My words today are for viewers who have seen Knowing, starring Nicholas Cage.

Nothing to do with Jesus

All life on earth is to be destroyed by means of a massive solar flare - all except the lives of a small number of children (and at least two rabbits!) who are whisked away to an earth-like planet to "start over."

Though some critics say Knowing is "Christian," that cannot be the case. There is no Antichrist, no Tribulation, and no Second Coming of Jesus followed by the end of the world. Knowing depicts nothing extraordinary between now and October 19, 2009, which is the date the world is to end.

The Name Game

In 1959, a young girl named Lucinda Embry channels a prophecy. She eventually gets married - to someone named Wayland - and becomes hyphenated (that is, becomes Embry-Wayland).

The name Embry-Wayland has three elements:

Embry means "ember or smoldering fire," which is how the earth ends in this movie - by becoming engulfed by fire.

Wayland derives its meaning from the Dutch word Weiland, which means "pasture-ground or meadow-land." Which is, of course, where the chosen children end up on New Earth.

The third element is the hyphen in the name. I see the hyphen as a "bridge" connecting the "ember or smoldering fire" (of the past) to a beautiful future as indicated by the "meadow-land" on New Earth. Eerily enough, I had written about the bridge aspect of a name's hyphen in my blog entitled, What's in a name, BuddhAllah-Christine?, which I'd posted on March 3, 2009 at http://bpa-cinc.gaia.com/blog/2009/3/whats_in_a_name_buddhallah-christine .

Freaks me out just thinking about that.

The names of virtually all of the major characters in Knowing can be interpreted by means of the Name Game I've just played. I'll take a shot at that in a future blog.

More about Wayland

I offer another possible meaning of Wayland. If you divide the word, you get Way Land, which I embrace as the Land of the Way (specifically, Land of the Buddha Way). The Buddha Way consists of the lifestyle and teachings which lead one to become a Buddha.

That exquisitely beautiful tree which is framed in the movie's last shot is the Bodhi Tree, similar to that under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. It is not the (Christian) Tree of Life as supposed by many. As any Buddhist would know, one doesn't merely eat magical fruit and thereby attain immortality. The Buddha makes a very clear point on how to do that when he admonishes (in the Lotus Sutra):

QUOTE:

This life span of countless kalpas*

I gained as the result of lengthy practice [of the Buddha Way].

You who are possessed of wisdom,

Entertain no doubts on this point!

Cast them off, end them forever...

:UNQUOTE.

 * "countless kalpas" - This time period is many times longer than the known age of the universe. Though when that life span ends, the Buddha still doesn't die. He lives on in the all-pervasive, omnipresent Void from which he could - if he'd choose - re-manifest himself among ordinary mortals.

That last shot did not show Jesus or God standing under that tree - it just showed the tree itself, which is what Abby and Caleb were joyfully running toward. These children didn't even know why in any way words could convey. Deep down inside, though, I think all of us have seen that Bodhi tree and the Buddha preaching under it. Or at least have "heard tell." This kind of knowledge has been accrued over many lifetimes and is a visceral part of all of us.

The Buddha had spoken of monks giving alms to the Bodhi tree, in appreciation and reverence. He himself was moved by it. To this day, there are monks who ordain trees as monks. These things are all done for reasons which are very real and have a tremendous pull in our lives.

Background

I've seen Knowing three times. That's right: I paid three times for the privilege of seeing (beholding!) Knowing as part of a movie theater audience on three separate days.

The first time, I enjoyed it. The very next day, I scrutinized it. The third time, after contemplating it for a week, I saw it again just to be very sure.

"Very sure" of what? I'll go out on a limb here, but I think Knowing is profound and worthy of any time spent pondering it. Which I've done for most of the last 10 days or so.

I know, you're thinking: "Dude, this is a Nicholas Cage movie. The words ‘profound' and ‘Nicholas Cage' don't go together."

I know what you mean: I have very mixed reactions to Cage's work, thinking him to be at times too lulling (for lack of a better word). But not this time - he managed to rise above (transcend?) himself but not to get in the way of the message.

Well worth seeing.

Steven Searle (was) a candidate for U.S. President in 2008:

"I was very much smitten by Knowing and intend to post more of my impressions - including how I view the Whisper People as Bodhisattvas (and not as angels of the Lord)" - Steve.

