William Shatner and Nathon Fillion
Who has made a significant contribution to your happiness?
Have you told them lately?
Go on.
It's the human kindness thing to do!
Special Thanks to ...
From W. Owen Thornton BA
Lately I've discovered that I've arrived at a very content place in my life and being content allows me to better practice human kindness. All of the threads of the fabric of my life have woven into a tapestry that allows me to feel very positive. During the many years that I struggled in life I theorized that life COULD be like this but until these past few years, I hadn't actually achieved this content status on a regular basis. In fact something that changed my life four years ago was writing for this weblog. It led me to go back to school and to get a four-year degree in philosophy ... and while writing philosophy essays these past four years has slowed down my contributions to this website, I attribute much of my new-found happiness to going back to school ... and I went to school to have what I learned there help me become a better writer for this weblog so ... the decision to create a human kindness weblog was the beginning of my feeling content.
To be honest, the first people I should thank who contribute to my contentedness would be my wife and family for sustaining me while I went back to school ... and The Mature Student Advisor at the University of Western Ontario for guiding me to take philosophy. In fact, any gratitude would include those folk first and then my lovely cat Harley who purrs and makes me feel content at time when I still do feel distraught.
But my first gratitude entry is going to be a strange pair of entries. The will be to two Canadian Actors: William Shatner and Nathan Fillion.
Thanks to WillIam Shatner
I celebrate and thank Willaim Shatner for the thread his life has interwoven into my own. If you know him, please let him know about this weblog entry: it would be the human kindness thing to do!
I thank him principally for two characters he played: Captain James Tiberious Kirk (The Original Star Trek) and Denny Crane (Boston Legal). First these characters are important to me and my "fabric" for many reasons ... and then ... William Shatner also become important to my fabric.
Captain Kirk taught me that there is always an answer ... always a solution to any problem ... even if you have to rewrite the test so you can pass it: Kirk didn't believe in the no-win scenario!
Captain Kirk taught me that men can bond. The relationship between him, an alien (Spock played by Leonard Nimoy ... and Mr. Nimoy if you ever read this you too are a part of my "happy fabric") and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly now deceased) was a strange familial mix where people always respected one another even when they didn't always agree with one another or even if each would have attempted to arrive at the same destination through their own unique methods. In fact, for a child with a broken past the cast of Star Trek showed me that people could get along ... that ordinary folk could create a family that would last not only the three years of the original series, but for decades after that. Later, when I learned the cast didn't always get along, I always thought it was ironic that people who appeared to not like one another could create such a sense of family in a drama. I've long learned that you cannot act in a manner that is not inside of you ... so deep down I choose to believe that somehow the cast members really did like one another ... despite what they said they felt on the outside. That's my fantasy, and I'll choose to keep it.
Today, I have a host of friends who are like that cast of Star Trek (no we don't save the universe once a week!) and I am glad to have been able to watch Captain Kirk be a good friend to those around him. He taught me how to be a good friend ... well at least a little bit, anyway!
I also thank William Shatner for his role as Denny Crane in Boston Legal. There he "loved" another heterosexual man named Alan Shore ... as only a best friend can "love" another man. The Ancient Greeks had three words for love: eros (the love between male and female lovers), agape (love of mankind in general), and philia (brotherly love). A part of the problem men have today in expressing their love for one another is that English has only one word for love and it might be taken as eros, when "philia" is what is intended (and heaven forbid that a heterosexual male suggest he "love" another man who is nothing more than a good friend)! But Denny Crane taught us (me) how to love another male in this world ... that a good friend can mean everything ... even when you don't agree with everything that friend believes, says or does. I thank him and James Spader (Alan Shore on Boston Legal) for showing men how to bond.
I also thank William Shatner for being an example in real life. He has overcome much adversity and had he given up, I would have lost hours of joyful entertainment reading his books and watching his wonderful characters. He entertained me in days when my life wasn't quite so content and that helped overcome the days I didn't necessarily know how to live through very well. His life and his art are both inspirations to me and I will forever remember his characters and his books. They are a part of me ... they are a part of what makes me content today, and for these gifts he has given me, I am very grateful.
