Harry Potter Meets Doc Brown

Originally posted Thursday, June 10, 2004
Click here to listen to me reading the podcast version of this post

Today we were supposed to go to Callaway Gardens, but it rained too much, so I decided to go to work to finish up preparations for the security training that will be tested starting tomorrow when my coworkers return from a conference. My grandparents, uncle, and great grandma went to Virginia Highlands today and then we went to see the new Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film.

I was very pleased with this film. At first, I found it too super-fantastical and silly, but it quickly delved into symbolism about the battle between good and evil and the mystery of existence that I enjoyed. It was a metaphor for our journeys as human beings from being frightened of the "dementers" that haunt our psyche to becoming fearful only of fear itself. These dementers are the obstacles and barriers we face from our pasts that for years and years on end we are certain we will never overcome. But, the story shows that they can be overcome.

One of the most interesting parts for me was when Harry and his companions traveled back in time to save two innocent lives. I interpreted this on several levels. On the first level, it can be seen as it was portrayed. The characters actually traveled back in time and caused certain events to happen that prevented others from taking place. In the course of the scene, Harry from the future, having already witnessed someone who saves him from the dementers in the past, thinks the one who rescued him was his own father, who had passed away many years before. His companions assure him that no, his father had been killed years ago, but Harry is convinced. It is only when they go back in time and see the evil that is about to be visited upon themselves that Harry is forced to step in and take the place of who he thought had been his father! This is brilliant!

I see a deeper metaphor to this scene as well, and it makes me now think of the film Back to the Future as well. When Harry was so certain that it was his father that rescued him from the dementers, but suddenly had to step in to save himself, he moved from childhood to adulthood in that instant, when he became the steward of his own well being. He gave up illusions that somebody else was going to save him and took responsibility for his own future.

In the final scene of the film, Harry and his companion return to the scene of where they left to go back in time, just in time to catch a glimpse of themselves vanishing. Their bed-ridden friend witnesses the vanishing and the sudden reappearance on the other side of the room with astonishment. He asks them something like, "How can you be in two places at the same time!"

The gentler, even more brilliant subtext to this is that we are all in two places at the same time. Perhaps I should say we are all in each moment as it happens now, as it was before, and as it will be. Harry may have thought that it was his father who saved him even though it turns out that it was really himself. But, the two are really one in the same in the end as Harry achieves adulthood, fulfilling his expectations of what his father was to do.

One of my favorite quotes that I hope always stays with me no matter how lost or angry or confused I get is from George Washington Carver. I think it sums up the wisdom within this film quite well:

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

This recalls the paradoxical scenes in Back to the Future when Marty looks at the photograph of himself and sees himself disappearing, underscoring to him even more how important it is that he perform the right action at the right time. Marty achieves his goal by inspiring his future father to stand up for his future mother when he decks the bully Biff. As a result, Marty returns home to a completely different world than he knew wherein Biff waxes his father's car and everyone in the family treats each other and those outside the family, including Biff, with kindness and respect. This so perplexes him that he can hardly believe his eyes or ears.

How fortunate it was for Marty that he was able to travel into his past and bring to pass just one right action to demand respect for his mother that cascaded a chain of actions bringing him into a future so foreign and so unimaginably beautiful to him and his family and friends. How all the more fortunate it is for those of us who live today, in the here and now, to begin to be able to put into place those principles of kindness and respect and honor.

When we begin to do this on a second by second basis it grows into minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, and year by year. How fortunate for us that by doing these things now, we will need neither a Delorean with a flux capacitor and a Mr. Fusion nor a magic broom.

As both these films illustrate, the destiny of a lifetime rests not in the distant future, but in the actions and attitudes we bring to the people we are with each and every moment of our lives.

Of this I am absolutely certain.

Back to the Future Delorean with Mr. Fusion at Universal Studios in Hollywood, CA

http://community.webshots.com/photo/148527220/148529119ngRbJb

Currently listening :
Mystical Garden
By Omar Faruk Tekbilek
Release date: 06 August, 1996

The Measure and Meaning of a Life Well-Lived

The Measure and Meaning of a Life Well-Lived
By Joshua Scott Gough, 30, about his Great-Grandmother Carola Laurel Gough, 96 (1911-2007)
August 25, 2007, First Baptist Church, Salida CO

How does one assess the both the measure and the meaning of a life well-lived?

When it comes to my great-grandma Carola the first is boundless, and the other eternal, it seems to me.

