Do you ever watch really good cinema presentations like, Noir Alley, on TCM? Of course, as is well known for all of you who know anything about me, Cinema Noir is one of my favorite genera of cinema. But, that’s not the point of the point to any of this. If you ever listen to Eddie Muller, or really any of the talking heads on TCM discussing the cinema of times gone past, they speak of it as if it were yesterday. Why, you ask? Because they did not live it. And, as such, as it is new to their minds, they speak on the subject as if it is all-new. But, it is not all-new at all. It was shot a million years ago. In fact, most, if not all, of the people associated with that film project, whichever film project they are discussing, are long gone.
 
In many ways, this is the same with my Zen Cinema. People discuss and review it as if it were created yesterday. But, it was not. Much/most of what they discuss was created decades ago. Yet, they continue to talk.
 
I guess that’s a good thing; right? To have created something so long ago, yet people still discuss it to this day. I don’t know??? What I do know is, they discuss it from the point of view of someone who did not live it. They can describe it, they can critique it, but they can never truly understand it, as they were not there; they did not live it.
 
The reason I say all of this is that, look around you, look to your own mind, re-listen to your conversations, how much of what you think about and say about and decided about have you, personally, had no true involvement with? Yes, you may like a something or a person or a whatever. Yes, you may hate a something or a person or a whatever. But, none of that is you. That is just what you think, leading to what you say, maybe leading even to what you do, based upon something that has no true meaning or value to your life. Really, ask yourself, how much of what you think, or speak, leading to what you do, have you had nothing, personally, to do with?
 
If that is the definition of your life, then what is the definition of your life? Is your life, yours? Or, is it someone else’s?
 
The people that look outside of themselves are the one who do not wish to face the what truly is within. They want to deflect people from looking and judging their life. Or, they simply have not created enough interesting elements to make their life a whole and complete entity onto itself.
 
This is why sport’s team worship is so prevalent in modern society. This is why people worship musical groups. This is why people dive deep into the movies created by others. This is why people go to church. All of that and more gives their life something to think about. But, what are they doing, what are they creating, what are they truly living when all they think about is what someone else did or created?