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Pppp-ick up so much inspiration from
kids
Inspiration can strike anywhere. It's hit the Bible Belt
of America in the shape of a four-foot-tall penguin. The French-made
movie, March Of The Penguins, is being block-booked for screenings
in fundamentalist Christian churches from Montana to Mississippi.
Bizarrely, the director, biologist Luc Jaquet, was trying
to publicise the effects of global warming on life in the
Antarctic - but the film's biggest fans are the American Right,
the same people who have been insisting that pollution doesn't
damage our planet.
The heroes of the movie are emperor penguins, devoted parents
who live in huge, peaceful colonies.
I remember watching a spectacular Sir David Attenborough
series with my family when our children were teenagers. Daniel
and Natalie were completely smitten by the emperor penguins
in Life In The Freezer.
The way the birds paired off into inseparable couples, and
willingly made any sacrifice to nurture their babies, was
more than cute. It made emotional viewing.
That series was shown over a decade ago, but it seems penguins
are news to Americans, who probably don't watch a lot of Attenborough.
I met Sir David at a dinner last year and discovered that
his table talk is just as witty and fascinating as his voiceovers.
But he has been an outspoken advocate for Darwin's theories,
which are even less popular than usual in middle America.
Jacquet's film follows the penguins on a 70-mile trek across
the ice wastes in temperatures of minus 40.
Viewers have been so deeply moved that churches are now putting
a flashlight, pen and notebook on every seat so cinemagoers
can jot down their inspired thoughts and feelings.
National Geographic, the distributors, must find it inspirational
too: the 80-minute documentary has grossed £20m so far,
and that's just a snowball in a blizzard compared to the totals
it is predicted to take.
The last film to grab the fundamentalist market like this
was Mel Gibson's Aramaic epic, The Passion Of The Christ.
The president of National Geographic's movie arm, Adam Leipzig,
said: "These penguins are model parents. What they go
through to look after their children is phenomenal. There
are parallels with human nature and it is moving to see."
I'm certain that, if you'd asked Mr Leipzig 12 months ago
what his company's biggest movie would be in 2005, he would
not have said penguins.
That's how inspiration works. It comes out of a clear sky.
At Rosh Hashanah most of all, we are seeking inspiration.
The best way is to wait, and let it find you.
Inspiration can't be obtained over the counter with a prescription,
and the stories and homilies that are supposed to make me
glad to be Jewish usually leave me cold.
Take the story of Rabbi Amnon, who lived in Mainz in Germany
during the 1200s. The duke of Mainz offered him power and
riches beyond measure if he would only renounce Judaism and
convert to Christianity.
The rabbi asked for three days to consider the offer, because
he was too diplomatic to tell the bishop to go take a long
walk off a short log.
Later, ashamed of his timidity, he confronted the bishop
and said he deserved to have his own tongue cut out for not
speaking out boldly.
The bishop retorted that he would cut off more than the rabbi's
tongue, and ordered the palace guards to throw him into the
street with rags tied round the bleeding stumps of his hands
and feet.
This happened on Rosh Hashanah, and Rabbi Amnon asked to
be carried to the synagogue, where he died reciting Unetaneh
Tokef.
I heard that story at school - every New Year - and it never
failed to revolt me.
Perhaps the people who flocked to see Mel Gibson's gruesome
crucifixion scenes would agree that butchering a rabbi is
a good image to stir up religious passion, but I'm more of
a penguin person: feathery and fluffy touches my heart, in
a way that blood and horror cannot.
I was far more inspired by the 30 children who came to my
home this summer with Ezer Mizion, the charity founded by
Chanaya Chollak 25 years ago. I wrote about them in this paper
a few weeks ago, and my mind often returns to their courage
and happiness.
Children possess the strength to be cheerful and bold and
cheeky, even when they are fighting pain and disease.
Some of those children might only have had a short time to
live. They knew they might not recover from their illnesses,
but there was no sign of defeat on their faces.
They were alive, and they were enjoying it. I see so many
people who live as though they are already dead.
They let worry and fear consume them, and in their imaginations
they suffer all the agonies they fear to face.
Whenever I need a splash of inspiration, I think of the children
who come to my home, to play in the gardens and watch aerobatic
displays in the skies above the river and meditate among the
crystals under the willow tree.
They live for the moment, and that's the greatest inspiration
of all.
Email
him at uri@urigeller.com
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