By measurement, we can look at each other and count the number of descendants from her and her husband Gene: 3 children, 13 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and even one great-great grandson. Or, we could travel the world and visit homes and cafes to see all of her paintings that hang in places like Alaska, California, Colorado, Denmark, and Africa. Further, we could scour through our cabinets and old shoe boxes and count the number of letters she wrote to each and every one of us, written by hand, and addressed by name.

She sent her own personal journals and travel diaries to my mother Kathryn, her eldest grandchild, to have her help publish her autobiography. She started the project, and now we can all help finish it. Scanning and transcribing is well underway. See http://www.CarolaGough.com for more information. So, when that project is complete, we can count the number of pages she and Gene have shared with us. All of these are treasures that we measure far greater than gold.

Lastly, by way of measurement, we can count the years she lived: 96; the number of months: 1,153; Days: more than 35,000; Hours: more than 843,000.

So, what of these numbers? What of these measurements?

When we measure our annual salary or the amount of money we need to retire in numbers far greater than the number of days and hours in a span of 96 years, what can we say about such numbers to qualify their quantity? What can we say of the quality in such quantities? What do they "mean"?

For the meaning of a life well-lived we look again to each other, to the faces of Gene and Carola's descendants and their spouses and children; we see them in ourselves.

We look at and we feel the serenity and peacefulness depicted in her paintings. And, we read and we realize with never-ending and unrepayable gratitude the dedication and passion expressed in their writings.

When we do this the message of her life reaches out and surrounds us like a big, warm blanket.

That message is love.

It is love for life.
It is love for this world.
And, most importantly, it is love for each other, whether family, friend, or foreign.

I feel like the most fortunate person to have spent so much time in my life with Gene and Carola, from the time I was about 5 until now at 30. Not many people get a chance to learn life lessons from their mother's father's parents.

Most recently, I feel so thankful that I had an opportunity to spend some precious moments with Carola last month in Alameda and to say a few loving words to her.

She gave a message for all us when I was there with Kerry. She said:

"Thank you to all of you for coming to visit me; all my kids, my grand-kids, and great-grandchildren, and friends. I love you all. If this thing works itself out, I'm going to send an announcement to all of you and we'll have a big celebration."

During her time in the hospital, whenever we mentioned going to lunch or dinner, her persistent refrain was that she wanted to make us something to eat and to sit down to eat together.

This is of course reflected in quotes from her. I spent a lot of time hiking mountains in Georgia, New York, and Colorado with her. On these treks she told me things like:

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

"I always felt like God was right there with me, with his hand on my shoulder, not some pie in the sky."

"Whatever God or Mother Nature had to throw at me, I ran to meet it head on. Sometimes I said, 'God, well what do you want me to do that for?'"

"I didn't want to hit the rocking chair just because I'm 90. When you get older, you can either put yourself on the shelf or do something about it."

One last anecdote from last month. Before I said goodbye to drive back to Matt & Christine's, I told her:

"Great-grandma, spending time with you, seeing your artwork, learning how you have embraced change in your life, and seeing the example you set by volunteering with children in your 90's has made me believe that I can accomplish and good and noble purpose."

Then, even though the stroke had affected her ability to speak clearly, she leaned forward off her pillow and said with as much force and clarity as possible a message to each and everyone of us:

"You can!"

I close with one last direct quote from her:

"I don't eat, I dine." She spoke this when encouraging people to relax and take time to enjoy each other's company and conversation during meals.

Should I live 96 years myself these is nothing more wise I could ever imagine to say.

Thank you, Carola Laurel, you are an eternal inspiration who lives now in all of us and will be passed on forever.

Please visit Carola's web site at http://www.CarolaGough.com to see her paintings on the web and in 3D and to learn more about the Carola L. Gough Foundation, under whose name we will publish the book asked us to finish for her. Please help in any way you are fit and able to.

Also visit http://www.GoughFamily.com to learn much more about the entire family and see thousands of photographs.

Thank you

Alexis De Tocqueville : Touring America

I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville

I subscribe to The Writer's Almanac email written by Garrison Keeler. Strangely, I don't usually enjoy his radio program too much, but that could be because they play too many reruns on weekends when I'm driving and tuned into NPR on 90.1 here in Atlanta.

Anyway, here is one essay that struck a chord with me today. It is about Alexis de Tocqueville and his 1835 book Democracy in America. The excerpt is on this page:

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2007/07/23/#sunday

Literary and Historical Notes:

It's the birthday of French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville, born in Paris (1805). He's remembered for the book Democracy in America (1835), which he wrote after he took a trip to the United States when he was just 26 years old. He wanted to write about the American style of government as a way of improving the government of France. After a brief stop in Newport, he arrived in Manhattan at sunrise May 11, 1831. Over the course of the next nine months, he traveled more than 7,000 miles, using every vehicle then in existence, including steamer, stagecoach, and horse, going as far west as Green Bay, Wisconsin, and as far south as New Orleans.

