clint eastwood still experimenting at 80 . . .

“I could have been satisfied to stick with the genres I have been doing for years but, the last decade, I’ve been doing a lot of films that were certainly different for me, experimenting with new issues and subjects.”  (Clint Eastwood)


At age 80, Clint Eastwood exemplifies what it means to be a "third ager."Not content to withdraw and retire from life, Clint has directed a newly-released film, Hereafter, a provocative meditation on fate and mortality, life and the afterlife.


And in the past six years, Clint's prolific creative endeavors have included seven films, each different from the others in theme, narrative and visual style. Since 2004, he has directed Million Dollar Baby, which won the best picture and director Oscars, the back-to-back second world war movies Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, Gran Torino, his most commercial picture to date, Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, and Invictus, about South African rugby, in which Nelson Mandela is played by Morgan Freeman.


Clint is now hard at work on his next project, a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover.


Eastwood is quick to point out that for him, the emphasis is on the here and now. “I don’t think much about the hereafter, because I feel you’re given one opportunity to live in this world, and you have to take advantage of that and do the best you can. That’s the hand you’re dealt and you have to play it out. If you’re worrying too much about the end of it all, you can’t really live the present of it all.”

Clint's life is an inspiration to all of us who are finding purpose and joy in an active and engaged life as we grow older.

An insight into his perspective on life is found in his comments about what keeps him going.  “I just enjoy working,” he says, “I thrive on it. For me, a good script is usually the inspiration, and I’m always looking for new subject matters because every film is a new challenge for me.  I could have been satisfied to stick with the genres I have been doing for years but, the last decade, I’ve been doing a lot of films that were certainly different for me, experimenting with new issues and subjects.”

More of us are joining Clint in his un-retiring approach to life and say, hooray for him!

Searching for Allah . . .

Thanks to the events of 9/11, a horrific event for our country has been transformed into a positive experience for me as my spiritual growth has been enriched through study of Islam.

First, I obtained a copy of the Qur'an and began reading, enrolled in a course on Islam at WVU, re-engaged with Sunday School class at the Spruce Street Methodist Church where I'm a member for classes on Paul and Religions of the World.

Thus far, I've found found that the Christian teachings with which I've become familiar thoughout my life have more in common with Islam than I expected.

And I've been impressed that Muslims seem to take their religion more seriously than I have or many Christians I know do.  For example, Muslims memorize the entire Qur'an in a language that is foreign to most, Arabic.   To me, that's comparable to Christians memorizing the Bible in the original languages, Greek and Aramaic.

Also, Muslims pause for prayer at least five times daily.

Here in Morgantown we are fortunate to have an active educational resources from the Muslim community and Mosque and Muslim Student Association at WVU.  For information about these, check the Links section on this blog.

It's become clear to me there are alot of misunderstandings between Christians and Muslims despite their common heritage as Abrahamic religions which they share with Judaism, too.

Of course, all religions are more diverse than they seem at first glance.  All have their conservative or fundamentalist and liberal wings and many schools of thought.  For example, very strict Imams seem to have more in common with hellfire and brimstone Baptist preachers than one might expect.  And both religions have members who interpret their scripture less literally, taking the context of the time it was written.

With these commonalities in mind, I'm led to wonder what's all this fighting about between followers of these religions?

More to follow later.