Category: A Spiritual Look At All Forms Of Entertainment…

Does owning your own hedge fund and jet qualify you as a success in this world? How about being a political consultant to the White House and world renown writer? Or what about being a wealthy tech mogul who retired by the age of 40 and now lives in a coastal mansion in Hawaii? Or maybe it’s being a millionaire Hollywood director whose home is showcased on the cover of Architectural Digest? These are the very questions that 47-year-old Brad (Ben Stiller) asks himself and are the premise of the film titled “Brad’s Status”.

When this film begins we are introduced to Brad and his cozy life in Sacramento. There he owns and runs a small non-profit organization. He also lives in a nice home with a loving wife (Jenna Fischer) and has a 17-year-old musical prodigy son named Troy (Austin Abrams) who’s beginning to look for colleges to attend. But Brad isn’t really happy with any of his life because he continues to compare himself to his four closest friends from his alma mater (Tufts) that he has totally grown apart from over the years. Each have become outright successes in his mind, living far better lives than he feels he ever will. As Brad and Troy embark on a trip to the Boston area for college tours and admission interviews, Brad privately hopes his dreams of success may at least live on through Troy’s life. But when Troy mistakenly misses the appointment time at the school (Harvard) he has his heart set most upon, the true premise of the film is set in motion as Brad must face a decision that will ultimately put him back in touch with the very people he secretly envies and loathes due to their perceived successes in life.

I must say that “Brad’s Status” really impacted me greatly simply because I could so relate to the mid-life crisis that Brad faced throughout it. Over the past few months, since turning 45, I too have felt similarly, as I continue to witness what I perceive as successes in many of my friends from college and beyond. It’s precisely why I’ve skipped out on reunions that have taken place because deep down, I haven’t felt like my life has been much of a success. Yet, ironically, I found myself reevaluating that long after I left the theater.

I used to believe that being successful in life meant having a lot of money rolling in or being known for some type of achievement or having countless followers on social media, or any number of other things that much of the world probably deems as signs of success. Yet, I’ve learned over time that it’s the ego that generally sees success through some type of great material gain or heightened public status. But even when the ego finds a way to acquire any of those things in life, a person can still feel like they’re not much of a success. How do I know this? Because even when I was earning close to $100,000 a year and owning a seven-figure business and 5500-square foot home, I still felt inadequate, which only increased exponentially when I eventually lost it all.

So, what does being successful in life look like then?

Does achieving over 22 years of sobriety from alcohol and drugs and helping many on the path to sobriety count as that?

Is writing two separate young adult fantasy novels for a hobby and pure fun, where each are over 200 pages, count?

Is maintaining a blog and publishing over 1400 original articles on spirituality, for over four years now, qualify?

And is giving up all my other addictions as well five years ago and turning my will and life over to Christ amount to that?

Well, while none of them may be deemed a successful life to many who are living with six, seven, or even eight figures of income, or are in the public spotlight of stardom, I am choosing to personally believe each are signs of my own success on my spiritual quest to become one with God.

And while I may never live a life again with any type of financial abundance or ever become widely known in this world, “Brad’s Status” was a great reminder that being successful in life really is in the eyes of the beholder and not when compared to anyone else. But even more importantly, I truly believe that God has always seen me as a success in His eyes, which I finally am just starting to see too…

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

Today’s article is about an overly unsettling film I saw in the theater recently whose title is going to remain anonymous simply because it was probably the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen before on the big screen. Its subject matter was highly allegorical on the religious level and surrounded the actions of a Satan-like character.

During the course of this movie, every possible theatrical element I’d label as severely dark was visualized on the white canvas in front of me. From rage-filled acts of violence and murder, to killing babies, to rape, to idol worship, to addiction, to greed, to cannibalism, there surely was no shortage of showing what a religious person might label as truly sinful behavior.

While I won’t go so far as saying the movie was a terrible one, because ultimately on a cinematic flair it was actually rather unique, beautifully shot, and well acted, I will say that it is one I will probably never forget because of how uncomfortable I felt long after I had left the theater.

I’ve had several spiritual teachers throughout my life warn me that I should throw more caution to what I watch on television or at the theater, but I never quite understood that at the time. In recent years though, it’s begun to make a lot more sense.

