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dedalus_1947O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
(O Captain! My Captain – Walt Whitman: 1819-1892)
Last month I stayed up watching the Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams. My daughter Prisa had posted a clip from the movie shortly after his death, showing the classic “Oh Captain! My Captain!” scene. It sparked my curiosity to see the 1989 movie again, and for another time watch William’s Oscar nominated performance as Mr. John Keating.
I should also point out that previous to my viewing of Dead Poets Society, I was in the middle of researching and writing a course outline for a pilot program on Restorative Justice to be used in one of the county jails. The program, which we are basing on Fr. Richard Rohr’s book, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, starts from the premise that we are all addicts, with addictive natures that incline us toward attachments, passions, and sins. We are also addicted, Rohr adds, to habitual ways of thinking, processing ideas, and dealing with people and situations, while never being able to see or acknowledge that we’re addicted to them. He concludes that only by adopting an alternative consciousness can we ever be free from this false self, and from the cultural lies that control us. According to Rohr, the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous accomplishes that task through brutal honesty, humility, prayer, and selflessness. He believes that both Jesus and the 12 Steps espouse the belief that “We suffer to get well. We surrender to win. We die to live. And we give it away to keep it.” This is the counter-intuitive thinking that is practiced by Jesus and by recovering addicts and alcoholics through the Twelve Steps.
After finishing Rohr’s book, I explored other books and movies that illustrated his points, and which could also be incorporated in the program’s curriculum. I read AA’s Big Book, and watched My Name is Bill W, with James Woods and James Garner, Flight, with Denzel Washington, and Dead Man Walking, with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. So the Twelve Steps and all Rohr’s spiritual ideas were swirling through my head when I sat down to watch Dead Poets Society.
One can’t help being struck by the irony of Robin Williams’ suicide with the character he portrayed in the movie – a young teacher struggling to free a student, Neil Perry, and his friends from the stranglehold of conformist cultural thinking. Mr. John Keating offered them an alternative consciousness to see God’s abundant gifts, beauty, and grandeur in the world and people around them, and urged them to “seize the day”. By reintroducing poetry, he also gave them a language and a lens to see beyond themselves, and to use it as a vehicle for escaping the egocentric and selfishly motivated culture of a society that promotes only power, control, and wealth.
As I watched the movie, I also noticed that it interjected countless aspects of God, or a higher power, throughout the story– in the music, cinematography, and the compassionate interaction of the boys with each other. The glory of nature was shown in countless scenes of woods, meadows, rivers, and the changing seasons. The joy of music was heard in the voices, laughter, and play of the boys, and their inspiring teacher. What I found most interesting in the story was the fact that everyone, each character, was free to choose – Headmaster Nolan, Mr. Keating, the boys, Neil, and his father, Mr. Perry. They all had the gift of free will, the ability to choose what they would do, and who they would be. A Twelve Step question would be, what was the motive for their choices? Were they choosing out of self-interest and ego, or were they acting out of friendship, humility, and love? On discovering that Neil had won the role of Puck in the student production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, his father angrily cried, “How could you do this to me? I won’t have it!” Mr. Perry sought to control what Neil studied, the way he used his time, where he would go to college, and what he would become as an adult.
However, Neil, who ignored Mr. Keating’s sage advice to be honest and forthright with his father, could not allow himself to believe that those choices were his to make. “I can’t do this!” Neil cried out in anguish about his father’s plans, but he couldn’t stop himself from believing that he had no choice. He finally escaped his father’s intolerable future for him by ending his life on earth. He surrendered to his father’s will, and when confronted with the nightmarish vision of countless years of misery and pain ahead, he finally acted out – against himself.
Dead Poets was a tragic movie, made doubly so with the knowledge of Robin Williams’ own suicide. The movie ended with the classic “O Captain, my Captain” scene, where the students who were coerced into denouncing their teacher, stood atop their desks to salute him and thank him for his selfless efforts on their behalf. But as much as I wanted to believe otherwise, Robin Williams was never Mr. Keating – he was Robin Williams, an acclaimed comic and actor who struggled for many years with bi-polar disorders, alcohol and drug addiction, and depression. From what I’ve learned about alcoholism and drug addiction after reading AA’s Big Book and Rohr’s Breathing Under Water, I suspect that there is no real “cure” for either. Willpower and the best science that money can buy are not enough. Alcoholism and drug addictions are illnesses that can be treated medically and clinically, but never “cured”. Not unless the underlying fears, wounds, and resentments are identified and addressed in a ruthlessly honest, humble, and spiritual manner. I’ve also learned that AA’s Twelve Steps provides such a process – a process that is demanding and difficult, and, to my surprise, not aimed at recovery. The aim of the Twelve Steps is a spiritual encounter. Recovery and sobriety are byproducts of a successful program – spiritual enlightenment and freedom are the goal. The alcoholic and drug addict cannot medicate or will himself free. The old self must die before the new self can be free.
Tragically, I think Robin Williams found himself so mired in pain, illness, and despair that he took the path Neil Perry walked in Dead Poets Society. He couldn’t find an escape from what he believed was an intolerable situation, and he acted out against himself. All we can do is withhold judgment and remember him through his work, trusting that the God of All Mercies and Compassion, who tried getting Robin’s attention all his life through successes and failures, joys and sorrows, hasn’t given up on him either.