Founder of The Best Party Available

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

Open Invitation: I hereby waive all copyright protection for any material I've posted on Zaadz/Gaia with these exceptions: I reserve the right to disseminate this material, claim authorship credit for it and any compensation I can negotiate. However, if anyone wishes to use these essays, they are free to do so. I do not require that advance permission be obtained, that I be paid any royalties, or that I receive author's credit or even be notified of intent to use. I truly want anyone "out there" to feel free to use these essays, in original or modified form, for whatever purposes they deem worthy.

I have more to say regarding Knowing. Only if you've seen this movie will you fully appreciate what follows.

To whet your appetite: The Whisper People

I believe the Whisper People are not angels of the Lord God, who is (for the most part) the Protector of G-20 Values and Privileges (truth be told). Two reasons:

• The world is not supposed to end as depicted in the movie - that is, without a Tribulation or a Second Coming of Jesus.

• Angels would not need a space ship which utilizes a magnetic propulsion system. More likely, their vessel would move by divine power and instantly.

When the ship rises into the sky, we see a large number of small, smooth black pebbles also rising - but only for a distance of about 10 feet. Koestler is standing in an area, just below the rising ship, which is heavily blanketed with these pebbles. They rise up and then stop, as if frozen in place.

I believe they had a heavy iron content which was attracted by the magnetic field of the rising ship. Then they reached a point where the earth's gravitational pull on their mass exactly matched the strength of the ship's magnetic field - which is why they appeared to be frozen in place. Then as the ship rose further, its magnetic field's effect on the pebbles decreased to the point where the pebbles simply fell back to earth.

Seeing those pebbles rise made me realize the spaceships weren't "divinely" propelled or moved by the Will of God. A technology which generated a magnetic field was involved. Therefore, I had to dismiss the Whisper People as Angels of the Lord.

So who uses ships like that?

To merely claim that aliens use ships like that isn't specific enough. For mere aliens would not have known Diana Weyland's status after she died in a traffic accident. As a Buddhist, my knee-jerk answer would have been "Bodhisattvas." But that covers a lot of territory - I'm a Bodhisattva but I don't fly around in space ships.

However, since there are 52 stages of Bodhisattva practice, I suppose those in the upper stages would have ready access to that kind of flying technology. And those in the highest stages wouldn't need ships at all but would be capable of traveling from point A to point B without traversing any of the points in between. [Presumably, they would be capable of using such transcendental powers to take Caleb and Abby with them - that is, without using a ship.]

Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sutra tells us who uses ships like that:

QUOTE:

At that time the five hundred ten thousand million brahma kings, accompanied by their palaces...journeyed together to the northwestern region [of the universe]...

:UNQUOTE.

A Brahma king is the highly spiritually-evolved ruler of a sizable segment of a galaxy - a shape shifter capable of manifesting himself in more than one body. That is, those four Whisper People in the movie were really four manifestations of one Brahma king. More to the point: All of the Whisper People in the numerous "space ships" (that is, palaces) which we saw leaving earth were manifestations on one Brahma king - the One that rules our particular portion of the galaxy.

The story

In the autumn of 2009, Professor Koestler comes into possession of a sheet of paper. This is completely covered with row after row of apparently patternless," hand-written digits which aren't punctuated or grouped in any way; they're more like one huge run-on sentence. This sheet had been prepared 50 years earlier by a girl, to whom these numbers had been channeled, then buried in a time capsule during the dedication ceremony of her new elementary school.

Koestler transcribed these numbers onto a white board at his home and, by hunch and trial and error, learned their significance by circling arbitrary groups of them with a magic marker and then punching into his computer those numbers in each group which he assumed to represent a date. His computer search showed that on each date in his circled strings of numbers, somewhere on earth there was a disaster with the number of fatalities being equal to the remaining numbers in that circled string.

Koestler noticed, however, that an appreciable number of digits on his white board couldn't be included in a circle assuming only dates and fatalities being represented. Only later does it hit him, those remaining digits represent the GPS coordinates of the disaster sites.  Before this realization, he noticed three groups of numbers at the bottom of the sheet which show dates within the upcoming week during which three more disasters are to occur.

