How Greek are you?

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The relationship people have with the Greek language and culture is a huge topic of great interest to many people involved with the effort to promote Hellenism. The worldwide Greek School, The Greek Online School (https://greek-lol.com/) , and the Hellenic Film Society USA ( https://hellenicfilmusa.org/) have a common goal; to make the Greek culture and language accessible to anyone interested no matter their background or place of origin. 

Τhe Greek Online School and HFS USA have collaborated on the creation of a Greek Language & Culture Survey ( https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPKuWRSp6-4FzUMO24_Z_cz1LWprSZzgdcEZoN-PtTkJ9d6w/viewform) that will help bring answers about the relationship of people to Greece.

The many shapes and forms of “Greekness”

People in Greek communities come from various countries and relate to Greece in a plethora of ways. Everybody has their own special way of being Greek. Some people were born in Greece, others have a Greek partner, their families might come from Greece, they might have just moved to Greece and are looking to learn the language (https://greek-lol.com/) , and some simply love our country and culture and wish to gain a better understanding of it.

Languages are the vehicles to a people’s heart and the Greek language (https://greek-lol.com/news/greek-school-all-over-world/) is at the core of Hellenic culture. That’s why this survey was created; to help the Greek Online School & HFS USA gather and present objective information, compare results and most importantly to help evoke discussions that broaden our perspective and help us get a better understanding of the ways people connect to Greece.

How do you connect to Greece?

If you have 5 minutes please, take the big Greek Language & Culture Survey ( https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPKuWRSp6-4FzUMO24_Z_cz1LWprSZzgdcEZoN-PtTkJ9d6w/viewform ) .

Your help is truly valuable in the efforts to get a better understanding of the relationship people have with Greece and Greek culture. Your answers are confidential and will only be used for the purposes of the survey.

Greek cinema as a language tool and as a warm reminder of our roots

Whether it is a movie from the golden film era of the 50’s and 60’s with all the great actors that your Greek parents or grandparents grew to adore, or a more modern film, Greek cinema can be great and is usually very fun. Just like with every country, there are movies that are a waste of time. But there are also amazing ones that you will absolutely love and watch again and again not only as a way to revise your vocabulary, but as warm reminders of the culture that might be on the other side of the world but is still a big part of who you are. This month’s movies by HFS USA ( https://hellenicfilmusa.org/) are sponsored by The Greek Online School and they are the perfect way to bring you a taste of… Greece.

The Greek Online School offers Greek language lessons to people of all ages and levels of Greek around the globe. Our online community of Greeks and Philhellenes consists of more than 1000 students and our mission is to help people learn to love Greek.

“Come True”: Possibly a Canadian Classic Horror Thriller?

“Come True” initially moves slowly and gains in suspense and explodes with an unsuspected brilliant and provocative finish.

You think you are finally beginning to figure everything out until an unexpected finish turns you on your head spinning with WTF just happened.

A great film brimming with creativity that may leave you with a gasp at its conclusion.

Brilliant imagery and creative writing.

A right on soundtrack.

Being film savvy, you have figured out that the film is about dreams but there is a strange commonality about the dreams in 5 participants in a sleep study. What this commonality is subject to diverse interpretations. You might be intellectually brilliant and figure out the dreams are about the evilness lurking in the hearts of everyone? Or perhaps multiple interpretations are also correct as you try to make sense of the film.

Yes poor Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) an 18 year old high school student has terrifying dreams about a man in the shadows with gleaming eyes that continually wakes her up in a cold sweat. So she enrolls in a rather secretive sleep study with 5 other paid volunteers. Technology has evolved that permits the researchers to see the images in the dreams of the participants. And at one point the researchers determine a dark figure in the shadows with gleaming eyes is not only haunting Sarah but all the sleep study participants. Now what is going on here. The monster within all of us? The essence of evil in the minds of all humans? Satan lurking in all of us? Director Anthony Scott Burns playing with our minds?

