THE AGE GAME

Spring has come to Ontario this 2016.

I wonder if it makes you feel rejuvenated to have another spring pop up if you are 80 years old, or do you feel a little fearful and ambivalent.  I am in the early stages of putting together a documentary on Aging.  I have already sent the idea to myself and it sits in a sealed envelope somewhere, just in case  somebody was thinking, hey...I will invest my time in somebody else s idea and I am going out tonight to buy the camera and sound equipment.  

Doing research for this film has brought me down an interesting road.  It's incredibly relevant for me personally to figure out how people are handling their old age, how they are handling it emotionally, physically, and what their suggestions are on how someone like myself can handle it when it arrives. (Actually, it's not really about my future at all)

One of the gentlemen that I am going to be filming was talking to me about Age Regression....This guy is 80 and still trains athletes in the gym, and is telling me that it is possible to go in the other direction.  What a breath of fresh air this guy is.

I have come across some powerful quotes...one of my favorites is by Thoreau...

"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."

Isn't that part of it...When we get older, we lose our enthusiasm...we lose our passion...we lose our taste for excitement and the unknown. We don't seek out new friendships and ideas with the same vigor we did in our youth. 

(However, I believe I can look forward to talking about the weather alot and also being part of many conversations about people who have a new ache and pain..)

Aging is one third Genetic and two thirds lifestyle apparently..There is lots to the subject and I am feeling lucky to be immersed in it.  The advice that I read is actually more likely to be used by people in their early 50s to really make a difference for them going forward.. Some of it is fairly obvious...exercise 30 minutes a day...eat sparingly and mostly a plant based or Mediterranean type diet...spend an hour a day doing something you love...

THE QUESTION REMAINS:  HOW DO SENIOR CITIZENS REKINDLE THEIR ENTHUSIASM AND PASSION FOR LIFE?   How do they turn around the tendency to be complacent and to awfulize the short future that awaits. How do they come to grips with the meaning that their life has held or not held?  How do they handle all their friends passing away in grotesque fashion over the years?

Scientists have isolated something called TALOMERES which are the tips of your DNA molecules...These things get a little smaller as you age and thats why we go down hill.. There are also many new breakthroughs on the horizon in this area, and it is very possible that we will be able to live well past 125 years.....in the near future..

I will explore some of these ideas in my film THE AGE GAME... I am fascinated with the subject and now I hope that I can do it some justice...I still dont have any answer to the question about the loss of enthusiasm though...Maybe trick the mind just a bit?  Teach an old dog new tricks? NEVER SURRENDER?

I write this tonight from a cottage where I have a full week to meditate, cleanse my body with nutrition and watch all the old foreign films I want, without anybody around me to tell me differently.

Oh and I enjoy photographing nature whenever I can...damn right...

Rick

A NEW VIDEO SERIES

I am working on my video series called The Neighborhood.. Canadians speaking about America.
I will pull the different episodes together and include them in an Art Installation. I hope. On the wall I will also feature some flashing photographs of Canadians being physically dragged off somewhere...but where?


I have included the second video in the previous post.. It feels great to be working on this subject that is so prevalent right now as Donald Trump makes a big run at the White house.. The idea of all those nuclear weapons in the wrong hands, makes me and millions of Canadians and Europeans very nervous. But whats the alternative? Would the US ever invade Canada? The budget for the video series is non existence so I scramble to make it look and sound except able to people that have short attention spans and are use to high tech, good looking videos.


Working on this project has created that "flow" of energy that was missing in my life for a while.
Waking up with that passion and excitement that old age sucks out of you is very special. I know that the term old age is a little offensive, but there it is.


Our galaxy has 30 billion stars and the universe holds 300 billion galaxies. What I am saying is that we have no answers for any big questions, so its much  better for me to distract myself with some passionate projects.. We know that all of this cant have just happened by accident, yet it seems that everything is totally random. At least I can control the angle of a camera shot and the rhythm of the edit.