The last three disasters were to be:

• A jetliner crash which Dr. Koestler was intended to witness (and did, through no conscious decision of his own to be at the predicted location). In fact, it's only when he actually arrives at that location that it hits him: Each group of digits, when properly grouped into a circled series, predicts not only date and number of fatalities but also lists location by latitude and longitude (expressed in decimals).

• A subway train derailment, of which he was almost a victim. Though he intentionally went to the general vicinity of this event (now knowing its lat and long) just before it happened, he ended up being in the midst of that accident only after being chased from street level by the police.

• The end of the world, which he ended up learning the cause of but lamented, "What good does it do to know of impending disaster but not be able to do anything about it?" [The "good" of knowing was a present to Dr. Koester, which would benefit him in this life and in other lives to follow.]

Dr. Koestler's son Caleb had been chosen, with a handful of other children around the world, to be saved and to start over again. They are whisked away to an earth-like planet in palaces by the Whisper People before a giant solar flare destroys all life on earth.

It's interesting to note that Caleb and Abby weren't perfect - Abby was mildly dyslexic and Caleb wore (though didn't "need") a hearing aid to compensate for a mild case of aphasia. They were not chosen for their perfection but for their karmic attraction to each other and to the others in the group of the saved (my best guess, about 100). This attraction, which could be perceived by a Brahma king, would ensure the cooperation needed to make the best go of it in the new world.

Of those who weren't saved

What about the billions of people who were incinerated in the solar flare? Was their extinction due to their bad karma or sinfulness? As Diana Weyland pointed out: "What difference does it make, we all die in the end anyway?"

Exactly! And that includes stars and planets. It was earth's karma to have the life scorched off of it by the sun, "whose" karma it was to spit out that killer flare. As for the people of earth who died, it was their karma to be there but not necessarily as punishment. Even the good can die horrible deaths, but in a Buddhist context that simply means they had to be here to do what they had to do and the merciful suddenness of their "premature" deaths served to expiate a huge portion of their karmic debt.

But there were those who didn't die in the fire [nobody ever really dies]:

QUOTE:

When living beings witness the end of a kalpa

and all is consumed in a great fire,

this, my land, remains safe and tranquil,

constantly filled with heavenly and human beings...

where living beings enjoy themselves at ease.

:UNQUOTE *

The "land" referred to is the realm superimposed on our physical landscape which is where the Buddha dwells and teaches. And which is where all practicing Buddhists aspire to be, minus those who intentionally wish to end up in hell in order to preach to and save the unenlightened and long-suffering hell-dwellers.

Final comments

I was highly sensitized in advance to what Knowing had to say. Twenty years of Buddhist practice and reading the Lotus Sutra aloud over 80 times will do that. I'll say more about Knowing at some future date, hopefully before October 19, 2009 (the date the world is supposed to end, remember?).

Steven Searle was a candidate for U.S. President in 2008:

"Maybe I'm guilty of reading too much into what many reviewers claim is at best a mediocre film. Or maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. But...I don't think so" - Steve.

Founder of The Best Party Available

* Lotus Sutra, 16^th chapter, translated by Burton Watson

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

Open Invitation: I hereby waive all copyright protection for any material I've posted on Zaadz/Gaia with these exceptions: I reserve the right to disseminate this material, claim authorship credit for it and any compensation I can negotiate. However, if anyone wishes to use these essays, they are free to do so. I do not require that advance permission be obtained, that I be paid any royalties, or that I receive author's credit or even be notified of intent to use. I truly want anyone "out there" to feel free to use these essays, in original or modified form, for whatever purposes they deem worthy.

Scene: Paris, Texas - in the courtroom of Judge Eric Clifford.

Date: April 8, 2009

Judge Clifford rules:

An 18-year-old kid's death sentence* was reaffirmed for the crime of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy. The teenager (Aaron Hart) confessed to the cops that he was on the receiving end of a blow job.

Details, details

These details are worthy of note:

• Hart is mentally retarded - having an IQ of 47. So, basically, Judge Clifford condemned one of the 6-year-old "kids," who happened to be in the body of an 18-year-old "man."

• The 6-year-old boy "abused" by Aaron Hart is a neighbor and is also mentally retarded.

