ONE MAN AMONG MANY

Stanley Kubrick(1928-1999) organized his life: his family life, his office, the city where he lived and his private activities in order that he could make films. His first films go back to 1950 and his last film was completed in 1999. When I was in kindergarten in Canada in 1949-50, Kubrick aged 21 moved into Greenich Village and began working on his first film, Day of the Flight. In my last month as a full-time teacher, after completing a 30 year career in that profession and another 18 years as a student, Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut, hit the cinema screens, March 1st 1999.

Kubrick had an obsession with, a passionate commitment to, an intense belief in, film making. Everything he read was through the lens, the perspectives, the frameworks of film-making. Kubrick lived his entire life at the same time as the first seven decades of the development of the Baha’i administrative system, a system I have been committed to with a passion that has determined much that has happened in my life. And I have organized my private and public life in such a way that I could give expression to this commitment in more ways than I can count. -Ron Price with thanks to SBS TV, “Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures: Part 2,” 10:00-10:50 p.m. May 17th 2005.

One man writes a novel;
one man composes a symphony
one man directs a film;
one man weeds the garden,
cooks a meal or urinates
when necessity calls.
One man writes a poem.
So true it is Stanley, but:
these expressions of talent,
biological need and domestic
utility--unless supported
and enriched by the collective
experiences, needs, desires,
values, beliefs, attitudes, wants
and wishes of the group
will accomplish little
beyond necessity and utility
and certainly not result in the
completion of the tremendous
task we are all faced with in this
massive global undertaking ahead.

We organize our lives
in different ways, eh Stanley,
to serve the purposes of what
we are trying to accomplish,
eh Stanley?

Ron Price
May 18th 2005