Then a slightly creepy sleep participant researcher Riff (Landon Liborian) tails Sarah with an obvious romantic interest that ends up with his demise as after some lovemaking with Sarah his eyes and life are gouged out by Sarah. This is all after a suspenseful sleepwalking episode by Sarah as she travels in a sleepwalking state towards the shadowy strange figures with glowing eyes that inhabit her dreams and the dreams of everyone in the sleep study. She wakes up in her sleep walking state and runs in terror from the shadowy men with the gleaming eyes and finds herself in bed with Riff after a passionate lovemaking scene but she has poked out Riff’s eyes and murders him. In shock she slowly walks to the bathroom covered in blood. On the toilet seat a mobile rings with a message that will send your head spinning. What that message is might be innovative and a salvation for Sarah or is it yet another dream. Why now does she have fangs like a vampire?

As Burn’s quips, “We wanted to create a dream world that is beautiful and artistic, but deep down you know you shouldn’t be there.”

I am bursting to tell you the final moments of the film but it is so overwhelming and innovative you may ask yourself is this film a dream or reality? A question I’d like to ask Burns but I must refrain lest I receive an answer that might destroy my magical perception of this Canadian film!

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe6F2cp5sHs

Releases across Canada March 12, 2021 on these platforms iTunes, Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Telus, Vimeo on Demand, Cineplex Store

What can we do to support COVID ICU nurses? Can mindfulness meditation help

Last night I watched a short documentary with actual footage of COVID ICU nurses in Arizona. It compliments a documentary by several physicians working in the ER with suspected COVID patients that I saw last month.

Together these short films present a sobering image of COVID attacking the health care system. The film of the ICU nurses was taken with nurses using a body cam.

What was the end result of this? For the nurses there is pain, suffering, fear and often a sense of helplessness. My thought is that may ICU nurses may be on rocky grounds as concerns their mental health and many may be on the road, if they are not already there, to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Banging pots and pans or providing meals can be helpful tools in providing ICU nurses with support and may be indicative of acts of compassion.

But can we use some mindful practices to help these brave souls? These techniques could be called spiritual and ones you have never practiced or thought about and may alleviate the suffering of these nurses and even be beneficial for you. The first technique we can use is a loving and kindness meditation to all ICU nurses throughout the world. I can tell you I have directed this meditation to individuals that are suffering and hurting and it does work. I haven’t done it that often for groups of people. I think what it does is open your heart and mind so the power of compassion is directed and focused.

The text is simple:

  • Choose a comfortable place with minimum distractions where you can practice this meditation.
  • With eyes closed, back straight, and the mind aligned to the present, think of someone you love, someone you don’t like, a stranger, and a group of people you spend time with every day.
  • Keeping all of them in mind, repeat the following words to yourself in silence and complete awareness – ‘May you be happy,’ ‘May you be safe,’ ‘ May you be healthy,’ ‘May you be at peace.’
  • Take as much time as you need to repeat the words. You only have to make sure that you say them after realizing what they mean and feeling them from inside.
  • Once you have finished repeating the words, end the session by saying, ‘May you and I be happy,’ ‘May you and I be safe,’ ‘May you and I be healthy,’ ‘May you and I be at peace.’

Now if you are an ICU nurse or any healthcare worker is undergoing suffering and pain that is unbearable and is making you feel psychologically unwell it may be advisable to seek psychological help. If you not at that point perhaps it is time to practice self compassion. If your negative emotions are out in the open try not to be like a dog chasing your tail by worrying, by being afraid, by being angry or by being gripped in fear. I suggest you may wish to accept these negative emotions as being part of you. I think that if you accept them without judgement you may cease running from them or avoiding them. You have let the genie out of the bottle which may not be pleasant at first. Once you have accepted these negative emotions and how they are making you suffer you can then exercise some self compassion realizing you have been suffering and as a human being you need to nourish yourself with some self compassion. I am not suggesting you can chase away the demons but you can peacefully exist with them so they are no longer demons.

You may find it beneficial to exercise self-compassion several times during the day. Perhaps you can visualize this as “leaning into your suffering”. What is occurring is that you are opening your heart and perhaps this will make you more vulnerable but my hope is that you recognize this vulnerability and deal with it. If you keep running from your suffering this means you are not dealing with it.

And if your heart is big enough perhaps for your ICU colleagues you can give a loving and kindness meditation as described above.

