What Inspires You?
06 Jan 2009 ~ Categories: blog • mind • wellness
A brand new year, resolutions, the presidential inauguration any day now – never a better time to look ahead with hope and idealism. It’s also a ripe opportunity to reflect on past experiences and people that have inspired us and instigated reflection and personal growth in our lives.
In my own life, inspiration often comes from the most unsuspecting places.
You won’t usually find me lauding a coming-of-age baseball story since I’m not much of a sports buff, but here’s a great exception. It’s the story of my friends, the Miller twins, who made an autobiographical first film called “Touching Home” and what’s more, just got a major book deal. They did it against the odds, with unrivaled tenacity and in honor of their deceased dad who was always their biggest fan.
Noah and Logan Miller grew up in rural West Marin in a working-class family, a few towns away from where I grew up in a county where money is pouring out of most pockets. Their passion was baseball, and they climbed their way out of a poor childhood and became rising sports stars. In the end, their baseball dreams didn’t work out and they eventually found themselves back at home working in a quarry alongside their often drunk, sometimes-homeless and ever troubled dad. (It’s a little weird sharing such personal details about guys I know, but there’s a film about it and soon a book release so I figure I’m allowed.)
This could have easily been the end of their ambitions, but the Miller twins made “lemonade” out of their lemons and released a notable indie movie as a paean to their father, who died of a heart attack, penniless in jail in 2006. With 17 credit cards and a boat load of gumption but absolutely zero experience making movies, they managed to convince elite actor, Ed Harris, to play the role of their dad and in the process told a cathartic story about family that helped them, in their own words, “memorialize our father”. Did I mention that they are also the stars of the film, wrote and directed it themselves and it’s actually really good?
Aside from the pathos of the story portrayed in this movie, the story behind the movie and the determination of the Miller twins to get it made is so inspiring, it’s also a testament to how losing sight of one dream can actually kick-start another.
The struggle against adversity is a classic movie formula because it echoes real life. In one way or other, we all come up against great challenge and struggle in our lives. Buddhist philosophy says that confronting our suffering and transforming it into learning is the heart of life. Or in Western words: what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.
Thanks to the Miller twins for their inspiration.
What inspires you?
Gratefully,
Amy
07 Jan 2009
Joslyn Hamilton
I love this story and I also love the story of Noah Levine, who wrote the book Dharma Punx. Noah grew up in Santa Cruz in the surf counterculture of the 80’s and was a rebellious punk, constantly getting into trouble with drugs and the law. Over the years he saw many of his friends die of overdoses or get sent to juvenile hall and prison. Ironically, his dad, Stephen Levine, was a well-know meditation teacher who traveled the country speaking about Buddhism and writing books in spirituality.
At a pivotal point in Noah’s teenage life, he found himself in juvenile detention and called his dad for a bail-out. But his dad refused. Instead, he offered to give him some meditation techniques to help get him through his time “behind bars”. With nowhere left to turn and no more chances, Noah decided to try the Buddhist techniques he’d been ignoring his entire life. He was profoundly impacted by this experience.
Cut to the present: Noah Levine is now a Buddhist teacher, traveling around the country teaching simple real-life meditation techniques to juvenile delinquents and prisoners. He chronicled his story in the inspiring book “Dharma Punx” and has risen above his ghetto youth to become a revolutionary Buddhist teacher to the underprivileged and disenfranchised. I saw him speak at a bookstore once, and was impressed by his super smart yet down-to-earth style. He really struck me as a modern-day Buddha.
07 Jan 2009
Amy from IO
I am a huge fan of Noah Levine (and meditation for personal and global healing).
Powerful person. Powerful story. Being so close to the edge can be so much closer to salvation than we often know…at least that’s the potential always available to us.
Thanks for sharing, Joslyn.
07 Jan 2009
Jeromy Zajonc
Thanks for writing about this, Amy.
What inspires me? More than anything when people do something that’s personally difficult for them. Sometimes that’s the man/woman in a wheelchair who completes a marathon and sometimes it’s the person who chooses to take a deep breath rather than spout out there immediate thoughts on a subject. Patience inspires me. Hard work with a smile inspires me.
Bob Dylan said that art at it’s best inspires. So here’s to the Miller Twins for doing just that with their lives and their art. Here’s to an inspirational year for us all…
What inspires you?
07 Jan 2009
Justin Seeley
Great story.
Inspiration for me comes in all forms. Accomplishments against all odds (like the one mentioned in your story), strength & faith in times of adversity (as my Mom recently demonstrated to me), artistic projects shown through a wide range of creativity and imagination (in a way that my Aunt and favorite artists have expressed themselves), Obama inspire me, Whale Wars inspires me, Richard Branson inspires me, MLK, Jr, Joel Osteen, and many others. Inspiration is every where. Just open your eyes and let it in.
It is great to be reminded that when we exchange the word ‘problem’ for the the ‘opportunity’, anything is possible. Cheers to the Miller Brothers for never having to be reminded (…or is it that they are always reminding each other?) Either way, thanks for provoking thought about our own inspirations, Amy.
Make it a great day!
08 Jan 2009
Leslie Wang
For me, inspiration breathes light into’s life’s dark and (seemingly) unforgiving places. It feels hopeful and bright. Lately, what has inspired me the most are examples of triumph through rough and adverse times.
It is the parent who works 2 jobs to provide their children the best possible care they can give. It is the woman who overcame her limitations to be the 1st of her kind. It is the willingness to stay true to one’s values. It is the success of a once failure. It is the beauty that comes when we all rise to the occasion and progress together.
However, at the same time simple things also inspire me. Good friends. Acts of goodwill. Fresh air and a good laugh inspire me.
Here’s to a new year full of hope and inspiration. Thanks Amy for starting the dialogue!
08 Jan 2009
Kraz
Nature and how strange, beautiful, and diverse it is never fails to amaze me. To me it inspires creatively, but also on a daily level. An unexpected cool breeze, a colorful sunrise or sunset, clouds, spices, a strange iridescent insect, dolphins jumping, all can redirect a negative day and inspire me to be who I want be.
08 Jan 2009
Amy
Kraz, amen to that ! Nature is a huge point of inspiration indeed. Every morning, everyday I revel in that fact as I take my morning walk and it can change a mood or perspective on a dime … if you let it in.
20 Jan 2009
Logan & Noah Miller
WOW. Thank you, Amy. Your story inspires us. It will keep us driving in the heavy hours of doubt.
So what inspires us? Let’s think here… How about… COMMITMENT and DEVOTION: to a cause, a vision, a lover.
Onward and upward. Much love,
The Bros