• What is meant by "sexually assaulting?" Be careful here, since the legal definition of this term might not mean what you think it means. [Note: A lot of legal terms don't mean what their common sense definitions would lead us to believe.]

• Judge Clifford didn't think it mattered whether Hart understood his Miranda rights, since [in his own words]: "...the evidence I have seen is overwhelming that he committed the offense." What evidence is the judge referring to? The confession made by Hart after hearing his Miranda rights, which the judge didn't think important enough to be actually be understood by the defendant? Or was the judge thinking of other evidence - "overwhelming evidence," mind you?

• Aaron Hart has been sitting in jail since September, 2008 and has been repeatedly raped while in custody - according to Hart's parents. You don't have to believe Hart's parents, though, for "everybody" knows what goes on in the Big House - especially to accused child molesters who haven't yet been convicted. Not to mention: Competent medical personnel could corroborate the bodily damage of these rapes to Mr. Hart's (er) "person" - unless perhaps they are prison doctors paid by the state to look the other way.

• That's right: Aaron was not released to his parents pending trial with the stipulation he wear an electronic tracking device to assure he not leave his home. I guess such amenities are only for the Bernie Madoffs of this world, who are accused of raping investors out of their hard-earned assets.

What's this about a *death sentence?

Judge Clifford decided to sentence Aaron to a total of 100 years in prison. There were five felony counts being considered (Five? For one BJ?). Guilty on all five counts: 30 years for each of 3 counts, and 5 years for each of 2 additional counts. Oh yeah, the judge decided to stack these, rather than run them concurrently.

As for probation? Nope.

As for committing to a state facility for the mentally disabled? Texas doesn't have such an option.

By sentencing Hart to prison - for life - this Judge has decided to execute this man. How do I figure? Simple: Just ask yourself this question: How many times will Aaron Hart be raped by fellow inmates (courtesy of this judge) before he contracts AIDS? Or this question: How much abuse will Hart suffer before he decides to commit suicide?

No matter how you slice and dice it, this judge sentenced a retarded man to death.

In the words of the judge:

QUOTE:

"It was a sad situation. I was about to cry. The jury was crying," Clifford said. "Everybody looked at everybody like, 'What the hell do we do?' The only option we were presented was prison. We don't have any facilities in the state of Texas for any type of care for somebody like that. That's the problem. It's a terrible problem. I don't know what you do with him other than what we did."

:UNQUOTE [article by Howard Witt, Tribune correspondent, 4/6/2009]

Not so fast, Judge Clifford. You didn't have to stack the sentences. You could have even let him go - that is, given him probation. You said, "We don't have any facilities ...for somebody like that." There are several reasons for that:

• Texas lawmakers have severely cut back programs and facilities for people "like that."

• Texas is one of only 7 states that doesn't impose a state income tax, even though it should - to help people "like that" (among other reasons).

If you, Judge Clifford, had let this young man go, the Right Wing Wing-Nuts would have surely howled. But surely you are a bigger man than those Lilliputians. You could have lit a fire under those derelict legislators. They'd be thinking: "My God, Clifford let a retarded molester loose because he had no option other than jail. We'd better cough up some options!"

Wrongful death suit

If Aaron Hart dies in prison, Judge Clifford should be charged in a wrongful death suit. Or, if Hart doesn't die, charges of malicious mischief should be considered. I am aware that the law, as currently interpreted, would not allow for a judge to be subjected to either of these actions. However, the words "as currently interpreted" should be carefully reevaluated.

Judges make a lot of noise about their job being only to interpret the law and not to create any "rights" where none had existed before. The basic idea: "If Congress has not codified certain expectations into the form of written law, and if common law doesn't address a given area of concern, then judges have no business being activist judges by creating new ‘law.'"

However, these judges conveniently overlook the US Constitution's ninth and tenth amendments (these, sadly enough, are never emphasized in legal briefs, though they could profoundly empower We-the-People, if we made enough noise):

Amendment IX: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Comment on IX: One of these rights "retained by the people" is that of "reasonable expectation that the scope and nature of our body of rights will evolve as we evolve as a people and as times change, without any formal recognition by Congress being necessary."  Such an evolution would have brought us to this point: "No citizen should be railroaded to jail simply because the state is too cheap to provide an alternative."

