Living well is the best revenge

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’ . This past week I haven’t felt too positive and optimistic. I’ve been anguished about many things – including the deteriorating situation in Egypt [1] and Lebanon [2] and Jordan [3], the opposition to a tax levy to fund infrastructure reconstruction in Australia’s flood-affected areas [4], and the government’s slashing of programs aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions [5]. Of course I have no personal control over these things. English poet and clergyman George Herbert (1593-1633) (pictured) said (regarding the awful things happening in our world) ‘living well is the best revenge’ [6]. But what does ‘living well’ mean? Different things to different people, I reckon. I live a blessed life: I’m healthy. I love a wonderful woman. She loves me. I have beautiful children and grandchildren who are an endless source of love and pride. I have stimulating and rewarding work. I live in a comfortable house on picturesque land in a sublime landscape. I have enough money to do whatever I choose (within reason). I live a life of freedom in a truly democratic nation. And I consciously try to live as humbly, gently, respectfully, generously and decently as I can. This isn’t a complete list. But you get the drift. Every day of my life I count my blessings. Of which there are many. I realise, and cherish, that of the seven billion people alive today [7], I’m among the most privileged and fortunate. Which isn’t self-congratulatory. Just honest.

Review Tuesday: 'Blessed'

Today’s ‘Review Tuesday’. Blessed [1] is a 2009 Australian drama. Set in the late 1990s and filmed in Melbourne, it’s divided into two parts. The first part tells the stories of seven disaffected children from five socially deprived and financially stressed families. The second part tells the same stories from the viewpoints of the five mothers. Three of the mothers are lone parents, one lives with the father of her children, and one lives with a boyfriend. Both parts of the film show an unremitting struggle of life, such as it is, in an urban wasteland. It’s bleak, gritty, dark, desperate and depressing. The movie’s a loose adaption of the 1998 play Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? – which consists of four [2] or maybe five [3] separate but interweaving stories each written by a separate writer. (All four, or four out of five, of the writers wrote the screenplay [4].) Blessed is an ambitious project. It’s been very well reviewed [5, 6]. The acting, locations and cinematography are all first class. But I think that overall the movie fails: too many children, too many mothers, too many stories. Three stories with more interweaving and a more than minimal story arc would’ve been a big improvement. Still, it’s heartening that the local film industry’s vibrant and confident enough to tackle a film of such complexity. My rating? Three stars.