The Painted Veil (continued)

In the first entry about this movie, The Painted Veil,  I told about how the couple’s staying together through thick and thin seemed to turn their dire marriage into a deep loving one.

Thinking about it now, I can see that I left out a big factor. And that is that this man and woman were living under basic conditions. I’ll tell you what I mean.

If the two main characters, played by Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, had continued to live in London, where a surface society life was readily available, it is hard to imagine that Naomi would have let go of her parties, dances, and games. It would have been too easy for her to skate across the surface of life as she always had.

Even if Naomi and Edward had continued living in a big city in China, where a superficial English society life was readily available, I doubt that Naomi would have scratched the surface of her own character. And I wonder what opportunity she would have had to see her earnest husband for the extraordinarily good man he was.

Circumstances played an inestimable place in Naomi’s character development. The little country town in China where she and her husband moved to was primitive. The town’s water came from a well. They lived where there was an epidemic of cholera. They lived where Communist and Nationalist China were coming to grips with each other, and where foreigners were often seen as “foreign devils� and their lives were in danger.

Part of the blessing of Edward’s having taken Naomi to the figurative ends of the Earth was that there was nothing for Naomi to do there. There were no games to play and no one to play them with. For the first time in her life, if Naomi were to find something to pass her time with, it had to be something meaningful.

So, necessity played a great part in Naomi’s growth. Without it, I don’t see how the marriage could have or would have lasted.

For many of us, the lives we live do not give us an opportunity to find out and reveal what we are made of. And what do you think of that?

Posted by Gloria on January 22nd, 2008 under these topics
Movies, Personal Development, Godwriting Journal
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18 Replies

Reply from Jo on January 22, 2008

Hoo - Boy, Gloria!
I think you are playing the devil’s advocate, as wonderful teachers often do. I can’t imagine a life where not one opportunity to learn what we are made of is ever presented. Can you? It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re living in the heart a of modern metropolis or in a solitary outpost at the ends of the Earth. Each and every interaction with either another human being or a set of circumstances reinforces who you are and who you are becoming. Time and time again, you’ve given examples of this here in your blog when you relate a story that happened in the checkout line, or on a walk or at a Godwriting workshop. I believe with all my heart that we are given opportunities for significant self knowledge every day, lots of them, so much so that, if we were paying attention (AWARE!)we’d be in a constant state of enlightenment and ascension, leaving no time whatsoever for worry, doubt, fear,etc. I think we should each spend one full day carrying a journal and pen or a small voice recorder to keep a record of every interaction with others and with “the stuff that happens”. If we honestly reported our every reaction, response, emotion, insight, etc. that occured in each instance and then sat down at the end of the day to review them, WOW - what a book of lessons we’d have, and just from ONE day. (Did you know you’d be striking such a big nerve? - Of course you did!) What amazes me about this blog, Angel Gloria, is how you can bring up a subject or ask a question and we readers spontaneously burst into Godwriting in our responses.
It’s soooooo much fun!

Reply from Larry Schiller on January 22, 2008

Of course she would have maintained the life of partydom. That was all she knew. It was her reality. Once she moved to China, she tried to continue this life. Her reality was still in London. Only when she began to accept the fact that she no longer was in London did her reality begin to shift. She ultimately reached the point where she accepted China as her present reality. She began to live in the NOW. Once that happened she opened herself up to a whole new set of paradigms. It was at that point when she was able to see the beauty of her present place, which of course included her loving husband. Living in the NOW allowed her to develop into a more compassionate human being. The story is beautiful and very moving. It will bring tears to your eyes, not because of what she goes thru, but because it allows us to see ourselves for who we are. The message is clear: Live in the moment and extract all the goodness from it. When we can do that, all things change, and our life becomes full of the same. Thanks for all you expose us to Gloria.

Reply from Gloria on January 22, 2008

Larry, you said it better, more deeply, what I was trying to say. You added another dimension to it, an aspect that hadn’t occurred to me. So this is that famous NOW. This is what it means to put the past behind you, leave it, and accept the present reality. Extract all the goodness.

You and Jo make me think of so many things I want to say.

Jo, I am not sure that we all do have opportunity to see what we’re made of. Yes, we grow, and, in one sense, our whole life is a challenge. We have opportunities to do “the right thing” or to cheat etc.

