The Shanghai Common

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

We had a great time watching this truly exceptional animated mash up of a personal love story and the Ramayana last Sunday. As a film it asks interesting questions about the balance between individual empowerment and unconditional love. You can also watch it as the take of an empowered western woman (Christian in background I think) on the deeply dis-empowered position of women in some traditional Hindu cultures.

Anyone who hasn’t seen it can watch it on Youtube here (VPN required for those in China) or download it here (potentially without a VPN although I haven’t tried).

To enrich your experience of the film there is lots to read about it’s distribution and business model on Nina Paley’s official site for the film and you can find out more of the background and reaction on wikipedia here.

We had a wonderful eveningspent diving into our different spiritual influences. As well as being lovely to hear from each other (we totally need to do more of that). But also we settled on how much we love the STORIES of differnet religions, their litterary glory and their power toteach us stuff. So that’s what we will be exploring over the next few weeks:

• 9th october - Phil - The Ramayana (HINDUISM) - we will watch a critically aclaimed animated art-house film. Get us.
• 16th october – Sarah and Anna  - Sukkot festival (JUDAISM) - Sukkot is a Jewish festival lasting seven days, and holds both historical and agricultural importance. Historically it marks the forty years the children of Israel spent living in tents in the deserts, and agriculturally it is a harvest time. Let us reap what we have sewn! And build forts!
• 23rd october - Anna - a break from all those stories to lend our support to the Shanghai Pride’s Pink Picnic. The idea is that everyone wears pink, brings some food to share etc… they haven’t announced where and when it’s going to be yet but it will be.
• 30th october - Taylor/Phil/Richard - Haloween - It’s among one of the most widely celebrated religious festivals around the world, it  connects two religous traditons (the eve of Christian All Saints Day and older pagan traditions) and it’s rich in amazing stories… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Religious_perspectives
• 6th November – Richard - Christmas (CHRISTIANITY) – medditation combined with arts/crafts (somehow)