that year…there was clearly some shame on the part of Hollywood..it certainly looked very bad..and it was bad..so a scapegoat would be a quick fix..and that scapegoat became Charlotte Rampling.

A woman about to turn 70 years of age and at that time in her life had completed 98 feature films ( not including television)..and had a career spanning 52 years..and had shamefully never been nominated for an Oscar…and it would be this hard working champion of film makers who  would be branded the example in the  film industry of ‘White Privelege'

When I saw what was taking place after her interview I waited for people to rally for her..the people who knew her…to say…”there is no one less racist than Charlotte”..but it never happened…and she went down.

Not that walking a red carpet would mean that much to Charlotte..but she was even deprived of that moment at the Oscars because she knew what all the questions would be.

Charlotte may be one of the most shining examples of womanhood in the film industry that we have ever had.. A woman who did it her own way. She never succumbed to plastic surgery..she chose projects based on how interesting they were to her..it was never about stardom..or calculated thoughts like ‘will this be good for my career?’..it was always about what interested her…and she championed un known film makers..you know..gave them a shot..that is dire for first time film makers starting out.

It is hard for women to survive out there with that work ethic in Hollywood..but survive she did.

I wondered where all the women were and waited for them to come out and stand up for her..perhaps they might have if there wasn’t such fear based in association.

I look now at the responses to friends of James Gunn..who apparently tweeted awful things many years ago..and they clearly support him and think he was wrongly fired..but they cannot say it outright..they have all said it mainly in tweets..and you can sense the fear in their responses…fear of the association of supporting someone who said something terrible over ten years ago...That sort of makes you shudder..and think of speaking up as punishment..perhaps you too may be sent to the colonies..like the strong women in The Handmaids..

Yes you can’t help but think you too could be sent to the dark ends of the earth.. the colonies..never to return just for speaking up..so is it the right or the left?

I look at the case of dear Charlotte and cannot think much of the left and the galvanizing rally of women..sure she has gone on to do wonderful work in Europe and England but not much here.

And the irony was that her close friend Isabelle Hupert did go on to be nominated for the Oscar and won The Golden Globe the following year for a film that portrayed the violent rape of a woman as something that..hey some women may actually turn into a game and like..but I guess that subject matter came before the #metoo movement..less than a year later.. -Lian Lunson

MelancHOLY by William Blake...is it Holy?

From Dark Night of the Soul to Rilke’s 10th Elegy suffering has been written about as a gift of growth 

‘Our ancestors

worked the mines on that mountain-range: among men

you’ll sometimes find a lump of polished primal grief,

or the lava of frozen rage from some old volcano.

Yes, that came from there. We used to be rich.’ -Rilke

Rilke writes glowingly about the Laments and how they were lauded as the rich ones. 

Suffering was seen as a gift...something to help us grow and stretch upwards towards the higher source. 

The Holy books are filled with the stories of suffering. 

What happens to us during those dark nights of the soul when grief and pain hold us down without mercy?

Every breath is like fire and just the slight turn of the head creates a pounding avalanche of searing pain. 

Is that Holy?

Is that fair?

But the suffering is the doorway to that higher source...the ONE we yearn to know. 

The source that is free of the human condition and all that is eternal. 

It is where all that we have loved and lost resides. 

If we can make it through the dark night we will be closer to them and the almighty love they have shown us through the searing absence of their presence. 

What is this earth other than a learning bed of emotions and feelings. 

To suffer means we have loved and the journey through pain will only show the love brighter and stronger through us on the other side of it. 

The knowing that love is stronger than everything else..and others may acknowledge the lesson you are undergoing by holding that doorway of light open just a little until you make it through that dark night. 

In the morning light you will have emerged that much closer to all that is high and closer to the unseen. And you will recognize what you lost as the greatest gift that was just hidden from you. 

There they stand now with outstretched hand saying

‘But the dead must go on, and in silence the elder Lament

leads him as far as the ravine,

where the fountain of joy

glistens in moonlight. With awe

she names it saying: ‘Among men

this is a load-bearing river.’

-Rilke 

-Lian Lunson 

“All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” ― Walt Whitman

“All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, 

And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” 

― Walt Whitman

What if there were glimpses of the afterlife?

Something you felt or heard

Does the afterlife have a sound?

What does it sound like?

The thoughts we think, the feelings we have are unseeable, just like the afterlife.

When a person takes that last breath, all of the images the feelings they contained move into the ether..like a hologram…a space that we can visit and tap into anytime..

Sometimes it will be in dreams, and sometimes it is just a matter of standing still and listening.

Doctors claim that the ringing in our ears and hi pitched sounds are something called tinnitus..but what if they were actually the sounds of the universe?

If you hear the universe, can you remember when you began to hear it?

Was it related to a specific event?

What are the sounds? If you listen closely there is a wide range, and sometimes if you are quiet and say ‘make them change’..another sound will come in.

How quick we are to right this off as a medical condition…could it not be a spiritual condition?

Could the sounds be trying to tell us what it is like.. this new and different life that people walk into..the place they go to…it must have a sound.

We are made up of numbers, our DNA, our life cycles..sounds correlate with numbers..we are numbers and numbers never end.

What can you hear?

If A Thing Loves It is Infinite -William Blake

i made a little film about connections. 

what they mean.

what they feel like.

i styled it in otherworldliness to bring the supernatural element closer. 

it is not our physical bodies that live eternally it is our essence, our energy, our souls. 

every thought we have, every action lives on and the essence of these is reflected by how we really did connect with that person. 

was it a feeling you got from them?

how long did it take to break through all the humanness. 

the armor that they are wearing to truly see who they are. 

we are clothed in feelings, reactions and expectations. 

how then can people really see us as who we really are?

when a person is close to the death of the physical body, the armor begins to fall away. 

they begin seeing a new world and if we are lucky enough and present enough we will see a glimpse of it too.

and we will begin to see who they really are. 

we recognize them in a different way as someone we have chosen to go on a journey with. 

a complex human journey in a complex human world. 

if we keep holding their hand they will take us through the next part of the journey and show us a glimpse of life without armor.

-Lian Lunson

#Waitingforthemiracletocome

#CharlotteRampling

#SophieLowe

#WillieNelson