Movie Muse by Peter Oppenheimer
Gratefulness naturally overflows into generosity, “an out-pouring from the Great Fullness.” A natural response to gratitude is the urge to share the blessings with others. The film has brief, abrupt shifts in mood and tone when it redirects its attention and presentation from the harmonious flow of nature and traditional communities to the hustle-bustle and cognitive overload of urban and suburban manscapes. It is noted that in modern society busyness itself is seen as a mark of character. One is reminded of the poet William Wordsworth’s line, “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Whereas, on the other hand, the feeling of “enoughness,” or sufficiency in the moment, is presented as a constituent part of developing an attitude of gratitude. Sociologist and Author Christine Carter ( The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less ) suggests, “As a society we believe happiness is the Be All and End All, but we seek happiness by pursuing pleasures and gratifications, which always leave us wanting more.” On the other hand, as the movie demonstrates, the cultivation of gratitude is capable of giving us the peace, joy and connectedness we were searching for all along. The film makes clear that gratitude does not require us to turn away from our own suffering nor the suffering of others, but rather to plumb a depth of being within us that continues unabated and unaffected by the vicissitudes of fortune and misfortune. Another local hero on camera in Gratitude Revealed is Spirit Rock’s founding teacher, Jack Kornfield, who poetically poses, “You are Nature, expressing its gratitude through you.” Jack also speaks on the “practice and great gifts of mindfulness,” the uses of adversity and the role of humor as good medicine.
Gratitude Revealed is an enchanting and emboldening documentary that invites and guides the audience on a journey into the wide worlds of life on earth and human emotion, a visually stunning journey with
elements of mystery, dream, intimate world travel and self-discovery.
The film meets us where we are, in a darkened theater. It invites us to close our eyes, open them, and be surprised that we have eyes that can open and reveal to us a world of fascination and beauty. Before us on the screen swirl beguiling images of life unfolding in a variety of forms. “Notice the incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us….” Next, by way of another example, we are invited to notice the nuances of weather, while being shown dramatic images of cloud patterns and storm systems. Gratitude Revealed is an audio-visual tone poem. Through images, ambient and musical sounds, interviews with experts and luminaries in such fields as psychology, ecology, anthropology, and spirituality, as well as encounters with countless “regular” people around the world, we are invited to open up to and relax into what it means to feel grateful.
How does gratitude feel? What does it look like? What causes and prevents it? Can you cultivate it? And what would be the effects on personal, societal and planetary health and well-being of cultivating gratitude. The film introduces us, verbally and viscerally, to some emotions which seem to be intimately connected with gratitude, such as curiosity, wonder, and joy. And by way of illustrating these emotions, and their relevance to the topic at hand, the film continues to display a potpourri of images of nature, intimate human interactions in a wide variety of cultures and settings, individual portraits, interviews, music and narration. The overall effect is pleasantly hypnotic. Sample revelations along the way include how curiosity both springs from and generates imagination; how as opposed to pleasure, joy is “the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens;” how wonder has many sub-categories each of which leads us to transcend the ordinary and open our hearts and minds to experience gratitude. The director, Louie Swartzberg ( Fantastic Fungi ), uses footage taken during 40 years of personal world travel to mine clips to accompany the description and depiction of his compelling thesis. The cinematography has an immediacy whereby it’s as if we were there standing beside him, capturing the images, sounds and songs of community celebrations around the world, as well as quieter, more intimate portraits and interactions from his travels.
Gratitude Revealed is both playful and prayerful, where the prayer is not of petition but of praise, and the praise is not of any particular diety out there, but to nature and our own deepest inner Self, which it turns out is co-extensive with the immensity of the All, far beyond our comprehension or grasp. The persuasive premise is that these interrelated emotions, such as curiosity, wonder, joy and gratitude can be mindfully and skillfully generated and cultivated. Instead of chasing mere sense pleasures and ego-gratifications, we can devote ourselves to the development and sharing of a richer and more satisfactory inventory of emotions. With intention and practice, we can increase our reservoir of curiosity, wonder, joy and gratitude. And this is where the insights and propositions of the psychologists, ecologists, spiritual teachers, and indigenous practitioners, to whom we are introduced in this film, come in.
Gratitude Revealed earns the right to its lofty title, in that the experience of watching it is a revelation, in and of itself, and one to be relished and reveled in by making it one of the cornerstones of our own life journey. Gratitude Revealed can be watched online ($3.99 for a 72 hour rental period) by going to the director’s own website, “movingart.tv” and searching for it by title. Odds are, you’ll be grateful you did.
There’s a moving segment, shot in San Francisco, of Reverend Cecil Williams, of Glide Memorial Church, tending to the needy and inspiring a large diverse group of congregants to do the same, not in addition to, but as an integral part of, their joy, gratitude and sense of abundance.
Page 18 SGV Community Center Stone Soup
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