Category: A Spiritual Look At All Forms Of Entertainment…

I was too little to remember the events that began to unfold on July 10^th, 1973 when John Paul Getty III (referred to as Paul), the grandson of famous billionaire J. Paul Getty was kidnapped and held for ransom. But with the recent release of a movie directed by Ridley Scott titled “All the Money in the World”, I became well-versed on this tragic story that totally surrounded one man’s terrible greed.

The film begins with Paul (played by Charlie Plummer) getting kidnapped and his mother Gail (played by Michelle Williams) receiving a phone call by one of the kidnappers demanding the ransom initially in the amount of $17 million. When she contacts J. Paul Getty (played by Christopher Plummer) for help, given she doesn’t have that kind of money, he refuses to pay the ransom, citing that if he did, it would only spur more people to kidnap others in his family and hold them for even greater amounts. When asked how much he would be willing to pay, his answer is “Nothing.” So, rather than pay any ransom, he instead employs one of his main negotiators for his business, Fletcher Chase (played by Mark Wahlberg), a former CIA operative, to track down the terrorists who kidnapped Paul. Throughout the rest of the movie, the frugalness, selfishness, and greed that J. Paul Getty was known for is made more than apparent. From having a pay telephone booth in his home that guests like Gail had to use for a call she needed to make that was long distance, to buying himself plenty of lavish gifts while his grandson was still a prisoner, to looking for every possible way to get tax write-offs and essentially cheat the system, including for the amount of ransom itself, J. Paul Getty was filled with incredible greed. During the time these events took place, Getty was considered the richest man on the planet, having become the first person to ever amass wealth over one billion dollars, yet in every possible way he was always caught up in worrying about never having enough money. In fact, the line that affected me the most during the picture was when Fletcher asked him what Getty would need to feel safe with his fortune, his only answer was one profound word, “More!”

This movie was riveting, disturbing, and well-acted, which I found even more astonishing given how J. Paul Getty was originally played by Kevin Spacey. But in light of the many sexual allegations that had been brought against Spacey, Scott did the unthinkable and reshot every one of his scenes with Christopher Plummer in the role instead, all in the space of 22 days, for a release date that was shortly thereafter. One might think this would come off quite sloppy in the final cut that was shown in theaters beginning Christmas Day, yet I found Plummer to be far more alluring and convincing as J. Paul Getty, than from what I saw in each of the trailers Spacey was first in.

Regardless, this movie was a great reminder of why I feel money is the root of all evil in so many ways and poison to one’s spiritual journey. Watching J. Paul Getty be more consumed with saving a buck than his Grandson’s life, someone he claimed he truly loved and cared about, was really hard to stomach. A $17 million ransom was technically change in J. Paul Getty’s bank accounts and was probably earned in interest in a matter of hours on any given day. Yet, he could only ever see things in dollar signs and overlooked the importance of a human life because of it. Sadly though, I could relate to a time I acted similarly in my own life.

When I used to own my own business, and had a substantial income, I was pretty darn cheap and did everything I could to save a buck. Some of which often came at the expense of others I claimed I cared about. But you see that’s what happens when you have a lot of money. It’s never enough, you always want more, and you constantly are looking over your shoulder at who might be wanting to take some of it from you. That’s the sick part of money and something one never knows of until they have a lot of it. That’s why I’m glad I lost pretty much everything back in 2010, because I eventually learned how I was no better than someone just like J. Paul Getty. Thank God for that and thank God I’m not like that anymore, as I value human life far more than I do a dollar sign.

Nevertheless, “All the Money in the World”, is definitely an awards contender. And while I’m sad to see the depth of the tragedy that John Paul Getty III went through in his life, the film was truly a great portrayal of how greed robs the soul of its goodness and poisons the mind of the individual who chooses to wield it.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Do you often spend money on things you really can’t afford or are you more frugal than not? What would you do if you sat down in a restaurant and suddenly noticed all the items on the menu were way out of your normal price range for dining out? Would you stay anyway, put the bill on a credit card, and worry about paying it off later, or would you get up and leave, and opt to eat somewhere far more reasonable?

I ask these questions solely because I faced this very dilemma recently when my partner and I, and another couple, opted to dine at a newly opened restaurant here in Toledo, Ohio just over a week ago now. The place was called The Chop House, which I for one was rather excited to dine at the establishment given how much I like trying new things in life. Unfortunately, that feeling parted pretty quickly as soon as I began taking a look at the menu once there.