An example of the sort of thing I mean was shown during the Louisiana flood. I was so impressed by the story of a six-year old boy who became parent to his younger siblings, even took responsibility for a neighbor’s infant, brought them all to safety. He arose to the occasion. He had an occasion to rise to.

I imagine him before the flood as an ordinary American six-year old, spoiled, even pampered perhaps, whining about something he wanted. Then the flood. Given the opportunity, given the NEED, he suddenly became a responsible person. He was thrust into a situation, and he met it.

I think of the thirteen-year old Amish girl who tried to protect the other children in her school from the man with a gun. Hoping to spare the other children, she went up front and told the man who did murder her, “Kill me first.” Who knew she was like that? Did she even know?

And then, of course, the courage of her bereaved father who would not let anyone say a word against his daughter’s murderer, who comforted the murderer’s widow and family, and, along with his community, attended the funeral of the man who had killed his daughter.

Of course, someone like Mother Teresa created her own situation.

Sadly, I am sure too there are situations that arise, where a person discovers what he would rather not know about himself. How do we know what we are capable of until we are faced with it?

Reply from Jacqueline on January 23, 2008

I think this is way too much information for someone who has not even seen the movie, so I didn’t read it yet.
But I will get the movie and then I’ll let you know.
Jacqueline

Reply from Gloria on January 23, 2008

Ms. Jacqueline, although this movie is a dramatic example of what we’re talking about, it seems to me that, for a while now, we’re really talking about much more than the movie. Do we grow from adversity? Who knows a person’s mettle ahead of time? Who knows our own?

That movie raised a lot of questions.

I can’t wait to hear how you feel about the movie itself after you do see it.

Of course, sometimes it’s better when you discover a movie for yourself. I mean, if you had told me I’ve got to see a movie, I might not find in it all that you did simply because it wasn’t my discovery.

Reply from Cédric on January 23, 2008

“For many of us, the lives we live do not give us an opportunity to find out and reveal what we are made of. And what do you think of that?”

Dear Gloria, is it so important to find out and reveal what we are made of ? Is it always so important ? Who is it important for ? Have we got something to prove ? Why ?

It seems to me that, no matter “what we’re made of”, God loves us just the same.
For conditional love wouldn’t be love at all.

Think about your child doing a foolish thing. Do you love him or her less just because your child did a foolish thing ? Will you think your child is made of foolishness ?

God knows what we’re made of. And that’s what matters.
For, if there’s a real need to reveal anything about “what we’re made of”, God will provide for the needed circumstances to reveal it.

Just be who you are and God will take good care of the rest.

Just smile and remember. You’re made of God’s love. That’s the most important thing to know about “what we are made of”.

Cédric

Reply from Gloria on January 23, 2008

Beloved Cedric, of course you are right! No question. God love us, plain and simple.
And I am glad to read what you feel, dear one.

Speaking just from myself, the way I saw it, this has nothing to do with God!!! None of this about being challenged, from my point of view, has anything to do with God! (Sorry, God!)

Naomi in the movie, had she stayed in London, could have spent her whole life on the surface and been more or less content with it. Yet what she would have missed!

That little boy who saved the children younger than himself will have, I think, a far better self-image than he would have otherwise.

I kinda thought that it is to ourselves we want to reveal ourselves.

Tell us more of what you think!

Reply from Cédric on January 23, 2008

Funny it as nothing to do with God for you ! :-D
Though I think I understand your point of view.

To me “what we are made of”, even figuratively, has many things to do with God. Many times, the greatest things we do in life, are inspired by God. To me, inspiration is like God lovingly whispering to our soul : love, love, love… Then we can’t help doing such things as saving somebody else life : overflowing with divine inspiration we forget ourselves.

To me, the point is that, in this heavenly Now moment revealing “what we are made of”, we forget ourselves. So we can’t think of some things such as “what am I made of ?” and then voluntarily seek for situations that will reveal it to us. This would be a kind of “ego trip” I think. Do you see what I mean ?

By the way, it’s a relative world out there isn’t it ? ;-)

So putting everybody’s life on the same level and making comparisons such as “this one missed many things in his life comparing to this other one” wouldn’t make much sense I think.