I also had a dream last night about a passionate love affair from the past. Going to the ROM...seemed so real and I felt so alive..until I woke up... I was pissed.  I got up and started to channel my disappointment into something creative and had a great day..Life is good.

Its been a while..

Rick

THE CANADIAN CONCERN--The Neighborhood

Sitting on a dock..on a lake....nobody around....its rejuvenation.

In the background after taking a good hour to digest the beauty...I am listening to Pema Chodron the Buddhist talk about Shenpa.
.
Shenpa being the attachment of the mind to things and emotions..not just attachment...but the hook they have over you..

.She talks about a feeling that we automatically close up when faced with one of these hooks..

I know that I personally get sucked into a vortex of revolving thoughts about obligations, guilt, food, sex, abstinence, and a plethora of others.

She talks about being gentle with ourselves...we apparently say hundreds of negative, critical things about ourselves everyday and for me.. this has to be recognized and softly changed in order to have a certain freedom of the mind and soul.

For me, I have a deep feeling of shame and guilt for not living up to a certain projected life or potential. This hits me alot...paralyzing me with fear.

One way to help with this is to practice something called.."one at the beginning and one at the end" Simply explained..its about setting intentions in the morning (whether spiritual or not) and reviewing your day at night..without being too brutal on yourself.....The real magic of this act lies deep within the ritual..Good things start to happen...a contentment... a peacefulness....or just more feelings of failure to complete a special task..I am not sure yet.

I have alot of empathy for all of us who are faced with suffering, guilt and feelings of inadequacy on a daily basis. It sucks and is not real..Our self perceptions are terribly skued.

Getting close to nature makes me feel so much love and connection though....but like most of us. the merrygoround of thoughts about food and my cell phone have started to swirl again.
I don't mean to complain..today I am happy out here.

Rick

The soul behind the chattering mind

Recently after I was told that my health had improved by 20%, I was excited. I was enthralled. I loved the doctor that told me that. Thank god I had one of the most esteemed members of medicine on my side. My sobriety of over 3 years was a testament to my new healthy vindication.

THEN.....A couple of months later for no apparent reason.....my heart went into a-fib,  my heart was beating out of control at 170 beats per minute, which got me in the operating theater and got me shocked three times with the padels, given a huge dose of Propofol..and eventually assigned a 5 day hospital stay.

Why did it happen? Could it be that the small amount of weight lifting I did that day had this contributed  to the breakdown?....its doubtful.  The jury is still out.  What it did mean was that I would have to take another medication that completely sucked the life out of me. When you get sucked, you get sucked hard. You feel like going down to the corner store is an adventure. Bottom line is that it blows.


However, I'm alive. So fricken grateful to be alive. This world of suffering and chaos is an absolute garden of Eden to me now. Really, every time I have a near death experience, I come out the other side, just marveling at this world of ours and all the intense beauty in it.

Human beings gravitate towards beauty and mystery. Put the two together and you have a recipe for passion. I feel now, that any animal I come across these days and any young child I encounter, are just divine messengers.They are gorgeous!.

 I have gotten to a point of observation, which somehow limits my mental associations a little bit, and instead I am able to breathe in these moments directly without labeling them.

I think that's happening because of my brush with death...(I have had quite a few over the years) Now before I make myself out to be the Maharishi or somebody, this lasts for a couple of minutes, and really doesn't stay with me for the whole day. 

I do basically subscribe to the existential view that we are all stranded here, living a life that is not of our choosing, and a life that can be extremely cruel sometimes. On a brighter note, there is something to be said for the saying ..."You will see it, when you believe it" 

I do believe that in this existence where nobody definitively knows why we are here, (and the world is balancing on a rock of narcissism and a twig of consumerism) there is a connection that can be made to source energy or to love and gratitude.. Now, even after my experiences, I have no actual plan, I am just trying to live in the now spiritually....Honestly.