The irony of this is, the state cannot argue against providing special education services to retarded school children due to inconvenient expense. Remember: Aaron is retarded.

Amendment X: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Comment on X: Whereas IX talks about "rights," X talks about powers. We-the-People must never forget that we actually have powers. However, we have to claim them; we have to at least cite them in our lawsuits. We should insist that our lawyers who represent us in court insert such citations and claims as parts of legal briefs filed on our behalf.

And then there's the Fourteenth Amendment...

Ah, yes...the Fourteenth!

Amendment XIV [Section 1]: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Comment on XIV: Judge Clifford definitely abridged the "immunities" of US citizen Aaron Hart. Don't you think Hart should have been "immune" against a punishment (that is, the death penalty) that did not fit the crime? A punishment which a judge was "forced" to make because the state of Texas was derelict in its duties to mentally-impaired citizens, by failing to provide alternatives to prison?

The power of one person to make a difference...

I am inviting all of you to become that one person who will make a difference. If enough of us cherish that thought, that will be enough to really bring about change we can believe in. If you keep that thought in mind, continually nurturing it, you will know what to do when the time comes. And "what to do" will be entirely within your power and that will end up making a difference we can all believe in.

Our problem is, we too readily believe authority figures in black robes who tell us what our rights are - or, in reality, what crumbs we should get after the elite gets its lion's share.

Keep in mind the fine example of one of our former presidents. John Tyler insisted that he was the president of the United States, and his insistence silenced all opposition. Each of us should have the attitude that we too can conjure such results due to sheer force of will.

Consider (especially the part I bold-faced):

QUOTE:

Since a strict adherence to either of the two sections of the Constitution could yield opposing interpretations, there was, naturally, much disagreement when the matter was first put to the test. Any question regarding the Vice President succeeding to the Presidency was for all intents and purposes resolved in April 1841 when John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison upon Harrison's death. Tyler made it clear that he was the President rather than the Vice President acting as such, thus establishing precedent in accordance with the Article I interpretation.

:UNQUOTE [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_President_of_the_United_States#Origin_of_the_position:_Constitution_.281787.29]

As to letting Aaron Hart go...

If Hart were freed, does anyone really believe he'd be a danger to the community? With his name and deed splashed all over by the media, local parents would surely be on extra high alert and watch their children even more closely than usual. Come on, people, this is a no brainer. I'd rather have Aaron Hart on the loose than someone like Judge Eric Clifford, who is a far greater menace to the community.

Steven Searle (was) a candidate for U.S. President in 2008:

"We have to reach a point where any one of us can protest in a court of law against an injustice done to one of our fellow citizens - without some judge dismissing us because we lack standing. I am my brother's keeper; therefore, I have all the standing I need" - Steve.

Founder of The Best Party Available

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

Open Invitation: I hereby waive all copyright protection for any material I've posted on Zaadz/Gaia with these exceptions: I reserve the right to disseminate this material, claim authorship credit for it and any compensation I can negotiate. However, if anyone wishes to use these essays, they are free to do so. I do not require that advance permission be obtained, that I be paid any royalties, or that I receive author's credit or even be notified of intent to use. I truly want anyone "out there" to feel free to use these essays, in original or modified form, for whatever purposes they deem worthy.

Today is April 20, which is Blacque Obammer's* 90^th day in office. Here's how my first 90 days would have compared to his:

Unlike our current president, I would have been obligated to follow certain courses of action. That's because I was the only candidate who had (ever!) run under the terms of a legally-enforceable contract**. If I'd violate any of its 47 points, I'd lose my office.

90 days: Two Contrasts

• Point # 2 of my contract states: "Within 90 days of my inauguration, all U.S. military forces will be completely withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan, regardless of the ‘situation on the ground.'" Oh, that's right. We're still in Iraq, with more forces on their way to Afghanistan. ["No end in sight," did I hear someone say?]

• Point # 21 reads: "Within 90 days of my inauguration, I will order all US personnel out of all facilities located at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This will allow Cuba to reoccupy that land, as is its sovereign right." Obammer's* much-ballyhooed Executive Order only closes certain detention facilities at Guantanamo - within a year. My Executive Order would have returned all of Gitmo to the Cubans - again, within 90 days.