From a little human perspective, just scratching the surface of “reality”, are we really qualified to determine “what we are made of”, what someone missed or didn’t ? Yes we are, yet we are not.

Maybe, from a heavenly perspective, what is really important, what really counts, is just not the same at all.

Reply from Jo on January 23, 2008

Bravo Cedric! You have a wonderful way with words and even more wonderful wisdom. I opened this blog page wondering how I was going to respond and put down what I was thinking, but now there is no need. Thank you for your entries.

Reply from Cédric on January 23, 2008

My pleasure dear Jo ! :-)

Namaste

Cédric

Reply from Gloria on January 24, 2008

Beloved Cedric, Jo etc. Yes, I do understand better now what you are saying. I really really do. Yes, all comes from God, and all we do is for God. Our lives are for God and driven by God(sometimes!)

When I make comparisons, I am judging. I say unequivocably that Naomi’s life is better, richer, more vital, meaningful etc. than before. I am saying that her life before was shallow etc. Who am I to say that? Yet I do, and so I speak from my personal relative human point of view. I seem to be unable to let go of it.

Am I propounding difficulty in life as a teacher? That must be so. But whatever I may think about it, life surely does give us challenges.

A friend of mine whom I haven’t seen in over twenty-five years called me yesterday. She is a strong Heavenreader so we have been in touch via email.

She was married for 23 years, and a year ago her husband left her for another woman. You can imagine what this past year has been for my friend.

She said something interesting on the phone. She said in this past year she had learned more than in the twenty-three years of marriage. She said something like: “It was as if God saw I wasn’t moving forward, and He thought that if I wouldn’t do it myself, He would make me.”

My friend said it much better than I put it.

Surely, Cedric, Jo etc., we do agree that life does challenge us, and we do learn from the challenges. Beloved Cedric, you had a challenge that most of us don’t have. Would you be so deep and wise and loving and all the beautiful things you undeniably are if you had not? Knowing you, beautiful soul, maybe you would.

But if Naomi had been in a position to continue to sit at parties and flirt or whatever, how much would she have learned and grown?

Reply from Gloria on January 24, 2008

I would love a response from you, Cedric and Jo, and from everyone, or have I worn out your patience?!!!

Reply from Carol on January 26, 2008

You havent worn out mine, Gloria. We actually are given the exact circumstances we need to show ourselves what we are made of, we dont always see them or take them, that’s all. She needn’t have gone with her husband. She did have that choice…it would have created another set of difficulties, but it was a choice.

Reply from Gloria on January 26, 2008

You must be right, dear one. If you see the movie, or, Jacqueline, when you do, maybe you will pay better attention to this part than I did. I don’t remember exactly what it was. As I remember, she didn’t have other choices, but maybe other alternatives just weren’t brought out in the movie and/or Naomi just didn’t see all possibilities.

Reply from Carol on January 26, 2008

She went with her husband because her lover would not leave his wife for her. If she had stayed she would have been shamed and alone, so she chose someone she did not love to preserve the honor she did not display. And, in the end, she learned that love without honor is not love at all. That real love is honorable and blesses everyone it touches. Such a beautiful story.

Reply from Jo on January 26, 2008

No loss of patience, here, Gloria - I love what Carol says about being given the exact circumstances we need, though we don’t always recognize them or “see”them. I also love your story about your friend who lost her husband of 23 years. I completely agree with her that when we aren’t “moving forward”, God finds a way to get our attention. (Speaking from personal experience, it sometimes takes a pretty big wake-up call if we’re extra stubborn!) I love that we are given an infinite number of “do over” opportunities. Every time we miss one or let it go by, another one drops in. So if we were talking about life and not the movies, the Naomi Watts character would be given other opportunities to grow into seeing what she is really made of. We are all made of the same wonderful stuff and until we find it out, those opportunities keep crossing our paths.

Reply from Cédric on January 28, 2008

Nothing is worn out here either. I just couldn’t connect to the Internet for a few days.

So, here is my reply to both questions you asked me, dear Gloria : I simply don’t know.

Maybe it’s not the answer you expected, but I can’t find a better one.

With much love,

Cédric

Reply from Gloria on January 28, 2008

Cedric, I love all your answers.

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