If you want to share the ICU nurses’ experience you can see it here https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/opinion/covid-icu-nurses-arizona.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR0OqTML7TWeZHH_GU3TpRsH5_09LioHLiTsoBj6TxCBmzGOBZ5xQWqnAaE

Passage of the Day: William Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair”: Marriage

“And who on earth after the daily experience we have can question the probability of a gentleman marrying anybody. How many of the wise and learned have married their cooks? Did not Lord Eldon himself, the most prudent of men, make a runaway match? Were not Achilles and Ajax both in love with their servant maids? And are we to expect a heavy dragoon with strong desires and small brains, who had never controlled a passion in his life, to become prudent all of a sudden, and to refuse any price for an indulgence to which he had in mind? If people only made prudent marriages, what a stop to population there would be!”

Mutantism on the March: Chapter 10 “The Friendly Exile of Captain Squid”

Chapter 10 “The Friendly Exile of Captain Squid”

As so the circus toured the oceans with Squid as its main attraction but a peculiar development shattered the harmony of his existence. He developed an enormous appetite causing him to devour huge quantities of food wherever the circus set up for a show. His voracious appetite for plankton and krill placed local food supplies in jeopardy threatening the survival of local populations where the circus was performing and the performers themselves. Popularity and acclaim for Squid was a huge asset for the circus but starvation of performers and locals was very threatening. After all the fate of the circus hung in the balance.

Squid would have to depart. As there was really no other choice there were no hard feelings. Preparations were made for a friendly exile. What could Squid do being exiled from his loved ones? Never again would he see Glorp the fattest sea snail ever seen as his best friend.

Do not fear. Heartless exile was not the order of the day. Squid and octopi are compassionate and kind creatures perhaps more than any other creature in that mix of hydrogen and oxygen commonly referred to as water. Nurd, the senior manager of the circus, was a powerful and respected squid with contacts and connections befitting his social standing. It just so happened Nurd was well acquainted with some equal powerful members of the dinosaur community above. With some hard bargaining a sparkling position was secured for the vulnerable Squid.

Dinosaurs were avid dancers and their culture thrived upon that activity. Squid had a vast experience choregraphing dance numbers with clams. In fact the clam dancers were so successful that they defected from the circus and set up the Coon Clux Clam dancing troupe. The Clam had offered Squid a huge salary and unlimited access to krill but he had refused feeling his first loyalty was to the circus. The dinosaurs were excited with having Squid amongst them as they had seen the Clam perform. So they jumped at the opportunity to give him a rare opportunity. Squid was to assume the position of the red Astairrexorous School of Dancing and Mime. Before leaving he gave his last aquatic performance as a benefit for the handicapped members of the Mackerel Institute. Morosely mumbling his good-byes off the headed to a new chapter of his life with the dinosaurs in the “above world”.

So who gets the first COVID-19 Vaccinations?

So who gets the first COVID-19 Vaccinations?

No doubt in my mind front line health care workers deserve first dibs on the needle
then for some reason those who have lived a full life by 85 in Ontario get the vaccine first
is this political correctness?

What about those young families with children to support
the parents so vital to support their family?

Bypassed by seniors
Having already lived their lives
with no one to support

With greed to see their grandchildren
undercutting those who will support a family for many years who deserve the vaccination first
where is the true human compassionate thirst

With these thoughts you think I am cruel
As I avoid your insipid political gruel

I invite you to think about this rank of vaccine superiority
creating  generations of possible orphans
you’ve screwed seniors in long term care and
suddenly they are at the top of the list
and I am pissed
to reality you have missed
as usual

Mutantism on the March:Chapter 9 “And Willie Montenez’s Big Toe?”

Chapter 9 “And Willie Montenez’s Big Toe?”

If you have being paying attention you will recall that when Willie Montenez’s capsule entered the earth’s atmosphere his toe was severed in an evilly programmed re-entry of the exile rocket of the Montenez family. That toe sank to the turbid waters of the Aegean Ocean while its former owner rocked in the waves. Now most severed body parts decompose but for this particular toe circumstances were different. It survived and even more than that it flourished and eventually developed into a humanoid figure. Who was the guardian of the big toe? Who gave it the attention big toes demand? Who laid the tracks of morality upon which it was to roll for the span of its life? No need to fret as almost immediately after the toe sunk to the bottom of the ocean it was rescued a troupe of performing squid and octopi known as the Deep Sea Travelling Circus well known in the four corners of all oceans for its spectacular shows and clean family entertainment so innocent that not even your minnows would be affected by it. The owners of the circus were impressed with their new find. Never had they seen or even heard of such a strange creature. The toe responded to their attention by wiggling vigorously and emitting huge air bubbles. Instinctively the circus owners realized this toe would be a huge draw. After it had adapted to its new environment it was placed in a mutant sideshow.