More than anything else, Tocqueville was impressed by the fact that American democracy actually worked. He wrote, "America demonstrates invincibly one thing that I had doubted up to now: that the middle classes can govern a State. ... Despite their small passions, their incomplete education, their vulgar habits, they can obviously provide a practical sort of intelligence and that turns out to be enough."

He also believed that one of the fundamental characteristics of all Americans was a certain kind of restlessness. He wrote, "An American will build a house in which to pass his old age and sell it before the roof is on; he will plant a garden and rent it just as the trees are coming into bearing ... he will take up a profession and leave it, settle in one place and soon go off elsewhere. ... In the end, death steps in and stops him before he has grown tired of this futile pursuit of happiness, which always escapes him."

For those of us who prefer to be YouTubified, we are in luck.

This video is more about the United Way, but it covers its Alexis de Tocqueville society celebration and describes his life:

One very frightening and prophetic quote from him is as follows:

"I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all for fear of being carried off their feet. The prospect really does frighten me that they may finally become so engrossed in a cowardly love of immediate pleasures that their interest in their own future and in that of their descendants may vanish, and that they will prefer tamely to follow the course of their destiny rather than make a sudden energetic effort necessary to set things right." - Alexis De Tocqueville

That's pretty scary because it resonates with the shameless promotion of what passes for "entertainment" in our culture. Entertainment bores the hell out of me. I want to create. I want to think. Stop feeding me nonsense.

Here is a lengthier discussion about Alexis de Tocqueville and his impact and legacy. One of the speakers is from Wappingers Falls, in the Hudson Valley, New York, where I am from originally and much of my family still lives.

http://www.tocqueville.org/ram/tokespec.ram

This comes from http://www.tocqueville.org/, a great web site for information about de Tocqueville.

Finally, reading more about his book "Democracy in America" from Wikipedia, here is an excerpt:

In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of the New World and its burgeoning democratic order. Observing from the perspective of a detached social scientist, Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America in the early 19th century when the market revolution, Western expansion, and Jacksonian democracy were radically transforming the fabric of American life. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community. A critic of individualism, Tocqueville thought that association, the coming together of people for common purpose, would bind Americans to an idea of nation larger than selfish desires, thus making a civil society which wasn't exclusively dependent on the state.

Tocqueville's penetrating analysis sought to understand the peculiar nature of American civic life. In describing America, he agreed with thinkers such as Aristotle, James Harrington and Montesquieu that the balance of property determined the balance of political power, but his conclusions after that differed radically from those of his predecessors. Tocqueville tried to understand why America was so different from Europe in the last throes of aristocracy. America, in contrast to the aristocratic ethic, was a society where money-making was the dominant ethic, where the common man enjoyed a level of dignity which was unprecedented, where commoners never deferred to elites, where hard work and money dominated the minds of all, and where what he described as crass individualism and market capitalism had taken root to an extraordinary degree.

The uniquely American mores and opinions, Tocqueville argued, lay in the origins of American society and derived from the peculiar social conditions that had welcomed colonists in prior centuries. Unlike Europe, venturers to America found a vast expanse of open land. Any and all who arrived could own their own land and cultivate an independent life. Sparse elites and a number of landed aristocrats existed, but, according to Tocqueville, these few stood no chance against the rapidly developing values bred by such vast land ownership. With such an open society, layered with so much opportunity, men of all sorts began working their way up in the world: industriousness became a dominant ethic, and "middling" values began taking root.

Carola L. Gough : April 17th, 1911 - July 25th, 2007 : Her Legacy Will Live Forever

My great grandmother Carola L. Gough passed away yesterday at age 96 + 3 months and 1 week. She lived every single second of those years and days and gave 100% of herself to others. I am forever indebted to her life example.

Our family will be creating The Carola L. Gough Foundation for Art & Science Education. This organization will be dedicated to preserving her artwork, letters, journals, photographs, and films and furthering her legacy in the world. It will focus on educating young people about art and science.

Learn more about Carola and her wonderful paintings at http://www.CarolaGough.com

Once there, please take a few moments to sign Carola's guestbook page in remembrance of her. Just click the "Guestbook" link in the menu on the page. Instructions are included for how to log in and sign the guestbook.
The rest of this post contains a note and letter from me, Carola's eldest great-grandchild, me, and the maintainer of CarolaGough.com.