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
(O Captain! My Captain – Walt Whitman: 1819-1892)
Last month I stayed up watching the Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams. My daughter Prisa had posted a clip from the movie shortly after his death, showing the classic “Oh Captain! My Captain!” scene. It sparked my curiosity to see the 1989 movie again, and for another time watch William’s Oscar nominated performance as Mr. John Keating.
I should also point out that previous to my viewing of Dead Poets Society, I was in the middle of researching and writing a course outline for a pilot program on Restorative Justice to be used in one of the county jails. The program, which we are basing on Fr. Richard Rohr’s book, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, starts from the premise that we are all addicts, with addictive natures that incline us toward attachments, passions, and sins. We are also addicted, Rohr adds, to habitual ways of thinking, processing ideas, and dealing with people and situations, while never being able to see or acknowledge that we’re addicted to them. He concludes that only by adopting an alternative consciousness can we ever be free from this false self, and from the cultural lies that control us. According to Rohr, the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous accomplishes that task through brutal honesty, humility, prayer, and selflessness. He believes that both Jesus and the 12 Steps espouse the belief that “We suffer to get well. We surrender to win. We die to live. And we give it away to keep it.” This is the counter-intuitive thinking that is practiced by Jesus and by recovering addicts and alcoholics through the Twelve Steps.
After finishing Rohr’s book, I explored other books and movies that illustrated his points, and which could also be incorporated in the program’s curriculum. I read AA’s Big Book, and watched My Name is Bill W, with James Woods and James Garner, Flight, with Denzel Washington, and Dead Man Walking, with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. So the Twelve Steps and all Rohr’s spiritual ideas were swirling through my head when I sat down to watch Dead Poets Society.
One can’t help being struck by the irony of Robin Williams’ suicide with the character he portrayed in the movie – a young teacher struggling to free a student, Neil Perry, and his friends from the stranglehold of conformist cultural thinking. Mr. John Keating offered them an alternative consciousness to see God’s abundant gifts, beauty, and grandeur in the world and people around them, and urged them to “seize the day”. By reintroducing poetry, he also gave them a language and a lens to see beyond themselves, and to use it as a vehicle for escaping the egocentric and selfishly motivated culture of a society that promotes only power, control, and wealth.
As I watched the movie, I also noticed that it interjected countless aspects of God, or a higher power, throughout the story– in the music, cinematography, and the compassionate interaction of the boys with each other. The glory of nature was shown in countless scenes of woods, meadows, rivers, and the changing seasons. The joy of music was heard in the voices, laughter, and play of the boys, and their inspiring teacher. What I found most interesting in the story was the fact that everyone, each character, was free to choose – Headmaster Nolan, Mr. Keating, the boys, Neil, and his father, Mr. Perry. They all had the gift of free will, the ability to choose what they would do, and who they would be. A Twelve Step question would be, what was the motive for their choices? Were they choosing out of self-interest and ego, or were they acting out of friendship, humility, and love? On discovering that Neil had won the role of Puck in the student production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, his father angrily cried, “How could you do this to me? I won’t have it!” Mr. Perry sought to control what Neil studied, the way he used his time, where he would go to college, and what he would become as an adult.
However, Neil, who ignored Mr. Keating’s sage advice to be honest and forthright with his father, could not allow himself to believe that those choices were his to make. “I can’t do this!” Neil cried out in anguish about his father’s plans, but he couldn’t stop himself from believing that he had no choice. He finally escaped his father’s intolerable future for him by ending his life on earth. He surrendered to his father’s will, and when confronted with the nightmarish vision of countless years of misery and pain ahead, he finally acted out – against himself.
Dead Poets was a tragic movie, made doubly so with the knowledge of Robin Williams’ own suicide. The movie ended with the classic “O Captain, my Captain” scene, where the students who were coerced into denouncing their teacher, stood atop their desks to salute him and thank him for his selfless efforts on their behalf. But as much as I wanted to believe otherwise, Robin Williams was never Mr. Keating – he was Robin Williams, an acclaimed comic and actor who struggled for many years with bi-polar disorders, alcohol and drug addiction, and depression. From what I’ve learned about alcoholism and drug addiction after reading AA’s Big Book and Rohr’s Breathing Under Water, I suspect that there is no real “cure” for either. Willpower and the best science that money can buy are not enough. Alcoholism and drug addictions are illnesses that can be treated medically and clinically, but never “cured”. Not unless the underlying fears, wounds, and resentments are identified and addressed in a ruthlessly honest, humble, and spiritual manner. I’ve also learned that AA’s Twelve Steps provides such a process – a process that is demanding and difficult, and, to my surprise, not aimed at recovery. The aim of the Twelve Steps is a spiritual encounter. Recovery and sobriety are byproducts of a successful program – spiritual enlightenment and freedom are the goal. The alcoholic and drug addict cannot medicate or will himself free. The old self must die before the new self can be free.
Tragically, I think Robin Williams found himself so mired in pain, illness, and despair that he took the path Neil Perry walked in Dead Poets Society. He couldn’t find an escape from what he believed was an intolerable situation, and he acted out against himself. All we can do is withhold judgment and remember him through his work, trusting that the God of All Mercies and Compassion, who tried getting Robin’s attention all his life through successes and failures, joys and sorrows, hasn’t given up on him either.
