Sit and Spin, LA Story, Dervishes, Sarah Jessica Parker, and getting Emotionally Erect

When I was a little kid, I loved to spin in a circle. Either standing and whirling, holding out my arms, and then savoring the off-balance euphoria when the spin was over and I stumbled innocently into the wall... or sitting in a little red and white chair I treasured, called the "sit and spin," which was designed solely for the purpose of letting a small child spin in place like crazy.

One of my favorite under-rated movies is L.A Story with Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, and a young Sarah Jessica Parker. You can watch the trailer here for the reference to being "emotionally erect." Steve Martin's character is struggling to make sense of the insanity of 1990's Los Angeles, and he ultimately finds happiness by following the private directions given to him by a mysterious and massive highway road sign. Along the way he dallies with Parker's character who represents the innocent joy of youth. She finds happiness by spinning ... she just loves to spin in circles. Of course it comes off as dumb and crazy in the movie, but now I find it hilarious... and I wonder if it's a more sophisticated reference than I first realized ???

I just ran across this story on Sufism and Whirling Dervishes in Turkey . More information at wikipedia here. The author, Sunaina Gulati, writes, "The Whirling Dervishes are a part of the Sufi branch of Islam, known for its mysticism and asceticism...spinning is their way of worshipping God. [Rumi's] philosophy is encapsulated in one of his poems:

Come come whoever you are
Whether you are a non-believer,
Whether you worship fire or an idol,
Whether you have repented a hundred times,
Whether you have broken a vow of repentance a hundred times,
This is not a vow of desperation;
Come however you are.

She continues: " Science has shown us that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. A man's very existence depends on this movement -- revolution in the atoms, structural stones of his body, movement of his blood etc. However, all of these are natural, unconscious revolutions. The Whirling Dervish actively causes the mind to participate in the revolution of all other beings...."

"...Akin Cakmut, who has been practicing the dance for many years since he first started at the age of 13, told CNN, "Everything turns in the universe. The world turns, the sun turns, your blood under your skin turns, and also the Dervish turns...The meaning of the first part is who are you? You are thinking who am I? The second part the Dervish understands, ok, I am human, I am living. In the third part the Dervish understands there is a force, and the dervish gives his heart to God. In the fourth part, your soul comes back to your body, and you understand that, yes, I am human I am a person...I can't explain it perfectly because it is between me and God.""



My childhood "Sit and Spin..." was my earliest naive brush with god? Is Sarah Jessica Parker in "LA Story" an accidental western analogue of the whirling dervish? Can I now get up the courage, as an adult, to go off somewhere and just spin? 

(dervish painting above by London artist Nazim)

child prodigy painting god-- real or hoax? a lightning rod nonetheless

A dear friend sent me an email with the title "whenever your faith starts to slip" and a link to a purported CNN video about a young girl, Akiane Kramarik, who is a self-taught artist, and from a very young age, has had visions of meeting god and going to heaven, and paints these visions.  Supposedly her family were atheists who have been converted to faith by the girl's visions. It is a very inspirational video which you can see here: drawing heaven .

Of course I'm very wary of these virally transmitted emails, because, so often, they are fun but untrue.  A quick look online found plenty of skeptics, questioning to what extent the mother is being truthful, whether the mother really was an atheist, whether this is a "balloon boy" type hoax, and whether the girl actually paints the work herself.  Claims are made that the paintings resemble the mother's own painting style, and that requests to watch or tape the girl painting have been refused.  Other cynical comments suggest that proper medication would prevent her from having these visions.

So I found the girl's website here akiane.com . I was amazed by a blog post about her recent painting of a buddhist monk, shown above, where she writes : "irate comments are mostly coming ... that I got deceived by the Devil who allegedly sent a Hindu swami across the whole world as counterfeit to Jesus’s model. ..I am a journalist visionary artist who paints diverse cultures, faiths and realities from both the visible and non visible realms. I am still learning and discovering new cultures, but I can assure you that the monk is no different from all of us who are seeking god and the truth... he was an answer to my prayer; for the past year I had been seeking to learn about different traditions and indigenous cultures from around the world."

Bravo for that.  At this point, I don't care who's writing, when it's such a great sentiment.  Clearly this girl is on an interesting journey.  Is it a sincere journey of faith, or a journey as an accessory to her family to make money by taking advantage of people's faith?  The only truth I can claim here, is that my reactions to the video told me something of myself, and my wants for faith.

Finally I am disturbed by the idea that medication would cure these visions.  We are a way over-medicated society, buying wildly expensive drugs that allow us to tolerate the actual insanity and detachment of so much of our modern culture, forcing us to work even harder to pay for these drugs that make it possible for us to continue to tolerate our work... in a crazy self perpetuating cycle. What if this epidemic of depression is really the healthy honest result of the path our society and our lives are taking?  Then pills are not the answer.  Personally I've been down a lot of roads trying to find that something I was lacking inside, that "good feeling"... sometimes they've been unhealthy and self destructive roads that brought temporary pleasure and relief...followed by trial periods of  prescription medication, that brought temporary relief but ultimately dissatisfaction as well... and long periods of addiction to work and chasing financial success and ownership of "things"... leading me to where I am today, wondering if there is an answer in organized religion for the fulfillment and pleasure I've chased so many other ways... I see other people have found it in religion, and at the same time do good works and become better more loving, just people along the way.  Will I find that? What path do I take? Time will tell... until then I fall back on music and singing. That's where I'm closest. (images by Akiane Kramarik, akiane.com)