Monday, October 17, 2005

Cosmic Play / Money (That's What I Want)

Finnish TV 1 just showed a documentary film on Kati Sinenmaa who has chosen to live outside society in a forest stone hut built by herself. Yes, perhaps she's an eccentric freak, but as someone who has lived as unemployed since February 2001 and has struggled to make the ends meet somewhere in the margins of society, I can really relate to someone like this (especially since Sinenmaa has built her own "Web empire" too). When a person makes a decision not to prostitute oneself and drops out of the rat race, s/he will not exactly receive understanding from fellow human beings, but lives under the constant threat of being cast off and marginalised. Therefore you just have to admire her conviction.

Cosmic Play is a documentary film about Kati Sinenmaa's pursuit to live outside the society. Spring 2001 she gave up her Helsinki city rental apartment and moved to a small forest section right in the middle of the busiest intersections of railroads and bridges in Pasila, Helsinki.

Kati builds from stones a massive wall against the society. The stronghold becomes the very image of her soul: the inner being of an artist has been taken out, yet the society wants to put it in again. Kati Sinenmaa does not adapt to the lifestyle expected by the society. She does not hold a job, she does neither rent an apartment nor receive any support from the society. All her clothes and meals are donations or picked from the trash cans. She tries to be free and bound less. However, the free Internet service is the link that binds her back to the society. In the film we'll follow Kati Sinenmaa's life for four years, from moving to the woods all the way to Spring 2005. Living in the woods is full of challenges. The society Kati attempts to leave behind, does not leave her in peace.

She pours out everything at her web pages and also in the bountiful dozens of pages of replies to the demands of the society. She starts to live at the same time in the Internet, in the reality of the mind, in the physical reality and in the spirit world in between.

"Everyone has a role in this cosmic play. We all have a purpose to fulfill. We should all realize that we are part of this big play. Just like the characters in Dante's Divine Comedy, that's us".

Sad to say that I'm not personally as courageous person and of as strong principles as Sinenmaa: lately I've started to think that just receiving a big monthly stack of money would probably be the best anti-depressant for me, and nothing else... pHinn, the would-be Happy Hooker? And why is it that I always hear to this the old "money does not bring you happiness" cliché from people who hold well-paid jobs themselves...?


The best things in life are free
But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Your lovin' gives me a thrill
But your lovin' don't pay my bills
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Money don't get everything, it's true
What it don't get, I can't use
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Money don't get everything, it's true
What it don't get, I can't use
Now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Well, now give me money (that's what I want)
A lot of money (that's what I want)
Whoa, yeah, I wanna be free (that's what I want)
Whoa, a lot of money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want

Well, now give me money (that's what I want)
A lot of money (that's what I want)
Whoa, yeah, you owe me money (that's what I want)
Oh, now give me money (that's what I want)
That's what I want (that's what I want), yeah
That's what I want.

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