 |
| (Departure of Prince Siddhartha) |
Short answer: They
both discovered that this world is filled with suffering.
MSN's Wonderwall
recently ran an article titled "Gwyneth Paltrow: We can't lie to our children." At an April 22, 2013 press conference to promote Iron
Man 3, Paltrow (who stars in the movie as Pepper Potts) philosophized about the movie's terrorism theme: We do live in an unsafe world – that's the truth. I'm
dealing with this now
with my
7-year-old. He's sort of grappling with the fact that the
world is unsafe…
Paltrow believes that there is nothing wrong with presenting the idea that the world is dangerous to children. She further stated: We can't lie to our
children and pretend that the world is perfect
and that everybody's happy and everybody's
out there to do good.
So it's just part of a
bigger conversation.
That "bigger conversation" sounds a bit Buddhist in nature. Traditional tales about the Buddha's early life tell that he was born into a royal family (somewhat like being born into a celebrity family as Paltrow's kids were).
However, unlike Paltrow, Buddha's father was determined to shield his child from all suffering as long as possible.
When Siddhartha finally ventured outside of the palace gates, he witnessed aging, sickness and death. This
depressed him so greatly that he tried to overcome suffering by leaving the palace and becoming an ascetic.
Perhaps to spare her children such angst, Paltrow is "consciously striving to keep them from experiencing equally sheltered existences."
Resources
http://wonderwall.msn.com/movies/gwyneth-paltrow-we-cant-lie-to-our-children-24640.gallery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
Copyright April 27, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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