Monday morning and it is pouring rain outside.  The sky weeps.  Is it not apt to weep profusely, to wail with grief?  Maybe you’ve not noticed.  We exert much effort to remain oblivious, to sustain the bliss which we have purchased by our overdraft of Natures resources.  Nature weeps by a precipitous decline in fish stocks, accelerating warming of the Arctic, and the inception of extreme weather events that wreck infrastructure and kill.  There are violent outbreaks of rage, bombings in Sri Lanka, and synagogue shooting in San Diego….  Closer to home: email from a friend who cannot see any connection between uncritical support of a tyrannical President and resolute climate change denial.

Weeping is the only thing that makes sense.

I viewed the 1985 movie Ran, by Akira Kurosawa yesterday.  Translated, Ran means chaos. I’d seen the movie previously years ago.  I knew the plot line, so the scenes, and changes in character development did not take me by surprise.  I felt a palpable sense of grief at the end of the movie.  It is a story of a Ichimonji clan in the Sengoku period of Japanese history.  Hidetora Ichimonji the elderly warlord intends to “retire,” to retain his title and symbol of office, while delegating his power to the eldest of three sons.  He advises the remaining two sons to support their brother in order to remain strong.  This succession plan begins to unravel as soon as it is announced.

In the final scene, Tsurumaru, blind and alone, silhouetted against a red sky, pauses on the parapet edge of a ruined castle wall.  Accidentally, by a quirk of chance, Tsurumaru does not step over and plunge to his death.  Tsurumaru, a minor but important character, is the only character remaining alive at the end of the movie.  The rest,— through their own devious machinations, or weakness, or naive innocence,  or alliances are dead.  An image of Amita Buddha on a discarded scroll—one of the last images of the film.

The film ended.  I felt nauseated.

Here are some great lines from the movie:

Man is born crying. When he has cried enough, he dies.   –Kyoami

Men prefer sorrow over joy… suffering over peace!   –Tango

Are there no gods… no Buddha? If you exist, hear me. You are mischievous and cruel! Are you so bored up there you must crush us like ants? Is it such fun to see men weep?   —Kyoami

Enough! Do not blaspheme! It is the gods who weep. They see us killing each other over and over since time began. They can’t save us from ourselves.  –Tango