I touched a tiny nature

I am reading a lot of Thich Naht Hanh lately. Please let your eyes roll back to the forward position and continue to read. Yes, your bitter, bitter friend is reading Buddhism. You know something though, it's really curious... as he explains the purpose and praxis of Buddhism, I'm really finding a lot of parallels in my pursuit of my own favorite art form. He explains that what a good Buddhist does is meditate in order to understand, in order to see the complexity of everything, everything's relation to everything else. He terms it "interbeing." So a Buddhist tries hard to see the interbeing of everything around her so that she can really understand it, why it is good, why it is bad, why it is... and then from that comes loving that thing, loving all things. Well, he has a way of putting all this that sounds much less smarmy than when I try to explain it. But so the good Buddhist is kind of trying to inter-be with all the people around her so that she can see the ultimate worth and humanity of everything and love it more. As an actor, one of the things one has to do is understand the role one is given... really, really deeply in order to really make it authentically human and not just caricature. So in offering your understanding to the character, you begin to love the character, and in loving the character, the actor's portrayal of the character becomes more real. There can be something meditative in the work an actor does (I'm not saying that it has to be there, but it's a good approach for me, I think). I'm just typing this, I guess, because I always furtively considered acting to be a spiritual exercise, but I couldn't really articulate how, and I kind of started to think that maybe I was just being a jerkass thinking that and it was just the applause-o-meter that was motivating me. But I really think that, while the regard of others is a lovely thing to have and I do treasure it, that acting for me is helpful on a spiritual level. Nicole, when you get some time, let me know what you think about this. Feel free to tell me it's crap, of course.

O.k., I know that's pretty weird, but that's all I have to say.
Don't forget to call your dad!
Love, K