[September 8th, 2015]
Wew! Well that was a beautiful, and very much needed holiday weekend, wasn't it?
In the two-day break I took from this page I didn't go too far, but I did take the opportunity to fill up on lots of feel-good things—like some hot yoga, and some cinema, and a run on Hudson River Park...
While Aviv was hard at work these past couple of days (the guy doesn't stop!), I got to spend some time doing all of the above with my close friends + sister.
With an extra day this weekend, I finally got the chance to go see The Prophet — Salma Hayek's animated production of Kahlil Gibran's most famous work.
Growing up with my Lebanese-side of the family, The Prophet was a book that was handed down by my grandparents and their brothers (my mother's uncles), and Kahlil Gibran is a name that is referenced often whenever a Lebanese family speaks of poetry.
I actually got the lucky opportunity to see Salma Hayek speak about the film almost a month ago at the Prince St. Apple Store. The film was opening in the USA that weekend, and while it took me a whole month later to finally make my way over to the theater, I realized that everything happens exactly when it's supposed to. The film + Gibran's spoken words touched me much differently today than they would have had I chosen to see the film right when it was released.
The Prophet is a very spiritual work — in that it touches the spirit — and the beauty of it is in how universal it is. No matter your faith, or your cultural background, the words touch a place that is incredibly human.
The animation of the film itself is a work of art, as is the music married to it (much of it by Damien Rice and Yo Yo Ma). When I went to see her speak, Hayek mentioned that each of Gibran's "poems" were represented by a different artist — to reference the many different interpretations we all have of life. And it's true! If you go to see the film, you will see all the incredible gifts of many different animators as they interpret + express the poems. It's simply a very special masterpiece, and I am so thankful that she produced this film so that these gifts can be shared and so that Gibran's words can be spread even further amongst us. Not just for those Lebanese families out there...
On that topic: can you imagine how many more gifts other cultures + countries have to share that we have yet to come across?
The concept of "freedom" is very much alive in The Prophet, and we all have our own definitions, which change and mutate as time goes on and as we gain more experience with life.
For Aviv + I now, freedom—and what we've defined as our "freedom" is a very highlighted topic in our day-to-day, especially with Leaving Wooster.
What I do look forward to the most is having the freedom to travel around the globe; to learn about all these people in different places around the world—hiding, and waiting for their gifts to be seen + shared.
I thought a lot about this over the course of the past few days, and how it will be a large portion of what I want to discover when I have more "freedom".
What about you? In truth, our spirits are all as free as our minds allow them to be today, right now, in this moment. Where does your free imagination take you? Go there.
Happy Tuesday to you all!
-P