Hopium sounds too much like OPM

I have to tip my hat to Chicago Tribune's columnist John Kass, for his political use of the word hopium. The root word is hope, which blossoms into the "drug" most clamored for by blind-faith supporters of Blacque Obammer*. Hopium is addictive, causing users to sacrifice commonsense on the altar of Hope.

This sentiment nicely captures the essence of hopium: "Barack will save us - you've got to have faith and you've got to give him a chance - even though it looks like he's making things up as he goes along. And please don't look too closely at the company he keeps. Actually, please don't look too closely at anything he does."

OPM, on the other hand, is a nifty little term used by W. Clement Stone. It stands for "Other People's Money," as in "Why invest by risking your own money if you can use Other People's Money instead?"

And isn't that what President Obammer* is doing? He's using OPM to try to jerk this country out of its financial crisis. And who are the "other people" whose money he's using? Your children and your grandchildren! That's right: He's financing our economic recovery by borrowing so heavily, they will bear this burden.

Obammer* is hoping you won't realize that you will become one of those "other people," unless you're too old to be around when the piper demands his payments.

My approach: Just say no! to OPM and Hopium

President Steven Searle would not have used OPM. My contract has two specific provisions which would have (thank God) tied my hands:

• "I will veto any bill presented to me by Congress which has any provision for tax increase or for increased government borrowing" - point # 17.

• "I will veto every single bill from Congress that comes my way until it passes ... a Single Payer health care reform package...[and implements] a nationwide cap on personal credit card interest rates of 18%" - point # 5.

The practical effect of these two provisions: Congress, dominated by the Democratic Party, could have tried to pass an Economic Stimulus Package, but this effort would not have succeeded. The GOP would not have cooperated to the extent necessary to provide the two-thirds vote needed to override my veto.

My approach would have been: no bailouts, no stimulus, let badly run businesses fail, and let market forces themselves determine equilibrium...but...nobody starves and nobody lacks for shelter. Some will say, "Thank God Searle wasn't elected or we'd be in a genuine Depression right now." I admit we'd be in a bad way, but nowhere near as bad as it's going to get once Obammer's* policies manifest their long-term weaknesses.

Of course, Obammer knows he can't win in the long-term unless he opts for a distracting military adventure. But hacks like Obammer don't think "long term" - all he cares about (primarily) is getting reelected in 2012 and (secondarily) doing whatever it takes to block any kind of GOP resurgence.

Meanwhile, Obammer's supporters, hooked on hopium and thinking OPM won't involve their money, will keep chanting:

"Chains you can believe in! Chains you can believe in!" - Oops, I meant, "Change you can believe in!" [My bad!]

One small indicator (and there will be others)

Recently in the news, there was a heart-warming story about how US Navy SEAL snipers freed a civilian American sea captain being held hostage by Somali pirates.

There was, however, a rather disturbing element to this story: This operation was personally approved by our president. I sincerely hope Obammer won't find it necessary to similarly micromanage future events. That's what field commanders are for. That's what professional staff is for. It was once said of General Dwight Eisenhower: He found capable men and surrounded himself with them, gave them a great deal of latitude in decision-making, but stood by them if things didn't go well.

But so far, I haven't heard anyone liken Obammer* to Eisenhower. And I don't think I will.

Steven Searle (was) a candidate for U.S. President in 2008:

"Really, it's okay to hope. But, please, keep your wits about you; your children will respect you more if you do. Hell, you'll respect yourself more if you do" - Steve.

Founder of The Best Party Available

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

 * The following essay explains why I refer to him as "Blacque Obammer": http://bpa-cinc.gaia.com/blog/2008/12/why_blacque_obammer

 ** see "The Electoral Contract of Steven Searle for US President" at http://bpa-cinc.gaia.com/blog/2008/9/the_electoral_contract_of_steven_searle_for_us_president

Open Invitation: I hereby waive all copyright protection for any material I've posted on Zaadz/Gaia with these exceptions: I reserve the right to disseminate this material, claim authorship credit for it and any compensation I can negotiate. However, if anyone wishes to use these essays, they are free to do so. I do not require that advance permission be obtained, that I be paid any royalties, or that I receive author's credit or even be notified of intent to use. I truly want anyone "out there" to feel free to use these essays, in original or modified form, for whatever purposes they deem worthy.

