RE: Green Book
Ok boys and girls....a nice 'slice of life' story. Thanks Frank Thomas Smith. I imagine a few movie-goers will gravitate to this little story, which probably seems alien to anyone under 50 (if not 60). This is the peculiarity of the temporal; a plane we all march on, together, but apart. In the 'higher world' this plane becomes more of a 'spatial' panorama where such differing perspectives tend to dissolve...Or so, at least I have read. Reading Frank's story brings these concepts into focus. I followed on a vaguely parallel (at least geographical and cultural), path with interesting differences. Frank is about a decade older than I, which makes the Korean War obviously much more immediate for Frank. Those youngsters today have almost zero idea of the historic Korean conflict...today its Kim Jong Un ...We children of WWII, knew evil when it was 'clear' -even without CNN. Likewise Vietnam is ancient history-an imagination to the newer generations, whatever letter defines them. Who even remembers when school shootings were American soldiers shooting American students? Yet for Frank, and even me, despite my comparative youth (sorry Mr Smith) these events will always impact us. For 'old-timers', Kim's nuclear aspirations are, after all, a strange morphing of the 'bomb shelter' mentality, even if it was diving under our school desks, probably not the best shelter. Of course, this is the continuation of the American ideal which is sputtering to its inevitable 'Roman' fate, in front of our eyes. 'The only good Indian is a dead Indian'-then we take his land. And surprisingly: 'what in the depths its echo finds'- history repeats: 'better dead than red'-just replace "Indian" with 'commie'....like the Korean, the Vietnamese, and certainly the Russian. Black is yet another color.
Now I haven't seen the movie, but I have experienced the 'normality' of racism, which continues today with the devious economic/cultural cunning of the wealthy...so Faustian as to even delude themselves....(sometimes). Which brings us back to Frank's story, a 'sweet', almost 'innocent' tale, even 'sentimental'....it is, after all biographical and Frank, despite his crusty exterior, is a sympathetic Anthroposophist.
It is a wonderful story, and one of the few critiques I would opine, is that the 'devil is in the details,' and while Frank and Jim were traversing the south, searching for lodging, large crowds of whites, entire families with little children, were reveling in the routine torture and lynching of 'Negros' with great relish. Unfortunately, this history, is very much like the Akashic Chronicle: occult and denied by consensus - "White America.'' One sees this same phenomena with the immigration fear-mongering, which echoes Frank and Jim's story. Perhaps we should tear down all 'Walls' and open the borders to accelerate the 'melting' of the great American pot. Then we would not need any Green Books.
John Harris
*
Read ‘Green Book’ this morning and it stayed with me throughout the day. Can’t put it into words yet but it made my heart feel good.
Thank you.
Jayne Hughes
*
I quite liked your piece on the Green Book-inflected trip through the Jim Crow South.
One negative point though: I myself had a Jesuit education, in grade school and then at university. I think the Lord, or the Fates, for that experience. I'd recommend a Jesuit education to just about anybody. Like you, I skipped the selective Jesuit high school and opted for the academically select public school in my city. That's because I was smitten with all the Jewish girls in my neighborhood (then largely Jewish) and knew that Jewish girls had a thing for guys who went to that high school.
(In my time, it was 65% Jewish. Today, it's at least 50% Asian. It's also co-ed today, though in my days, the two academically select high schools were all male and all female. The female school - imaginatively named Girls High, was right down the street from Central, but if one of us Central boys was caught on the grounds of Girl's High, it meant an automatic suspension. And that's just how it was. )
Richard Lord
*
Green book: WOW, lovely piece of writing, btw did you see eric hurner: "Kultureller Rassismus, Anthroposophie und die Integration der südafrikanischen Waldorfschulen", another account of 'how things were'.
Magdalena Zoeppritz
*
Thank you for sharing your experience - painful to read. I'll see if the movie is playing near me.
Pamela J. Fenner
*
Hello Frank,
I couldn't access the reply function, so I'm sending you an email. I just wanted to say that in 1951 my family came to the U.S. in one of those leaky tubs called a "liberty ship" - the USS General Muir, landing in New Orleans because repairs were being made that year to the statue of Liberty. We had been in a displaced persons' camp in Austria, but with the help of the National Catholic Conference, had been sponsored to emigrate to the U.S. Our ship left the harbor in Bremerhaven, and we arrived in New Orleans in June. An astonished family of six blinking in the sunlight. My father had $2.00 in his pocket. And thus began our adventures in the New World.
Elizabeth Simons
Editor by Nature and Writer by Heart
RE: Talking Trees
The story is sweet and has the wisdom of simple words with deep sense.
Elena Herbon
Buenos Aires
*
RE: Los árboles parlantes
Frank Thomas Smith, el escritor de esta historia es un maestro Waldorf fundador del Seminario Pedagógico Waldorf en Buenos y la encuela Waldorf "El Trigal"en Córdoba, Argentina. Maestro de mucha experiencia en la enseñanaza de idioma, Su relato puede despertar la conciencia relacionada con la destrucción en masa de los árboles que venimos haciendo, no sólo bosque, la selva, el sotobosque y sus animales, a los cuales le destruímos el habitat. Una historia que tiene suma seriedad y actualidad también. Morirán los árboles, los animales y la Naturaleza, también morirá la humanidad.que gracias a los árboles,a su oxígeno. Vive.
Nina Anton
Buenos Aires
*
Esta pequeña historia para niños, necesita de nuestra comprensión del
idioma extranjero, para luego poderla relatar, pues se trata de los árboles que hablan, que conversan...Y si sabemos que aquellos que se encuentran cercanos en un sitio circular se ayudan entre sí con la provisión de agua, de nutrientes, de apoyo...bien podemos tomar la realidad que se habla en su lengua de tierra, de aire o viento, de agua o calor...hasta de fuego,
Tatiana Schneider
RE: Love in the Life of Spies
Chapter Nine – to end
Couldn’t put it down!
-Dan Dugan
RE: Libertad y la Iglesia Católica
Que interesante, nos ayuda a entender hechos de nuestra época y ubicarlos en el conjunto, les agradezco, si es posible, enviarme la siguiente conferencia a este correo y otras charlas porque este material es importante. Mil gracias.
Paco Mesa
Conferencia 2
Conferencai 3
Home