Tonight found us back at the Alamo S. Lamar for AFS doc night with a pretty booked house. This is an interesting film about a Tibetan father and son in Italy and their relationship to Buddhism, reincarnation, the Dali Lama, and each other. The son (Yeshi) is a secular young man born to a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and an Italian Catholic mother. She has raised him and his sister pretty much as a single parent, however her reverence for her husband is apparent. He is a renowned master teacher who believes his son is the reincarnation of his great uncle who himself was an important lama. Initially Yeshi is reluctant to assume this responsibility but after time, maturation, his father's illness he steps into the role and becomes a masterful and revered teacher himself. What I liked about this film mostly was the universality of the tension and conflict that can be created by a parent's expectations. It seems this conflict was satisfactorily resolved for this young man and his father. They're the lucky ones.
We're back at UT classes with OLLI and were really surprised to like our morning class entitled LEGENDS OF THE TEXAS FRONTEIR (1800-1825). The instructor was well prepared with interesting material, extremely knowledgeable, showed a fine PBS film about the West and it's impact on the American character. Once again we've learned that keeping an open mind has paid off. The next class was the ORIGINS OF ROCK AND ROLL taught by Jerry Conn. What a hoot! This guy is a great teacher and the music! Everyone in this class was smiling! The lecture in the afternoon was COUNTERFEIT PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. Good scary information about the greedy world we live in and how people traffic in anything!
A fine day for my brain in Austin.
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