I saw a trailer for the upcoming movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Which made me think of the old Johnny Depp movie Edward Scissorhands. Oddly enough.

So I'll propose an odd fusion here - someone should make a movie entitled Scissorhands "verses" Wolverine. Both title roles to be played by Johnny Depp!

Seriously, now

These two characters are polar opposites, hands down (pun intended). For one thing, Edward doesn't have any superpowers, which causes Wolverine to scoff at their first meeting. But that lack turns out to be unimportant. As the original movie's tagline declares, Edward Scissorhands is "the story of an uncommonly gentle man." Which is where the "verses" part of the title comes in - that wasn't a typo; I did not mean to say "versus."

In my vision of how Edward turns out, he learns how to express himself in a consistently poetic manner, much as do all of the characters (all of the time) in a 2004 movie called Yes, directed by Sally Potter. The poetic format in that brilliant film being iambic pentameter.

The unlikely alliance

"Don't always fight your enemy - convert him, so that he may fight alongside you or...dwell in peace with you" - spoken by Edward to Wolverine.

These two are a study in contrasts - one being a hyperviolent with memory and revenge problems; the other, a very vulnerable man who remembers too much, inspired to develop a way with words with which to "handle" people which compensates for his scissorhands which can't handle people at all.

The idea of having Depp play both roles is to emphasize the underlying theme: Man is at war, or at best only peacefully coexists, with his feminine side. My sense of Depp, based on his androgynous portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow (in Pirates of the Caribbean), is that he's perfectly suited to play both characters, which are "really" both aspects of one man (and, therefore, of men in general).

Although it will be a real actor's challenge for Depp to portray Wolverine, I think he's up to it.

The story

The basic plot revolves around a chance meeting of these two, as Wolverine makes a (pun alert) stab at recovering his memory. This scene could take place in an "Asian bar drinking shots and trying to remember who he is."* In this bar is also Scissorhands, who is not there to lose himself (find himself?) in drink but simply to observe, only ever revealing his hands when he feels this to be beneficial.

The action takes place when Wolverine is attacked by forces and for reasons unknown to him. Edward basically tags along as a sympathetic ear, though definitely not as a coequal warrior.

Key line of dialogue, said by Edward to Wolverine: "Both of us were made, manufactured, or manipulated by others. To a large degree, that's true of all men. But your greatest power is the ability to change yourself, not necessarily in defeating others."

Coup de grace

There are two definitions of coup de grace, which illustrate the opposite ways each character could personify the literal translation, which is "blow of mercy."

• a death blow, especially one delivered mercifully to end the suffering of a wounded creature.

• the last of a series of events which brings about the end of some entity (in this case, the entity is the mindless violence shaped into the form of a human being).

The end-scene shows that "last of a series of events" as our two heroes talk, after having another narrow escape.

Wolverine: "Is that it, then? We're just put here to survive, even though we don't know why or who our tormentors are?"

Edward: "Yes, in part, but also to find out who we really are. And to help you with that, I give you this bouquet of roses. Take a good, long, hard, patient look. We've got all day."

Edward then hands Wolverine a bouquet of paper shapes which his scissor hands exquisitely crafted, saying, "This really is just for you, only you can understand it and learn from it. No...keep looking."

The context of the bouquet

As these two get to know each other, a recurring action is Edward giving Wolverine a sculpted cutting and asking, "Does this mean anything to you?" ("How about this?" "Or this?") To which he's usually interrupted by enemies attacking or rudely dismissed by Wolverine, "You've got to be kidding."

Each bouquet is a form of mandala which, when stared at in a meditative trance, is supposed to help us reach our inner self, which is far more important than any efforts to conjure up mere memories.

Conclusion

If, in all "seriousness," Sean Penn can be cast as Larry in a remake of The Three Stooges, then casting Depp in the roles I'm proposing can be taken as seriously.

Steven Searle was a candidate for U.S. President in 2008:

"Go ahead, make a movie of verses, if you can. As always, I waive all intellectual property rights (see Open Invitation, below). Don't know who said this, but it resonates with me: "Show me a man who says ‘This is mine,' and I'll show you a thief" - Steve.

Founder of The Best Party Available

* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458525/synopsis

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

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