Ways of Sincerity, More Than One

   UPSTREAM COLOR --2013

Author and theologian Thomas Merton wrote about a facet of human nature which he calls fears of the truth. And there are several. In particular, he addresses the meaning of sincerity in every day life.
While much in our lives is motivated by our fears, Merton notes that "sincerity is a simplicity of spirit which is preserved by the will to be true. It implies an obligation to manifest the truth and to defend it... Sincerity in the fullest sense is a divine gift."
He notes that it takes more "courage than we imagine to be perfectly simple with other men... False sincerity has much to say because it is afraid. Yet true candor cannot be silent. It does not need to face an impending attack. Anything... may be defended with perfect simplicity."

In the end, by Merton's reckoning, sincerity is really an issue of love. The sincere one is one who seeks the truth and embodies it. Truth then is not just an abstraction. It is real, living flesh, like yours and mine.
Many in today's world fear that they are not really lovable, not lovable to the extent they think they deserve. And others fear that a lack of real, meaningful love in our lives indicates that "since we are not lovable as we are, we must be lovable under false pretenses, making ourself appear to be different that we are."

In the conclusion to his essay, No Man Is An Island, Merton writes that so few believe in God because they do not believe that even a god can love them. The man who will admit that what he sees may be wrong with him, and recognizes that he may be, still, the object of God's love precisely because of his shortcomings can make a start to become sincere. His love is based then upon confidence rather than the falseness of illusion.

The film Upstream Color examines the lives of two deeply imperfect, and in some ways, flawed individuals. While much is remarked upon the film's abstraction, the central characters meet, develop and share an intense love for one another that becomes based in sincerity.
She suffers from a serious mental illness and he, from a professional shortcoming that results in the loss of the licensing required to carry out his profession. Initially she offers up certain details of her illness, while he initially withholds facts about his own situation.

The resulting social stigma he bears from past indiscretions and the stigma of her illness, combine to create a powerful portrait of two people picking their way through the world, salvaging and in a measure, redeeming themselves, and each other through sincere love.
The simplicity of the film is provided by the many scenes of nature and the interactions with that nature. The film maker leaves us with a certain ambiguity in those scenes, to believe or not. The effect is both spiritually powerful and insightful.

Sense and Sensibilities

SONNET 116
by William Shakespeare

view video1
view video2

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediments. Love is not love

which alters when it alteration finds, 

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever fixed mark
that looks on tempests and is never shaken;
it is the star to every wandering bark,whose worth’s unknown,
although his height be taken.

Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickle’s compass come:
love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
but bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

Compare the original above with a modern version here for meaning:

"I hope I may never acknowledge any reason why minds that truly love each other shouldn’t be joined together. Love isn’t really love if it changes when it sees the beloved change or if it disappears when the beloved leaves. 
Oh no, love is a constant and unchanging light that shines on storms without being shaken; it is the star that guides every wandering boat. And like a star, its value is beyond measure, though its height can be measured. Love is not under time’s power, though time has the power to destroy rosy lips and cheeks. 
Love does not alter with the passage of brief hours and weeks, but lasts until Doomsday. If I’m wrong about this and can be proven wrong, I never wrote, and no man ever loved. "

While casting for a topic, I came upon an intriguing video composition combining the famed novelist, Jane Austin's (there are three novels in the series), Sense and Sensibility, Shakespeare's sonnet 116 and the modern, English soprano singer Sarah Brightman performing This Love. Phew! quite a combination.

Even a simple mind doesn't easily put it all together. But further consideration gives the idea from Jane Austin, that in the middle way, a temperate mood is beneficial to one's life and happiness.There is something to the idea that a calm, steadiness lends itself  to prosperity when standing on shifting ground.
The plot of the novel (written in 1811) illustrates this value, strengthened with Shakespeare's words that a true love is real, and remains, unfoundered. And while I can't ascertain the logic or philosophy engaged by the maker of the video, nor the sense or appropriateness of its music or lyric combined with the novel, I think it attracts because of the strong soprano voice of Sarah Brightman and an emotion she conveys when paired to the visuals of the movie. It forms a sort of synthesis which says more than either alone.

And I suppose one must read "between the lines" to find the meaning in it all. Finally, it is the music--maybe-- surely (maybe minus the lyrics) that seems to offer some kind of answer.