You see, the more I’ve moved away from my old addiction-based life and sought a higher path of living, the more my spirit has become overly sensitive to seeing various things in entertainment that used to not bother me at all. And the more I’ve drawn closer to my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God, the more I find myself not wanting to see any of those things now that feel so low vibrational, such as severe acts of violence. I feel so extremely unsettled these days when I do, and even find myself getting sick to my stomach, which is precisely how I felt during the majority of the time I watched this film. I was so severely unsettled with this movie that I longed for it to end way before it finally did and even thought at one point about getting up and leaving the theater because of it.

Yet, I know movies are just another form of artistic expression, except in this case, this one went way too far, at least for me. While I don’t consider myself religious, as I’ve said many times before, I do have a strong faith in God and believe there are dark forces out there who provoke many of those things I saw going on in this film, to actually occur in real life. All you have to do is tune in to the news to see that sad reality.

I don’t want to see that type of content in the movies I go to because movies are one of the few healthy escapes I have left in life, so to watch something so unsettling only defeats the purpose. There are countless murders and rapes and addictions and other terrible acts of violence going on every single day in our world that to see them for two straight hours on the screen in front of me, only makes my movie-going experience more of an unhealthy escape than a healthy one.

Ironically just a few days prior to seeing this tremendously disturbing film, I had gone and seen an animated movie titled “Leap!” that was the exact opposite in its content. It was uplifting, inspiring, and even moved me to tears with its “Never Give Up!” message, and is the very reason why I fell in love with watching movies long ago. But in this case, when I left the theater after viewing such polarizing content, I felt as if I had done something wrong by even watching it and almost felt as if I needed to take a shower to cleanse myself from it.

Nevertheless, I absolutely agree with those spiritual teachers now and see why it may be best in the future to avoid watching content that will not only work against the purpose of me having a healthy escape in the first place, but also move me away from feeling the very thing I am wanting to achieve in life and that’s experiencing God’s true joy and peace…

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

I hadn’t been born yet when the Detroit riots actually took place back in July of 1967. Yet watching Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film “Detroit” chronicle this tragic event of that summer ultimately made me feel as if I really had experienced it first-hand.

As the movie begins, the viewer is immediately entrenched into the growing heated tensions between blacks and whites during that hot summer of 1967 in the city of Detroit, when the local police raided an unlicensed, after-hours bar hosting a welcome home party for a black soldier. During the raid, each of the guests at the bar get hauled away into one paddy wagon after another while nearby locals begin to shout obscenities towards the police. Soon, the tensions rise to a level that eventually escalates into a full-blown riot which ends up lasting five entire days. The film itself mostly focuses on one specific event that took place during that period where three young African American men were murdered at the Algiers Motel while being interrogated by several white police officers.

Overall, I found “Detroit” to be a truly disturbing movie, not only because Bigelow directed it in such a way that felt as if the events were unfolding all over again in the present day, but also because I still see the same racial tensions going on all around our country and even in the world as well. There have been a number of “accidental” and “questionable” murders of minorities by police and others in recent years where no justice was ever achieved. The movement towards equality seems to be going in the opposite direction now with groups using religious rights to segregate all over again. And violent crimes by radical individuals that target minorities also seem to be on the rise too, like with the Pulse nightclub massacre last June where 49 innocent people were killed.

When I left the theater after watching “Detroit”, I can definitely say I felt a great level of sadness. Fifty years later, after these events unfolded, life still seems to be in a volatile state in our nation. I feel the racial tensions in the air a lot of the time these days, often hearing white people use offensive racist terms towards minorities and vice versa, the same from minorities towards whites. And living in a city where there is a high level of poverty, I tend to wonder if the events of Detroit in July of 1967 could happen all over again right here in my own backyard.

With the world at unease because of the looming threats of war and the feeling that a civil war could actually break out in my own country, my heart deeply grieves. I can’t imagine this is what God ever intended for us, yet I know it’s up to each of us to make a difference and reverse this trend. I know I’m only one person and I truly do my best to make a difference, by practicing love and compassion towards everyone, no matter what their race, religion, sexuality, etc. I just wish more would do the same because deep down within every one of us is a piece of God. Unfortunately, that piece often gets blocked by deep levels of hatred, fear, and resentment that only unconditional love and forgiveness can erase.

So, while “Detroit” may have triggered a nerve within me and brought out some definitive sadness for the state of our nation and our world as well, it truly was a masterpiece of a movie directed by a female who knows how to make the viewer feel a part of what’s taking place on the screen. “Detroit” is not for the light of heart, but it ultimately is an artistic masterpiece that hopefully will receive its due recognition come Oscar awards season.

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