Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Every time we shift our perception we lead the way to the miraculous!
It’s no secret I’m a huge Frank Capra fan. As a writer and a film maker and lover of all things Cinema there is no greater player in the landscape of American entertainment.
Frank Capra’s autobiography THE NAME ABOVE THE TITLE is one of the best autobiographies ever written. It spans his life, his work, his thoughts, his observations and the passion for seeing the “natural” expression of the invisible.
The works he is most remembered for are only a small piece of the Capra story, this is a man who witnessed the transitions of an industry, who had no formal training but was deeply in touch with the environment for the subtler energies and spirit in which humanity flourishes. An immigrant who made his way in the world to share his heart and in doing so impacted many as a teacher, a film maker and a friend.
To give you a slice of his thinking, I grabbed a section from Chapter Six, that Capra entitled The Sound and The Fury. His reflection on this slice of history offers insight into what it means to bare witness to our environment and see with the heart of the hero’s journey revealing the parallel in every story of change and transition ever experienced. For everyone who has lived through a tremendous transformational event and is using it to connect further to the fullest expression of their being…. this one’s for you to remember no matter what you think or can imagine the universe is working to lift the spirit to new heights.
“On the historic night of October 23, 1927, Al Jolson’s shadow sang from the silver screen. The sound waves of “Mammy” were as devastating as seismic waves. A major earthquake rocked the film world. The silent screen had grown a larynx! Hollywood shook. the inmates took over the asylum.”
“Not only was I ignorant of all things theatrical, I was also contemptuous of their phoniness. I was raised in my own “school” of naturalness… My stage was the real world, and the actors had to appear just as real. I considered the camera– and, now, the microphone–as a ubiquitous phantom eavesdropper on the comic or tragic goings-on of people…
I had yet to learn the power of creative art; that Leonardo, seeing with an inner eye, could, with simple brush and canvas, evoke a bewitching smile on Mona Lisa that no all-seeing lens could “see”; that the Psalmist’s powerful imagery in nine single-syllable words, “Be still then, and know I am God,” was worth more than ten thousand pictures. Moreover I was not yet aware that the art of the stage was in its limitations; that its make-believe gave wings to the imagination, making the stage one of the most enduring, beguiling, inspiring, and socially incisive of all the arts.”
As Delbert Mann wrote about THE NAME ABOVE THE TITLE
“It’s a love story. It’s the story of the Capra-Film love affair, and it’s marvelous, stimulating and exciting as all good love stories are.”
The book has inspired me since the days I first opened Capra’s life story so many years ago… I share this next moment for the inspiration that it offers to every dreamer looking to find their “people” in the business of creativity.
“In 1929 two history-making events took place– each involving an egg. Wall Street laid one; all the muses got together to hatch one.
During the shooting of the Donovan Affair George Seid Columbia’s exuberant laboratory man, buttonholed me, bursting with excitement about a piece of film he insisted I see after rushes.
“You’ve got to see this,” he said “it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
When the lights dimmed again I started to close my eyes, but as the picture flashed on the screen I opened them wide as saucers. This was something new — an animated cartoon! A bright perky mouse — with a saucy, squeaky voice–was burlesquing a piano recital, banging on the piano with his hands, his feet, his nose, even with his tail. And picture and sound were beautifully synchronized. The tired crew howled with laughter. This was new and wonderful entertainment. As I remember, the cartoon was only four or five minutes long. But when it was over I forgot my fatigue and plied the trampish-looking man with exited questions. He answered them humbly:
“Yes, I was a cartoonist in Chicago… No, this mouse character is a new creation… I call him Mickey Mouse… No, that’s my voice he talks with… No, we record the sound first, then time the animation to it. Yes, I’ll be happy to show it to Harry Cohn.”
“For chrissake, it’s just a lousy cartoon,” grumbled Cohn when the film started.
“Lousy, hell — it’s terrific! You’ll flip…”
Cohn more than flipped. He called in the hungry-looking cartoonist and wheeled and dealed him into a contract to produce Silly Symphonies for Columbia release.
A genius of simplicity in the right time with the right expression and a huge heart was revealed — Walt Disney. But Disney a man-child and Cohn the vulgarian spoke different languages. Cohn mistook sensitivity for weakness. Crudely, and stupidly, he badgered and bulldozed until he lost Hollywood’s richest gold mine. The man-child took his enchanting film to RKO for distribution. And later, as all true geniuses must, Walt established his own production and distribution set-up. The modern wonder of Disney’s magic flowered. The world and its children smiled.
It was sound that made Disney’s wizardry possible. What Gutenberg’s printing press did for the written word in the fifteenth century, sound did for the spoken word in the twentieth century:”
Seizing the opportunity sound represented in bringing to life his vision, Walt Disney is the hero of his own story and a true inspiration. Recognizing these shifts in consciousness become the miracle of the present day wizards forging new paths and taking humanity to new levels.
Frank Capra is an artist of unparalleled excellence. Everyday I am aware of the past that has lead to this moment and the great gift it is to share insights, to witness the unfolding scope and breath of humanity. To everyday experience the privilege and honor to work in the same business as these pioneers.
Jimmy Stewart talks Frank Capra AFI tribute…
“The best story he’s ever done is the story of his life and it can only happen in America. ”
Opt out of the struggle make your life, exactly as it is the best story you’ve ever seen. It’s the Christmas season for Christ’s sake. It’s a time where we remember Peace is available on Earth. Now. Paraphrasing a country song “all the reason’s we’re here, we know by heart.” You can live in the fiction of the struggle. Or you can revel in the truth. The truth exactly as it is. No fooling. No despair. No hope. Just a knowing that everything is what it is.
Make this a new year of remembering — It really is a wonderful life –
Take a page from the movie script —
George Bailey: Well, you look about the kind of angel I’d get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren’t you? What happened to your wings?
Clarence: I haven’t won my wings, yet. That’s why I’m called an Angel Second Class. I have to earn them. And you’ll help me, will you?
George Bailey: [sarcastic] Sure, sure. How?
Clarence: By letting me help you.
The fantasy of wanting anything to be different than it is, keeps us stuck in the fiction and falsehoods, cause never more so… do the words of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life spring out… “Each life touches so many others…” Let’s remind ourselves to remember, what we do matters. The choices we make, no matter how small. MATTER.
Choose wisely. And take care of your own 10 cubic feet. Let’s make this the Eve of something amazing. We’ve all been given so many gifts.
it’s time. to use them.
Helping someone get wings is such a great reminder what we do matters, what we give, we receive and every time we help someone see something a different way, we also get the opportunity to remember the truth and more love gets to take flight.
Clarence: You’ve been given a great gift, George: A chance to see what the world would be like without you. You’ve really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?
It really is a wonderful life – Look forward to hearing more stories about Angels getting their wings!
Thank you all so much for all the support and encouragement in readership, and likes and sharing for Flight of the Soul on Beliefnet.com. It has been an unexpected gift to work with all the beautiful spirits that bring you its content. I am grateful for them and I am grateful for you.
Lots of Love,
Melanie
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