All kinds of things

We just saw a wonderful movie: Living, starring Bill Nighy. It was just perfect. It is based on a Japanese film by Kurusawa, which in turn was inspired by Tolstoyf's The Death of Ivan Ilytch. It is about Mr. Williams, an older burocrat in the city of London's Public Works Dept., who receives a terminal diagnosis and decides to actually start living! It was set in the early 1950's, and the depiction of the men in the office, including Mr. Williams, is priceless. Reserved is far too weak a term. Almost comatose would be closer. For years a group of three women have been vainly trying to crack the burocracy open to get a vacant lot turned into a playground for children; in his final months, Mr. Williams takes on this project and sees it to completion. But that is just the surface of this very touching film.

Bill Nighy as Mr.Williams in the recent film, Living.*******************************\ But that's just for starters. This evening we had a Hallowell Rehearsal. Earlier, before going to Amherst to see the movie, I took Jerome to a Dr.'s appointment - a dermatologist. Yesterday was a rehearsal for our Readers' Theater presentation of the Gospel of John, or, The Gospel of Johanna, as we are calling it, picking up on Bill Kysar's suggestion that the author of the Gospel could be a woman. We have gone a step further - Jesus has become "Yeshua," a woman, and God the Father is God the Mother, Yeshua is the "Daughter of Humanity," etc. It turned out to be a powerful experience for the group to hear it that way. We'll see what people think next Wednesday. Tomorrow I take Jerome to another Dr. apppointment - his PCP - and I'll see Angelina at 1:30p.m. The days are full!