The toe was a smashing success delighting of millions of paying customers. And even more was greeted with awe when the toe could transform itself into a humanoid figure. Humanity, and its evil fish hunters, had not been yet created so the transforming toe was a thrilling novelty. The circus owners taught the toe to transform into a squid and it became a massive inter-ocean success. The toe gained a popularity probably never rivalled by any other toe in history.

But one might say, “Is this the sort of environment in which one should raise a toe?” The circus boasted an astounding number of oceanic freaks, or mutants as the circus owners preferred to call them. The circus owners, capitalist as they may have been, were kind and just to their mutants paying them very handsome salaries. The species of the aquatic world were not similar to the hairy and crass predators developing in the world above the oceans. They viewed mutants in a positive light. They accepted that all species viewed those that were not similar to them as mutants. There was no firm ruling strata in the ocean to determine what was “normal” or “abnormal”. Here, no matter what one looked like, one could feel free and uninhibited. Mutants were viewed as unique and wonderful. All water creatures had a deep appreciation of what diversity nature could produce. Mutants were viewed as unique and wonderful and not something that should be stuffed in the closet and forgotten. The audiences of sideshows in American carnivals distinguished themselves by exhibiting the utmost cruelties towards the “freaks” but in the aquatic world they showered gifts and currency on the mutants. Now the toe became known as Captain Squid. It was in this positive environment that Captain Squid spent his most formative years.

Your government as the New Mafia?

Remember at one time running the numbers racket was illegal
yet today governments control casinos and lotteries
bleeding dry and ruining lives through promotion of gambling addiction

narcotics was a dirty word
but cannabis in many jurisdictions is legal
promotion of weed
a brave political deed?

Alcohol was once a great sin
but into the government coffers tax revenue is overflowing the bin
with the social consequences of drinking lost in the euphoretic tax grab din

Then hookers and pimps once seen so evil
now permitted by governments oh money can be so venal

To hell with immorality
with such huge sums of cash
we have a new group of elected thugs
hustling into the territory of once reviled mugs!

Progression or regression?
or has it all come down to stuffing the government’s coffers

What is next after legalization of sex for hire
spells something very dire!
that our politicians can only aspire

Death in the COVID ICU through a nurse’s eyes

A huge burden placed on COVID ICU nurses can be seen in this film. I fear for the amount of post traumatic stress disorder cases these nurses will be affected by. While governments pour money into COVID mental health issues how much is going directly for ICU nurses? What’s the plan for dealing with this?

“Hunger Ward”: Yemen’s starving children

There is not much to say about this short documentary other than it is shocking and saddening. Unfortunately I have seen this time and time again in my life and rest assured it will not be my last. War can kill thousands if not millions outright. It can also kill through a longer process called starvation. I can only imagine the psychological toll on parents of their starving children and on their health care providers.

Yemen is in the midst of a civil war which started in 2014 one side backed by Saudi Arabia and the other by Iran. Who is to blame for a situation in which 50,000 Yemenis are starving and 400,000 children are expected to starve? Yes we can apportion the blame to the Yemenis waging this war and their allies. Yemen is on the verge of a total collapse and the United Nation’s has called this a huge humanitarian crisis. Apportion blame as you wish but that will not put food in the mouths of Yemeni children.

Skye Fitzgerald, the film’s director, could be labelled as creating a piece of misery porn if you are heartless and cynical. But to the credit of Fitzgerald there is not a whole lot of moralizing in the documentary other than that implicitly attached to the shocking footage. It just shows matters as they are and they are heartbreaking as we see children dying of malnutrition before our eyes and many on the edge of death. The innocent are the most vulnerable children. It was filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centres in Yemen. It is one of the ten films on the shortlist for an Academy award.

The world premiere will be March 1st on Pluto TV’s 24/7 Documentary Channel, Pluto TV Documentaries at 7 p.m. ET.