KINDS of KINDNESS

Kinds of Kindness (2024) directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. An anthology triptych film, with an ensemble cast playing different characters in each of the three stories. If you've seen other Lanthimos films then you'll encounter some of his "obsessions" here—twins, feet, animals as people (and vice versa). I think this is existential Gnostic body horror. It's definitely weird at times. Many of the characters are flat of affect, as relationships are constantly under threat, or hanging on by a (rather tenuous) thread. I really liked this, but many won't. 

The NPC who plays R.M.F. and provides the "thread" that ostensibly sews the three stories together: I think his initials stand for Real Mother Fucker, although neither Lanthimos nor any of the crew are talking.

 

Streaming on Hulu.

COWARDS

During the past couple of months, Squid released three singles from their third studio album Cowards. The first single, "Crispy Skins" (track 1) is about cannibalism and one of their most accessible songs. The second single, "Building 650" (track 2) is about evil things committed by Frank and the narrator. The third single, "Cro-Magnon Man" (track 6) is wild and jazzy and I'm not really sure what it's all about, but it is probably my favorite Squid track. I've listened to it every day since it dropped. Multiple times. So much so that one of my coworkers asked me about it.



The album was released on Friday, February 7, 2025. I should have pre-ordered it. Instead I called multiple record stores. They either hadn't received it yet or didn't know what I was talking about. So I picked up a week later from my favorite Tacoma record store, Hi-Voltage Records.

It went right into heavy rotation.



Cowards is a great marriage of its two predecessors—2021's Bright Green Field and 2023's O Monolith—while also feeling like a step forward. Squid's art rock with jazz leanings has also incorporated classical elements more so than in the past, so much so that each track includes the core quintet of Squid but also a string quartet. This collaboration grounds the entire album in the spirit of some of my favorite slower and stranger Squid tracks—"Siphon Song," "If You Had Seen the Bull's Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away," and "Boy Racers."

I'm glad to follow Squid on their musical journey, with each album serving as both landmark along the way and a souvenir to remember the movement.

BLOSSOM

"'In the mountains' means the blossoming of the whole world."
—Dōgen

"Reality is reborn with every flower that blooms."
—Norman Fischer

"The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom."
—Isaiah 35:1

BULLSHIT CHRISTMAS

Sorry baby Jesus, but it was a Bullshit Christmas. And then some.

Today is Day 23/7. Twenty-three days since I broke my left humerus on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Seven days since I had a 28 centimeter metal rod inserted into my bone to stabilize the arm.

Originally, we decided to immobilize the arm with splint and sling. Upon the recheck twelve days later, however, it was discovered that the arm was healing crooked and I probably would lose some movement in it. I couldn't live with that, so surgery it was! That way I get closer to full recovery, although it also meant starting the clock over on healing.

So it's been days of pain and nerve burn. It's been days of meds, ice, rest. It's been days of boredom and lack of focus. Hopefully, it all adds up to a fully functional left arm in a few months, which will include weeks of no weight bearing on the arm and physical therapy. Here's to healing!

NOSFERATU

Nosferatu (2024) written and directed by Robert Eggers. Atmospheric. Impressionistic. Apocalyptic. Intense. If The VVitch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman were appetizers and early courses of a themed meal, then Nosferatu is the sumptuous feast and main course that ties everything together. This is classic and Romantic horror at its best. I will be seeing this again!

Experienced at The Grand Cinema with The Wife.

THE ACOLYTE

We just binge watched Season One of Star Wars: The Acolyte in a single sitting. I put off watching it because of mixed reviews, but I liked it. It plays with familiar Star Wars tropes—"virgin birth," duos/twins/clones (without explaining too much, thanks be to God), Jedi versus Sith, power, truth. There are multiple perspectives and narratives swirling about the core story, which adds some ambiguity and paradox. And it doesn't revolve around the Skywalker saga!

Streaming on Disney+.

ADVENT QUIET MORNING

This year's Advent Quiet Morning was probably one of the most difficult to put together. I rely upon my reading throughout the year to provide material for the AQM set lists, but most of my reading this year was Buddhist. So I really had to dig deep to find pieces, and it came down to the wire.

I created small pieces of artwork to accompany each set of readings, which provided me an additional component for this year's participants to focus upon during times of meditation and silence following the Bible passages, poems, essays, and excerpts.



"Holy Ground," acrylic gel print on 4½" x 6½" cardstock.

Holy Ground

• Exodus 3:1-15.
• "Dancing with Divine Fire: A Divine Invitation" by Barbara Holmes, from the Center for Action and Contemplation's "Daily Meditations" series.
• "On Fire, But Not Burned," an online poem by Andrea Skevington.
• "Visio Divina, August 21, 2024," an online devotion by Scott Erickson.

