A Night With Parrots

NOB HILL--The bloggers at the Duke City Fix were in love with it. The Beautiful MaryAnn was dying to see it. It was only a block and a half from the house. And so we went to see The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill tonight at the Guild Cinema. It affected me on several levels. Not that the film is a puzzle (It is a straight-forward report of a man and his "hobby."). Rather, it's simplicity allows one to look deeper into small pleasures...and wonder how they fit into the fabric of one's own life. Maybe I need to try to organize this:

1. The Caffe Trieste in North Beach appears prominently in the film. MaryAnn and I spent quite a bit of time there on our visit to SF last fall. Sitting there, one is aware of the hundreds of stories centered in that coffee house. I sometimes feel that way about the Flying Star...like tonight...David Stuart intently rewriting a manuscript at that little round table in the front room.
2. In the film, Mark Bittner observed and documented the individual lives comprising a flock of urban birds. Aren't some of us doing the same thing? Don't we observe and document? I think I do at any rate. What's more, Mark in searching for something fulfilling to do, found himself fulfilled almost by accident. He was looking for a vocation, and settled for a hobby-too-big-to-be-a-hobby. I feel that the same thing sort of happened to me. While waiting for a direction to go in during my retirement, I started blogging.
3. Life has meaning. Life itself has meaning.
4. The characters include everybody...even the storyteller and the producer/director. How true.
5. And last...pay attention. In a good way, pay attention.