I just finished watching a very interesting movie called Bee Season. On the outside, it looked a lot like the movie Akeelah and the Bee, but in fact was very very different. It was about a girl who ends up going all the way to the National Spelling Bee, but there were several additional themes addressed, including family life and spirituality. Her brother goes through a spiritual search, while her mother seems to be dealing with the death of her parents when she was 11 years old, and her father is a Jewish philosophy professor. I didn't expect so much depth out of the movie.
I was thinking about the significance behind repeating things. I enjoy watching the same movie over and over again. Or eating the same foods. Or creating slight variations of those foods. Or saying the same prayers. In most spiritual practices, there is an element of repetition. I wonder if we need that repetition to understand something or appreciate something. I watch the same movies over and over partly because I gained some truth or some appreciation watching it the first time, and want to remember that, but also want to gain a new understanding in the repeated viewing. Or, the repetition could be based on comfort. Once we have experienced something and realized that we enjoyed it, we want to experience it again because it's safe.
I think we rarely learn something the first time we encounter it. We need to re-examine it or face that same situation again before we learn.
But then there are some people who don't like seeing a movie again or reading the same book twice, or walking the same route. I wonder what the difference is in a person's thinking or personality. There are definitely things that we will never be able to do again, and so I try to appreciate everything I do the first time around in case I'll never get to do it again. I try to take as much meaning out of things as possible, but then those that I can experience again I want to, to try and uncover another layer of meaning or understanding. To nice things I didn't notice the first time. To reflect on the less obvious pieces of the picture. It's interesting how our minds function.
2 comments:
I particularly like this entry. I'd never considered the benefits of repetition and wonder how I might use it more consciously in my own life. Keep up the great thoughts!
Amgad linked to this and I too enjoyed reading it. I've become a creature of habit and will order the same donut and lg black coffee and sit in the same place every morning. It's comfort.
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