"Mary," acrylic gel print on 4½" x 6½" cardstock.

Mary

• Luke 1:26-38.
• Lyrics from "Let It Be" by The Beatles.
• Excerpts from "Bring It: A Letter from Mary," chapter ten of Season's Greetings: Christmas Letters from Those Who Were There by Ruth L. Boling.
• "Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother" from Come to Me, All of You: Stations of the Cross in the Voice of Christ by Amy Ekeh.

"The Light," acrylic gel print on 4½" x 6½" cardstock.

The Light

• Genesis 1:1-5.
• Two lines from The Book of Hours I, 44 by Rainer Maria Rilke.
• Psalm 18:28.
• Lyrics from "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths.
• Psalm 27:1.
• Psalm 78:14.
• A quote from Hildegard of Bingen, from Vita Hildergard II.2, 71.
• Matthew 2:1-12.
• "Stars," a poem by Marjorie Pickthall.
• John 1:1-5.
• Four lines from Auguries of Innocence by William Blake.
• "A Resurrection Faith: Dawn's Radiant Light" by Father Richard Rohr and Becca Stevens, from the Center for Action and Contemplation's "Daily Meditations" series.
• Revelation 22:5.
• Two lines from Holden Evening Prayer.

BE NOT AFRAID

"Be Not Afraid," papercut cardstock on copy paper.

A companion piece to "Annunciation," I think these beings to be "lesser" angels in the hierarchy of the heavens. Perhaps they are component parts of a seraph. Or perhaps a seraph is a composite being. I liked the notion of the wings and wheel being angelic creatures in their own right, so here they are.

ANNUNCIATION

"Annunciation," gel-printed papercut cardstock and aluminum foil on copy paper.

A six-winged seraph, but the wings flapping in a circle as though the wheel envisioned by Ezekiel. And covered in eyes, but what if the people who encountered these angels mistook an orifice, an aperture, for eyes because of the shape. What if, instead of eyes, they were glimpses into the great emptiness, the void, the Ground of Being? What if, instead of eyes, they were mouths eternally singing Hallelujah! and praising the Divine, proclaiming the glory of the Lord?

BUDDHIST READING GROUP

Here are the ten books of the Buddhism Today Reading Group I joined this year. I joined in February and we don't meet in December, so this stack comprises the ten books I read and discussed each month. 

February

Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet by Joan Halifax.

March

How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell.

April

Choosing Compassion: How to Be of Benefit in a World that Needs Our Love by Anam Thubten.

May

Zen in the Garden by Miki Sakamoto.

June

The Heroic Heart: Awakening Unbounded Compassion by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

July

The Little Book of Zen Healing: Japanese Rituals for Beauty, Harmony, and Love by Paula Arai.

August

The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology by Thich Nhat Hanh. 

September

One Long Listening: A Memoir of Grief, Friendship, and Spiritual Care by Chenxing Han.

October

Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time by Rick Hanson.

November

Awakening Dignity: A Guide to Living a Life of Deep Fulfillment by Phakchok Rinpoche and Sophie Wu.

My favorite book in the stack is One Long Listening by Chenxing Han, a spiritual memoir and meditations on grief by a Buddhist chaplain. It was intimate and vulnerable, exploratory and experimental, and provided a beautiful peek into both chaplaincy and friendship.



I also read an additional seven books that helped guide me, a couple of which were also read by the Buddhism Today Reading Group in prior years (with month and year in parentheses, if appropriate).

• Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Tenzo David Schneider.
• The Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey by James Ishmael Ford.
• Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh.
• Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown by Deborah Eden Tull.
• The Spring of My Life and Selected Haiku by Kobayashi Issa, translated by Sam Hamill (April 2023).
• We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption by Kaira Jewel Lingo (June 2022).
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.

My favorite book of these seven, and one of the most helpful to me in defining my current spiritual path this past year, is The Intimate Way of Zen. James Ishmael Ford is both a Unitarian Universalist pastor and Zen priest. It is loosely based around the Ten Oxherding Pictures of Zen.

At the most recent Buddhist reading group meeting, our main facilitator invited me to sit with members of South Sound Zen, so I went and sat with them. It was spectacular and holy and absolutely ordinary, all at the same time. It felt like "coming home," a place that is familiar and where I am known.

After sitting (zazen) for 25 minutes, walking meditation for 10 minutes (my first experience of kinhin), and then another 25 minutes of sitting, I had the opportunity to sit and converse with the leader for the evening, Chuck. He's on the board of trustees of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, which is who allows him to lead/teach with South Sound Zen. He had a Pentecostal upbringing and shared about trying to shift from that background to Soto Zen. We talked about Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Daniel Berrigan. We talked about the decline of organized religion. All while eating lemon cookies and drinking green tea. I'll be returning to sit again.