Thanks to Nathan Fillion
Thanks to Nathan Fillion who plays Richard Castle on "Castle" along with all of the cast and crew! I thank him/them because he/and the cast and crew provide(s) me with one of four hours of television I watch each week with a drama that entertains me and gives me a comfortable way to relax. It is a detective show that seems to care as much, if not more, about the characters in the drama than it does about solving the crime. I like that. Rick Castle is a good father, a good friend to the guys at work, a good detective partner and a good son to his mom. He messes up his love life, so not everything he does is perfect. He is a human character attempting to do his living best in a confusing and hurtful world where people, upon occasion, harm one another whether it is intentional or accidental. He is willing to learn from everyone around him, including his well-grounded daughter (played expertly by Molly C. Quinn) ... who, by her own actions demonstrates that Rick Castle must be a good man (for having raised her to have her strong sense of morals and ethics) and she demonstrates that Rick must be better than the rogue he often pretends to be. He also plays a successful fiction writer ... something to which I have always aspired ... that makes the story even "cooler" for me. Again, I like this show for the sense of family that the characters create. The murder plots seem to only be required to create "motion" or story in the show so that via the story we can learn to love and appreciate the characters within the drama.
In General
In the last while ... a few months ... I have begun to see that the dramas we write, watch and read teach us something about life and ourselves. So I thank these two Canadian Actors who have had the good fortune to speak the words of some very talented writers: who themselves have seen the confusing human condition as important. William Shatner and Nathan Fillion have both been lucky enough to represent wonderful characters. They represent the face of the collective of writers who help make them a success. It takes a team of people to create a fictional drama that matters ... that says it cares about the human condition.
These dramas become a part of us ... become a part of who we are. Sometimes the life of the participants can then also become known to us and we can learn how to be better people because of seeing what they do in real life ... how they overcome struggles etc.
I am content ... very happy. And all of what I have taken in has gone into making me the content person I am. It's time to let others know ... vicariously at least ... the difference, the impact they make upon my life.
Thanks to William Shatner and Nathan Fillion. May you, and all the people who associate with, be rewarded by my words here.
God Bless
Owen Thornton
Who has made a significant contribution to your happiness? Have you told them lately? Go on. It's the human kindness thing to do!
Have you told them lately?
Go on.
It's the human kindness thing to do!
Special Thanks to ...
From W. Owen Thornton BA
Lately I've discovered that I've arrived at a very content place in my life and being content allows me to better practice human kindness. All of the threads of the fabric of my life have woven into a tapestry that allows me to feel very positive. During the many years that I struggled in life I theorized that life COULD be like this but until these past few years, I hadn't actually achieved this content status on a regular basis. In fact something that changed my life four years ago was writing for this weblog. It led me to go back to school and to get a four-year degree in philosophy ... and while writing philosophy essays these past four years has slowed down my contributions to this website, I attribute much of my new-found happiness to going back to school ... and I went to school to have what I learned there help me become a better writer for this weblog so ... the decision to create a human kindness weblog was the beginning of my feeling content.
To be honest, the first people I should thank who contribute to my contentedness would be my wife and family for sustaining me while I went back to school ... and The Mature Student Advisor at the University of Western Ontario for guiding me to take philosophy. In fact, any gratitude would include those folk first and then my lovely cat Harley who purrs and makes me feel content at time when I still do feel distraught.
But my first gratitude entry is going to be a strange pair of entries. The will be to two Canadian Actors: William Shatner and Nathan Fillion.
Thanks to WillIam Shatner
I celebrate and thank Willaim Shatner for the thread his life has interwoven into my own. If you know him, please let him know about this weblog entry: it would be the human kindness thing to do!
I thank him principally for two characters he played: Captain James Tiberious Kirk (The Original Star Trek) and Denny Crane (Boston Legal). First these characters are important to me and my "fabric" for many reasons ... and then ... William Shatner also become important to my fabric.
Captain Kirk taught me that there is always an answer ... always a solution to any problem ... even if you have to rewrite the test so you can pass it: Kirk didn't believe in the no-win scenario!