The cost of a cup of French Onion soup…$8.95.

The cost of a small Caesar salad…$11.95.

The cost of the cheapest main course, a piece of Salmon with no accompaniments…$32.95

The cost of a Baked Potato to go with that piece of Salmon…$8.95.

 Total Cost for me without drinks or taxes or tip…$62.80.

 No friggin’ way!!!

 I began squirming in my seat over the costs of food there, but decided I didn’t really want to be high maintenance, so I was just going to order a salad that I saw on the Happy Hour part of the menu, choosing to eat some leftovers at home later. Except when the waitress told me that she’d have to charge me a higher price for that salad if I got it as my main course, I was immediately ready to leave.

In the past, when I had my own business, plenty of income, and a well of savings, I was known to spend upwards of $100 for meals at times just for myself. In fact, I used to look for extravagant places to dine at, solely to appease my ego’s ability of having plenty of money in life to blow on ridiculously pricey meals, and then would brag about it to others later.

But that’s definitely not where my Spirit is at these days, especially in light of not having a paying job at present, which is precisely why I spoke up at the table and asked if everyone else was thinking what I was thinking, and ironically, they were. None of us felt comfortable with the cost of food there, so 20 minutes after sitting down, we were all leaving and heading to a far more affordable restaurant.

In the end, while I did feel rather embarrassed leaving the restaurant without ordering and explaining to the waitress why, I was still thankful we left and that I had listened to my Spirit’s inner nudging’s for once. Because each of us enjoyed a very satisfying and more cost-conscious meal, but even more importantly, I could see how money and my ego were no longer the ones calling the shots in life and that alone made me feel a whole lot better about the decision I made during The Chop House Dilemma.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Having seen thousands of movies in my life thus far, it’s a rare thing indeed to come across one that I’d go so far to say it was actually one of the best movies ever. But that is indeed something I feel safe to say for the 2017 release of a little gem called “Wonder”.

Based on the New York Times bestseller book, “Wonder” is the story of a boy named August Pullman (Jacob Trembley) who just wants to be accepted and loved for who he is inside, instead of being avoided for what he looks like on the outside. You see, August (nicknamed Auggie) was born with extremely pronounced facial deformities and has lived the entire first part of his life in almost total isolation because of it, having being home schooled by his mother Isabel (Julia Roberts). That all’s about to change though, as Isabel has decided it’s finally time to send August off to school for the fifth grade, in spite of her husband Nate’s (Owen Wilson) reservations. In a world where life is often not fair and appearance seems to be everything, it becomes immediately apparent that Auggie isn’t going to fit in in, as soon as he steps foot onto his new elementary school grounds. Which is sad because all he really wants in life is to have what everyone else in school seems to have, that being the ability to fit in with some friends who really like being around him. Yet, even as Auggie starts to believe he might remain alone and ostracized for his entire grammar school years, the Universe shows it might just have a different plan in store for him, one that could be exactly what Auggie’s heart has always desired the most.

What makes “Wonder” such a beautifully enriching film is not just because of this very moving plot revolving around Auggie’s journey to being loved and accepted, it’s much in part due to each of the subplots going on within the movie as well. There’s the story of Via and her constant feelings of invisibility in her family and in life in general. There’s the story of her best friend Miranda (Danielle Rose Russell) who suddenly pulls totally away from their friendship for no known reason. There’s the story of Isabel who has placed her entire life and promising career aside solely to take care of Auggie’s unique circumstances. And there’s the individual stories of several of Auggie’s new classmates tool like Jack Will (Noah Jupe) and Julian (Bryce Gheisar), amongst others, who each add a complexity to a film that becomes simplified through a number of things we’ve probably all faced at some point in life. Things like bullying and being picked on, meeting our first love, giving up our dreams to support another, feeling like we don’t matter in this world, and so much more.

But what moved me the most in “Wonder” though, beyond all these plots and subplots, was the great reminder it gave me of how difficult it was during my own grammar school years. Years that I often try to forget. Years where I too was bullied, picked on, ostracized and overlooked. While I may not have had any facial deformities back then like Auggie did in the movie, I clearly didn’t have an image during that period of my life that made for any type of popularity. But just like the Universe showed Auggie, there clearly was someone or something out there who was always watching over me, guiding me to the very thing my Spirit needed the most in life, that being to feel loved and accepted, even in light of being that odd man out. This is precisely why I consider this film to be one of the best movies ever, and why I feel confident it will eventually become a classic and a must-have for my own home movie collection…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson