November BJP

"Thérapie"

So this is my November BJP effort, turning around the idea of speech therapy, and cleaning my wounds. My children thought I was doing an advent calendar, a good idea for next year.

I have used a bit of a fabric designed by Kaffe Fassett, which made me happy just to look at it, and the three others are textiles I bought more than 6 months ago with the idea of turning them into spirit dolls.

The water one I actually intended to use for my first BJP page, it may relate to a famous text by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard entitled "Water and Dreams" (which I haven't read but should have really), it may also have something to do with the fact that I spent my whole childhood on a riverbank. The shell comes from a Tahiti necklace that I was given.

The jaguar relates to my therapist, and is also a reminder that I have been busy reading the superb "Secrets of the Talking Jaguar" this month.

The green peas relate to the Princess and the Pea, a fairy tale that I disliked as a child, and it is also a salute with a touch of wry sense of humour to my oversensitivity. Above them is a bush with pink and white flowers. This can relate to a fairy tale about two sisters, Snow White and Rose Red, or to the War of the Roses between York and Lancaster (my dad was raised in Yorkshire), as I was told as a child that when the war was over a rosebush with red and white flowers was invented. Or maybe it relates to the Queen of Heart in Alice in Wonderland (I have been very impressed by Sacred Artist's november page).

Between the flowers and the water are white feathers, like Finist the Falcon feathers.

In the middle is a path in golden thread, with no visible beginning and no visible end - it is said that the uncounscious is not aware of Time... Magic gold threads are often found in myths and fairytales.

But I have worked improvisationally, the meanings came after :o)

I guess you could sum it up by the idea that human beings are made by stories as well as flesh and blood. Compared to last month's page I have the feeling that I have grown up a lot. Funnily enough I had to expand the format a little in oder to prevent the cloth from tearing next to the openings. Therefore it carries the meaning that through therapy I am extending my options, opening up.

I get very shy and embarrassed when someone calls me sexy

CNN-IBN's Entertainment Editor, Rajeev Masand, caught up with King Khan at the International Film Festival of India and quizzed him about everything from Om Shanti Om to being voted the sexiest man in Asia.

Rajeev Masand: You've been a cine freak all your life, so did you attend a lot of film festivals when you were in Delhi and when you were training to be an actor, during your growing up days?

Shah Rukh Khan: Yes, earlier in Delhi, there used to be a lot of international festivals and they used to be competitive. But I never attended as an invited guest. I used to be one of the ushers. The theatre groups used to give us between Rs 50 and Rs 100 for ushering people inside. This is the first time I have been invited to a film festival.

Rajeev Masand: Very few people know that your latest film, Om Shanti Om has been invited by the Berlin Film Festival. Are you going there in February?

Shah Rukh Khan: I don't have the details but yes, that is what our international film distributor said, that we have been invited.

Rajeev Masand: It's really interesting that a film festival like Berlin, which is meant to be a serious film festival, has invited a film that really celebrates the glory of mainstream masala film making. So is that sort of an indication that Bollywood is becoming immensely popular?

Shah Rukh Khan: Well, I think Om Shanti Om is a seriously funny film so there is a part seriousness there and so I think its okay to go to the Berlin Film Festival and showcase a film like it.

Rajeev Masand: The UK paper, The Eastern Eye, has voted you the sexiest Asian alive. Give me a final word on this.

Shah Rukh Khan: As hard as I am trying to be the chief guest of an international film festival and be serious, you declare me the sexiest Asian and make me look rather flippant again. Just when I thought I could be an actor, you've taken my chance of roles in serious cinema away again. I don't think it's amusing. I get very shy and embarrassed when someone calls me sexy.

ibnlive.com

Thank you vluvshahrukh

A fantastic morning

This morning I did something fantastic.

Twice a year there is a special flea market somewhere in Paris, and my bead teacher had told me I should really come. There was a flaw in this project ; I am not a rise-early person and I had to be there at 6:00 am latest, though the metro service has not recovered from the 8 days strike yet... plus I'd been to a screening of "Other Worlds" followed by a discussion yesterday evening.

A few days ago I'd read a great piece on procrastination on Christine Kane's blog. It said at the end "Don’t ask yourself how you “feel” about doing the activity, just do it". And so when the alarm clock set off at 5:00 am, I only waited a few minutes before getting up. Am I glad I did that effort ! As soon as I got there, I saw a small crowd. Connoisseurs were frantically searching through old boxes and fishing out the most marvellous treasures at bargain prices ! I spent all the cash I had on me. That was a really great experience.

Amazing !

I've just from my mum that her village is in turmoil ; a black cat has been spotted regularly since 11th November in the Fontainebleau forest... nobody is sure if it's a puma or a panther, but what's sure is that some areas of the forest are not recommended for walkers until further notice !

News clip here.

For the Kichwa, black pumas are the traditional guardian of the forests and the animal that maintains balance between the human and natural worlds. But this one is very far away from home...

More on the puma here (French) and here (English).

To tell or not to tell, that is the question

November BJP in progress

For some time I have been troubled by a campaign launched on the internet which encourages people to stop complaining, moaning, bitching etc for 35 days in a row. On the one hand it seems a very nice and intelligent thing to do.

On the other hand what would happen if everybody stopped complaining, to pretend the World is a very nice place to be, that as Voltaire put it humourously in one of his novels "tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles" (everything is as best it can be in the best possible world) ? There would probably be no strikes, no petitions, no demonstrations.... no social progress.

However what strikes me most is that if you stop complaining and moaning, then obviously that means you basically stop all speech therapy. I know that for most of us, being able to admit pain, anger, resentment, fear is a difficult issue. It is not easy to say "I am victim", "I was abused", "my basics needs were not satisfied" even to oneself. People who have had a difficult childhood will shut up about it more often than not, and they will use many stratagems to protect their toxic parents from blame and criticism. They'd rather take the blame for themselves. Alice Miller wrote a lot about that, and how some well meaning therapists subtly urged their patients to shut up when it comes to complaining too much about child abuse for instance. It is difficult to feel you are the ungrateful kid that is always moaning and complaining - however admitting one's true feelings is a major step in healing.

I once read that what a therapist basically does it to keep your wounds open until they are thoroughly cleaned. This is the theme of my BJP page, still in progress ; keeping the wounds open until they are clean.

Against all odds

Over time, I have heard many people (including myself) complaining about their parents, childhood and even their birth and in utero life, and I have also heard many people (including myself) complain about their ungrateful or difficult children. Each time I listen and nodd and never know quite what to say. But overtime I have come to realize that people (and I) can complain about just anything, and I find this baffling. Not that I think that complaining is bad, because behind these complaints there are emotions like pain, sorrow and repressed anger, and it makes you feel better and more human to share your thoughts and emotions, it makes the burden lighter. But somehow I wonder if somewhere there's somebody who has the perfect life, or has nothing to complain about.

Today, I read this piece by Clarissa Pinkola Estes :

"I think being born, no matter how a person came to be conceived, is like winning the lottery. Most of us were not planned. Some of us were not ‘wanted.’ Some of us arrived through a loveless act or a perfunctory one. Some of us came by accident. Some of us are called ‘the ooopsie baby.’ Some of us came from unsanctioned moments and are called ‘love child.’ Some of us were sick in utero, even sick unto death, but somehow recovered. And some of us, well…
Listen…"

More here.

Autumn

I didn't have time to photograph the young boar that my mum's dog insisted on presenting to us... however I managed to take a few pictures from our little holiday... :o)