Phorpa (The Cup)

This was one of the DVDs that John chose for Queen's Birthday Weekend viewing.

It is a simple story about a Tibetan monastery in exile, and its soccer loving young monks. The story is set in 1998 during the World Cup.

Two young boys are smuggled out of Tibet to the monastery for a traditional Buddhist education. They are given a room to share with the most soccer mad of the young monks, Orgyen. The youngest boy is homesick and pining for his mother, while the older makes an attempt to adjust to life outside of Tibet, by getting involved with the highjinks of his roommate.
It is a very sedately told tale. For those of us who are used to fast-paced, complex (or maybe confusingly written) storylines in our films this movie certainly slides into the boring zone.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. It has made me question my need for complexity. Do I really need to have a twist to every story? Do I really need to be kept guessing? Does everything have to be over in a nanosecond? Do I have to be challenged by everything I see or read?

Perhaps slowing down, taking time to appreciate things, and seeing value in simplicity is a good thing.
As the director himself says:

"I would like my stories to be moment-to-moment dramas," he explains, "Life is filled with so many dramas, but we tend to lose out the tastes and textures in our quest for speed and purpose."

Just a few observations about this film:

• There are definitely Buddhist lessons to be taken from this film, if you choose to look for them.


• Orgyen is a selfish, self-centred young monk - don't expect to like him too much. (Although the portrayal is very endearing, especially once his goal is reached.)


• Spoken Tibetan is a very interesting sounding language, quite unlike any other that I am familiar with.


• It is interesting to see tradition attempting to co-exist alongside modernity. Television in a monastery? What next?


• The cast of actors are very much who they appear to be on film. Visit the offical website and see what I mean.

And, if you are feeling so inclined, take a wander over to the Tibetan Government In Exile's webpage to get their point of view on who is and who isn't supposed to be a part of greater China.

Fantasy Triptych

I have been working on this for more years than I care to confess. It is not a small project, but the length of time it is taking is simply due to my lack of consistent stitching time.

I have a habit of doing several hours in a row on a weekend, once every 6 months or so. I am too embarassed to tell you how many *deadlines* I have set and studiously ignored over the last few years. But now, today, I have decided that posting progress photographs once a month might just might bring in the publicity factor that will stir me to regular, but restrained stitching sittings.

So here is the first photograph of my progress on Fantasy Triptych.


Fantasy Triptych - 1 June 2006

Originally uploaded by Twoflour.
If you want to see what it will end up looking like open this link.

Looking Outside of Yourself

Sometimes it's easy to focus solely on yourself.

My life.
My work.
My family.
My mortgage.
My problems.

These are all important things. To me.

Your list may be slightly different from mine, but nevertheless we all share the same inward focus on how our life is progressing.
This strikes me as being perfectly normal. There is nothing odd about wanting the best for myself and those surrounding me. But I have to admit to an itchy, scratchy feeling that bothered me for years. I don't know when it started and I don't know what started it. I know it was fed by my own conscience, and the judicial placing of television advertisements (who said TV doesn't affect us?!).

One thing that did push that itchy feeling front and centre for me was a small parable I came across in a book (the name of which I have long since forgotten) about counting your blessings.

A young boy was feeling sad about having to wear his brother's hand-me-down shoes. He felt that it was a terrible thing to suffer, as he was teased by other children for having to wear old shoes that were still too big for him. He confided this in his mother, who suggested that he consider himself very lucky indeed. It was possible, she said, to have worse things to worry about. She told him that there were people without feet in other, poorer places in the world, and that they have a much harder thing to live with than some teasing about their shoes. The young boy never quite looked at his hand-me-down shoes in the same way again.

It was a profound parable for me. I know it isn't particularly profound in and of itself. There is always someone who is less well off that you are. Just like there is always someone better off than you are. It's just the nature of things.

Finally, between the itching feeling, the TV advertisements and the parable I took some action. I scratched the itch.

A little over eight years ago, not too long after committing to a fairly chunky mortgage, I fulfilled my need to scratch. I fulfilled my need to help.

I became a Child Sponsor

His name was Justen. We chose World Vision. The children's detail folders came from a couple of agencies, but the photographs of the World Vision child (Justen) showed a cheeky young boy, while the other looked sad and downcast.
We chose the cheeky boy and the upbeat agency.

My itch was finally being scratched.

Eight years later and that itch is getting a good scratching now. I can honestly say that it is the least painful and most satisfying way of spending my money that I have ever come across. If you buy at least one coffee and slice of cake a week from a cafe, you too can scratch this itch.

Trust me.
Your waistline, your heart and your conscience will thank you for it.
So will your sponsored child.

If you have ever thought about it, now is the time to act on that thought. Don't wait. Poverty doesn't. Neither does disease. Contact a reputable agency in your country, and scratch this itch with me.