Carola L. Gough

Daughter, Friend, Artist, Mother, Volunteer, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Mentor, Great-Great-Grandmother

April 17th 1911 - July 25th 2007

May her life and example continue to live within us and inspire us all

Carola Gough passed away on Wednesday July 25th, 2007, passing on to her surviving descendants an astonishing legacy of love and commitment. The photographs of her paintings and newspaper appearances contained on this web site are just the beginning of what will be made available in the coming years. Carola and her husband Gene of 65 years kept meticulous records of their world travels, including hundreds of letters, thousands of photographs, and hours of film. The Gough family is currently working to digitize all this material as per Carola's wishes in order to preserve their legacy. Their body of work communicates their wholehearted embrace of life in hopes that they can continue to inspire not only their descendants, but also their friends and families as well.

In order to further the appreciation of her artwork and express to young people the beauty and potential of life in this world, we will create The Carola L. Gough Foundation for Arts & Sciences. This organization will strive to bring art and science education and appreciation to young people in person and through the web.

Letter to Carola Gough From her Eldest Great-Grandchild, Joshua Gough

Listen to Josh reading this letter aloud here: http://apps.ultravioletconsulting.com/audio/reading/GiGiLetter.mp3
Note from Josh:
I've known of my great-grandmother Carola and her husband Gene for my whole life, as I state in this letter to her, but I did not really get to know her in depth until I moved to Atlanta and my grandfather and grandmother started flying her down to spend many Christmas holidays with us.
It was during this time, from age 17 to age 28, that I got to know her and learned about her paintings,  her notecards, her illustrations, her teaching art in Africa, and, ultimately, her volunteer work with children at age 90.
Not only did Carola and her husband lead full lives, they kept record of their lives in writing, photography, video, and in paintings and have left all of this to us to preserve and propagate.
When I visited Carola during her time in hospice care the week prior to when she passed away on July 25th, 2007. On the last day before I came home, I went to see her with her son Kerry. Confined to her bed now, with no ability to swallow and thus very little ability to mouth words correctly, she made an extra effort to converse with me in those minutes before I left for Atlanta.
I told her I was going back to Atlanta the next day. She asked me how. I told her I was flying on US Airways. She asked if I was driving back to Matt & Christine's house. I said yes, and she that is good that I have a place to stay. She told me to call her when I got back to Atlanta to let her know that I had made it home safely. I told her I would.
I leaned closer to her and told her what I wanted her to know more than anything, "Spending time with you, seeing your artwork, understanding how you have lived your life, and seeing your example of volunteering with children in your 90's has made me believe that I can achieve any good and noble purpose I set out to accomplish."
These next words from her I will always, always, always remember.
With 96 years, 3 months, and 1 week of life worth of life experience and wisdom, she raised her head from the pillow, squeezed my hand and mouthed her last instructive words to me, "You can!"
And so, I will.
I turned toward the door, said good night to Kerry, said good night to Carola and told her I loved her. She said, "I love you too, and drive carefully."
I told her I would, said good night one last time, then left for my car. Both of us knew it was the last time we would see each other. She is my mother's father's mother. Four generations. We witnessed this presence of four generations earlier in the week when we were together with her with her eldest son Gene, Kerry, her daughter Linda, Gene's son Kevin, my uncle, and me. Life gives us no time to take any of this for granted. Not one second.
Earlier, before I left, she told Kerry and me some of her fond wishes.
She said, "I would like to make dinner for us all so that we can sit down and eat together."
Later she said, "I want to say thank you to all my children and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren for coming to visit me. You know, if this thing works itself out, I'm going to send out an announcement to all of you and we'll have a big celebration together".
We know that she knew that would not likely happen, but she has made her announcement.
Her wish is for us all to sit down at the table to dine and to celebrate our lives, together.
"Whatever life has to throw at you, run to meet it head on" -- Carola L. Gough, April 17th 1911 - July 25th 2007