Captain Kirk taught me that men can bond. The relationship between him, an alien (Spock played by Leonard Nimoy ... and Mr. Nimoy if you ever read this you too are a part of my "happy fabric") and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly now deceased) was a strange familial mix where people always respected one another even when they didn't always agree with one another or even if each would have attempted to arrive at the same destination through their own unique methods. In fact, for a child with a broken past the cast of Star Trek showed me that people could get along ... that ordinary folk could create a family that would last not only the three years of the original series, but for decades after that. Later, when I learned the cast didn't always get along, I always thought it was ironic that people who appeared to not like one another could create such a sense of family in a drama. I've long learned that you cannot act in a manner that is not inside of you ... so deep down I choose to believe that somehow the cast members really did like one another ... despite what they said they felt on the outside. That's my fantasy, and I'll choose to keep it.
Today, I have a host of friends who are like that cast of Star Trek (no we don't save the universe once a week!) and I am glad to have been able to watch Captain Kirk be a good friend to those around him. He taught me how to be a good friend ... well at least a little bit, anyway!
I also thank William Shatner for his role as Denny Crane in Boston Legal. There he "loved" another heterosexual man named Alan Shore ... as only a best friend can "love" another man. The Ancient Greeks had three words for love: eros (the love between male and female lovers), agape (love of mankind in general), and philia (brotherly love). A part of the problem men have today in expressing their love for one another is that English has only one word for love and it might be taken as eros, when "philia" is what is intended (and heaven forbid that a heterosexual male suggest he "love" another man who is nothing more than a good friend)! But Denny Crane taught us (me) how to love another male in this world ... that a good friend can mean everything ... even when you don't agree with everything that friend believes, says or does. I thank him and James Spader (Alan Shore on Boston Legal) for showing men how to bond.
I also thank William Shatner for being an example in real life. He has overcome much adversity and had he given up, I would have lost hours of joyful entertainment reading his books and watching his wonderful characters. He entertained me in days when my life wasn't quite so content and that helped overcome the days I didn't necessarily know how to live through very well. His life and his art are both inspirations to me and I will forever remember his characters and his books. They are a part of me ... they are a part of what makes me content today, and for these gifts he has given me, I am very grateful.
Thanks to Nathan Fillion
Thanks to Nathan Fillion who plays Richard Castle on "Castle" along with all of the cast and crew! I thank him/them because he/and the cast and crew provide(s) me with one of four hours of television I watch each week with a drama that entertains me and gives me a comfortable way to relax. It is a detective show that seems to care as much, if not more, about the characters in the drama than it does about solving the crime. I like that. Rick Castle is a good father, a good friend to the guys at work, a good detective partner and a good son to his mom. He messes up his love life, so not everything he does is perfect. He is a human character attempting to do his living best in a confusing and hurtful world where people, upon occasion, harm one another whether it is intentional or accidental. He is willing to learn from everyone around him, including his well-grounded daughter (played expertly by Molly C. Quinn) ... who, by her own actions demonstrates that Rick Castle must be a good man (for having raised her to have her strong sense of morals and ethics) and she demonstrates that Rick must be better than the rogue he often pretends to be. He also plays a successful fiction writer ... something to which I have always aspired ... that makes the story even "cooler" for me. Again, I like this show for the sense of family that the characters create. The murder plots seem to only be required to create "motion" or story in the show so that via the story we can learn to love and appreciate the characters within the drama.
In General
In the last while ... a few months ... I have begun to see that the dramas we write, watch and read teach us something about life and ourselves. So I thank these two Canadian Actors who have had the good fortune to speak the words of some very talented writers: who themselves have seen the confusing human condition as important. William Shatner and Nathan Fillion have both been lucky enough to represent wonderful characters. They represent the face of the collective of writers who help make them a success. It takes a team of people to create a fictional drama that matters ... that says it cares about the human condition.
These dramas become a part of us ... become a part of who we are. Sometimes the life of the participants can then also become known to us and we can learn how to be better people because of seeing what they do in real life ... how they overcome struggles etc.
I am content ... very happy. And all of what I have taken in has gone into making me the content person I am. It's time to let others know ... vicariously at least ... the difference, the impact they make upon my life.
Thanks to William Shatner and Nathan Fillion. May you, and all the people who associate with, be rewarded by my words here.
God Bless
Owen Thornton
Who has made a significant contribution to your happiness? Have you told them lately? Go on. It's the human kindness thing to do!
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