I am reading a great book called the untethered soul. The author Michael Singer starts out by talking about the crazy chatter in the mind. Constant chatter.....in the shower..walking to the closet...."should I do this...what if I did that ...they don't deserve this...the weather will be awful...some pizza might be nice...etc" It is never ending. If you don't recognize the chatter behind the real person, you are literally imprisoned....All of this talk is not us, its the mind monkeying around with one thing after another.

We are the being and consciousness, behind the chatter..We can recognize this chatter and observe it and transform it. I am no great mediator and my downward dog is pretty awful, but even I know that these two ways of quieting the mind, will bring you closer to your real self..As well,  a walk or swim in nature would also do the trick for me.

Who the hell am I.? The guy who got the margarine commercial at 15?  The guy that travelled to BC to start a new life, or to Taiwan to teach.... or am I  the guy that said all those awful things to the people I loved when I was drunk for 7300 days. Actually, I am the consciousness behind these events. I am the sensitive witness to these events.

I would like to think that my existence, my sometimes irritating and sometimes charming mind and soul....are here for some purpose.  I dont think I will ever know.

I know one thing though, I am happy to be here, on this beautiful earth, with all of these beautiful people and animals. That sounds very hippyish, but that's the way I feel. That is ofcourse until the next train of doubt is thrown into my world from my constantly intervening and chattering mind.

I am rambling. I am glad to connect though on any level. If for some reason I don't make it next time...I will try to connect with all of you ....from beyond our experiences, beyond our bodies made of stardust as Carl Sagan said.Perhaps, I will communicate with you while you are sleeping. Or not.

Rick Lynn

Doing it instead of thinking about it...

Writing has taken a backseat to doing these days, hence the layoff..

" You cannot get to the next phase of a project without a grander mind-set, more acceleration and extra horsepower."  Grant Cardone



When you get yourself back in the game of life and you are physically and mentally healthy enough to get a job, keep it and contribute to an RRSP , it is amazing how your focus moving forward seems much easier to deal with.
When I was sitting around everyday contemplating the metaphysical and the meaning of the aging process, it was absolutely exhausting. Am I a Pantheist or a Nebulist?... really? We are a very small planet in a very large galaxy and we all seem to be struggling on different pages, so where do you go from there....exhausting.


I am working with a fantastic company in Honda and they offer a great product that was just voted the most trusted Brand in North America. However, positions in Sales ultimately come down to the individual. It's a kind of stylistic dance focused on  producing your best character for a particular situation or individual, Strong Communication can ultimately bring you wealth. Your ability to communicate value will be either your bankable talent or your demise. 

Some days are very exciting and I can feel the "flow" or I can feel that I am in the communication "zone" while other days feel like I am walking back and forth in a dungeon of doubt and negativity.

I am back in the game, and the only way I would be able to make a large contribution to this world was by putting myself into a position where I can afford the time to believe and create the personal vision that may impact this world for the better. Or I may ultimately just be another guy that desperately wanted to make a difference on a grand scale, but instead, made a small difference to certain individuals on a very small scale. That is alright. Just smiling at the right individual at the right time can  produce a huge impact in itself, or so they say..

In this case, it all starts with a word, an action, and a belief..


I read that Human Beings are only capable of dealing with one reality at a time, which means as you languish in your reality of the moment, there are Billions of other simultaneous realities happening around the world at the same time, that you are not experiencing. I personally want to transcend this, but that will have to take a back seat to my reality of selling new cars right now..


Rick

The meaning we fail to see...

I read this paragraph today that resonated...

Stop Hoping For A Completion Of Anything In Life

Most men make the error of thinking that one day it will be done.  They think, "If I can work enough,
then one day I could rest."  Or, "One day my woman will understand something and then she will stop complaining." Or, "I'm only doing this now so that one day I can do what I really want with my life."
The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way.  They won't.
It never ends. As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift.