Just about weekly Michael Kelly and Calvin Harris have a conversation. Those of you who have met them know they are very, very different people. You could say If the Male perspective was viewed as a crystal formed prism, Then Michael and Calvin, each is a facet that forms a different side of the optical element, that refract independent light or insights. Now like a prism, they have at least two surface angles in common, between them. Besides being male, Michael and Calvin are both Truth seekers, who studied in the Prosperos School of Ontology and have been friends for over 40 years.
Michael sent to Calvin, a film review from the New York Times, by Ben Kenigsberg, Sept. 26, 2017. The film was called: “I Am Another You” a documentary made by a Chinese woman, Nanfu Wang. It was a portrait of a young man, early 20's called Dylan, who has chosen living on the street as a way of life that gives him the most freedom. This idea of freedom is important for Wang. She emigrated to the US both to escape the conformity of Chinese society and the oppression of the Chinese government, and to explore the particularly American idea of freedom. It is the idea of freedom that she wants to explore in her film. Dylan makes a perfect subject for her to do this with for he, in many ways, is Counterpoint to cultural concepts she has about Freedom.
Michael felt, that like life, the film revealed in stages a multi-layered portrait of the young man Dylan and his lifestyle. In Part 1 the film shows how strangers were magnetically attracted to him, as Wang was. In Part 2 of the film, issues that Dylan has were focused in on and is called into question, as Dylan's history is revealed to Wang. Part 3 of the film, Wang gives yet another view of Dylan, a fuller picture, that Wang and her co-editor have managed to present in an organic and completely natural way, even to the point of including Wang's own changes in view and her second thoughts regarding Freedom.
Nanfu Wang Photo
Beyond the Film
MK: Looking at the pics of Dylan I recall seeing many young men and woman on the streets in the 60s and 70s who had something similar about them. Because of this I was quite ready to accept Wang’s initial view of Dylan, and found his lifestyle totally believable. Even finding people willing to be generous with their food, money, or shelter was not a surprise.
I hitchhiked a lot in those days between Boulder (school, post-school) and California (mythical land of freedom), or Boulder and Atlanta (parents) and benefitted many times from people’s generosity. Unlike Dylan I was genuinely grateful, seeing it as the kind of luck that has often come my way, and helping me on my way. In this too I was unlike Dylan: I was always going somewhere for some reason, whereas Dylan’s professed goal is simply being in the moment, free of ordinary life.
Calvin: I think it’s interesting that you seem to feel like an observer of Dylan and the youth culture he represents, as if they are outside of your raeality. But really you were that face in the 1970s as I saw you. The same length of hair, the same ambivalence to what would be called "authority," that same openness to new experiences even though it would stretch or change the codes of conduct and sexuality as presented to you as 1950s doctrine up until this time.
You had that same desire for freedom to live life as you saw fit. That same look for adventure to travel the country and the world for new truths, for new ways to be, new ways to find and define youself. In California it was from the Streets and Hills of Hollywood to Santa Monica and Venice Beach and It was the music, even some wine and Mary Jane to ease you into the evenin, yet it was for that sense of feeling whole and being inclusive that bought your search to the Prosperos Community..
Yes, that search for Truth of idenity beyond finite male and matter, that like in the book , "the glass bead game", That lead you up that stairway in Santa Monica, Ca. To the Prosperos. Those stairs, in many ways were more than just an entry into The Game of Life, (a reference to Hermann Hesse book) but for you a chance at "self mastery" and a excepting community, the Prosperos.
Nanfu Wang Photo
MK: I recall a period in 1970 when I probably looked just like Dylan. I had flown to Hawaii as the first leg in a trip to Japan for the World’s Fair, arriving with essentially zero dollars, and the feeling of adventure you mention. I lived on the beach for awhile, and had plenty of company. I recall a young woman who had the same kind of effect on me as Dylan had on filmmaker Wang. I guess ‘scruffy’ would sum up how I looked from the outside, but on the inside I really was having the time of my life!
Calvin: Yes, Yes I see we are out of time for this visit until next time. I will say Big Hug and Aloha.
Calvin while going about the rest of his day reflected on the people who had come into his life. Coming together taking time to know one another, building community with purpose and meaning and then reflecting on the amazing thing that happened and were produced because of our being together. He smiled and picked up the watering hose and did a light soaking of the new spouts coming up in the flowerbed.