365 Days

"Perhaps it's time, I muse, to close those chapters and remember the enduring lesson of my entrapment: that relationships, not accomplishments, are what's important in life." - Aron Ralston in Outside magazine (December, 2010).

"To me, the film is about the stripping away of a human, and it's a human coming face to face with self, with his mortality, with his beliefs, and with the ways he's lived his life. When we do basic things like meditation, it's kind of a stripping away in your head of everything that makes up the personality." - James Franco, interviewed in Outside magazine (December, 2010).

Day301. I decided to deplane from my Flight into Reality long enough to post a blog. Whew. You can get a lot done out there in the Real World, but it sure makes you tired. I'm glad I have a cushion for a landing pad; it's a great place to refuel.

I was enthralled and obsessed with Aron Ralston's book Between a Rock and a Hard Place when it first came out. For a couple of weeks, I lived in Blue John Canyon with Aron while he was trapped by the falling boulder that eventually cost him his right arm. I couldn't sleep at night due to the extensive fan letters I was composing in my head. I was convinced that, should we meet, he would immediately intuit that we were soul mates, (we manifested our OCD tendencies in eerily similar ways) which would culminate in an inevitable invitation to accompany him on his next ascent of one of the 14,000-foot Colorado peaks he was so fond of climbing. I briefly considered sacrificing one of my arms as a show of solidarity. Fortunately, I overruled the impulse by recognizing that he would probably interpret the move as a show of insanity, which could significantly reduce my chances of ever climbing with him. I never wrote the letters. In time, my Aron fixation waned.

Until now. The film of his ordeal, 127 Hours, will be released soon. James Franco stars in the movie, which has already appeared in select theaters. The December issue of Outside magazine featured a cool article, written by Ralston himself, that describes the process of making the film. I read and reread every word while reminiscing about the parallels between our neurological functioning. I was intrigued by the artistic challenge of creating a full length movie surrounding one character pinned in one location. Obviously, the arm amputation and stunning escape/rescue from Blue John was the climax.

So while my ego lounged on the sofa cushion, I wondered about making the moving depicting my Blog/Sit year. It, too, would surround one character positioned in one location. It, too, would portray a challenging trial culminating in a feat of transformation, liberation and re-birth. It, too, would trace the journey of a character with a personality that was: ". . . adventurous, self-assured, even cocky; thoroughly analytical but a little wild around the edges." (Ralston, Outside, 2010, p. 82). Both characters emerged a bit more compassionate, much more accepting of their own mortality, and a lot less cocky.

Aron's ordeal cost him his arm. He left it behind when he exited the canyon. What will I leave behind when I exit this year of meditation and writing? Though the process was definitely less gory and did not involve spurting blood, I also severed some significant pieces of myself in order to escape things that have entrapped me. To varying degrees, I will leave behind my ego, my arrogance, and my self-serving attachments. I cut off excuses for avoiding daily meditation. I split from expectations of certain outcomes, from gaining ideas, from experiencing myself as separate and alone, from an investment in Reality unfolding according to my preferences. Most importantly, I have cut away immense amounts of suffering. Aron probably misses his arm sometimes. I don't miss suffering at all.

I can't imagine how my movie would represent these significant, but abstract, amputations. Not a problem, since Danny Boyle probably won't be asking me if he can direct the film. If he did, I'm pretty sure I would work with him. If he asks me what the movie is about, I will reply, "The film is about the stripping away of a human, and it's a human coming face to face with self, with her mortality, with her beliefs, and with the ways she's lived her life."

Gassho,
CycleBuddhaDoc