[at-l] Re: american beauty

["Thomas McGinnis" <tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us>]

>>> Chris Conn <cmconn@io.com> 05/12/00 10:52PM >>>
We sat up and watched American Beauty last night, pretty good I guess but I'm a little skeptical about whether it's really a good 'zen' movie... the main
character has a sort of enlightenment experience (briefly :-), yeah, yeah, but never seemed to show any compassion for his family, just did his own thing.

I think this is kind of an American idea of what zen is all about, just trip out on your own, why bother with all that compassion stuff. I think as long as
we think this is 'zen' we'll stay in the dark, so to speak :-).

##### This weekend, I am traveling to Damascus, Virginia — the first town in Virginia for those hiking northbound on the Appalachian Trail, and one quarter (500+ miles) of the way to Maine. I'm traveling there for Trail Days — "Woodstock" meets GoreTex — a bacchanalia of hikers, pizza, and beer. I haven't seen American Beauty yet, but many of the 2,000-3,000 hikers will be doing the same thing: riding the enlightenment pony into the town of Freedom. Question is, On what side of town do they stay? Backpacking a ridge trail for 6 months/2,200 miles affords you unparalleled opportunity for self-examination, as well as enabling selfish indulgences. How do the unknowing know to choose?

Tom McG in Indy
known to some as 
Sloetoe'79

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