Congo Family, by Carola L. Gough

Dear Great Grandma Carola,
I recently read in your journal that you gave to me what you always told me: whatever life hands you you run to meet it head on. I am sorry to hear about your stroke and I am hoping that you will recover from this soon. I am looking forward to coming to see you in August to complete my interview with you about your paintings.
The grace, patience, and attentiveness you have displayed in your life, your paintings, and your attitude toward embracing change is the most inspiring and invigorating force I have personally ever known. Always, always, always know that I have the utmost gratitude for the loving kindness, patience, and inspiration you have given me in my life. I could never even begin to repay you for this, and I know that is not what you want. You want me to extend that outward to others, and so that is what I'm trying to learn how to do in life. I try to do this through my writing and through my own actions and efforts.
Whenever I feel like I cannot accomplish something or as if I'm not making a difference, I remember you, your life, your words and what you have given all of us.
First, you had a vision of family and gave life to it, raising three children. Then you gave guidance, wisdom, affection, and attention to their children, your grandchildren. And, nearly thirty years ago now when I was born in 1977, your first great-grandchild, you saw, at age 66, another opportunity awaiting for you to someday calmly and patiently teach that little boy to run to meet life head on.
You did that in so many ways, implicitly in your paintings, explicitly in your actions through your phone calls, your cards and letters, gifts, and your time taken to read every word I have written to you or shown to you. You did it through example in 65 years of marriage. You and your husband did it by taking time to think of us and visit us. Presence is the world's most precious gift. And, time and time again, presence is what you gave, whether that came in person, or through the objects you made present with us.
You understand very well the effect of presence and actions upon the lives of your descendants. As a small child, even before I met you, I knew of you. A painting of yours, The Goughies , hung on the wall, depicting my mother Kathryn and her three siblings, Kelly, Kevin, and Kara. On the coffee table I saw a mysterious gift from far away lands, a carved jar from Zaire brought back from when you and your husband Gene lived there for three years. I thought to myself how exotic and far-removed from my kind of simple life you must have been! But, when I met you and got to know you, I realized that being "far-removed" was not part of your vocabulary. No, you have been fully present in every moment and in every meaningful way. Indeed, you have always been "closely-involved".
When I saw you volunteering with kids at age 90, I knew I could do it too at age 23, and so I have, and everyday the commitment I have to help ensure that the young people I know grow compassionate and committed to improving the lives of people around them, and thus themselves in the process, grows stronger. I think to myself about what I can help accomplish over the next 60 years of my own life if only I commit to the same principles that you have passed down to your family.
A few weeks ago you told me on the phone that you enjoy helping make some of the "little old ladies" around the assisted living home feel better about themselves. We should all  strive to have this same attitude in life!
I want to share with you a small passage I wrote a few months ago.

Practice attention, patience, and compassion to achieve success. Here are a few words on each of these.
Attention is more than a direction of the eyes, attuning of the ears, straightening of the spine, or a steadying of the hands or feet. Each of these forms the skeleton of attention, but its muscle is the brain. There is no Cartesian division between mind and body. The two are one. Direct your eyes, attune your ears, straighten your spine, steady your hands and feet and focus your brain on the task before you and expect success. With patience and compassion, success will follow.
Patience is not the ability to sit idly by, waiting for other people to come along and show you something new, but is instead the inability to refrain from joining with others to share something that is true; Once you begin to do this, there is no limit to what you can achieve, together, for the good of yourselves and others. Notice I said "begin to do" and not "learn how to do", because you can't learn without doing. You just do it, and understanding will follow.
Compassion is first the recognition of a physical or psychological struggle in others that you have seen, and perhaps overcome, in yourself. Second it is the inclination to join with them to be then their eyes, ears, hands and feet, or voice. Finally, it is the understanding that their struggle is as much your own as it is theirs for without their success and uplifting you also are stuck at an altitude far below that which you can soar.
Success is an accumulation. But, it is not solely the accumulation of physical objects and financial assets. These things are well and good when used for a noble purpose, but success is much more than this. It is the accumulation of memories of kind words and actions extended from you toward others and from others toward you. Layer upon layer of such memorable actions builds in you an infinite cushion into which to fall when you face setbacks. Knowing always that you can brighten somebody else's day with a kind word or a smile will be your secret to success. I guarantee it or your money back.

Attention, patience, compassion, and success. I learned a great deal about all of these by being around you and observing how you have conducted your life.
You also told me to get on the dance floor and dance. You should see me now taking salsa dance lessons. I'm just a rookie and not very good yet, but I will be. You've shown me, and all of us, that we can and will achieve whatever good and noble purpose we set out to accomplish.
I don't know how to live up to all you have achieved or how to love as thoroughly as you have loved, but nothing in this world can stop me from trying.
Great Grandma: you love, you are loved, and you are love. I know this for certain, and I am looking forward to seeing you better very soon.
Love always,
Your great grandson Josh
P.S. When teaching me to paint water colors a few years ago you told me,"You're the best thing that's happened to me, great-grandson". All I can say is that I have been the luckiest great-grandson in the world. You are always, always, always loved, and you are the greatest thing that's happened to me.

Guitarist, by Carola L. Gough