I picked up copies of the HPR on Friday, 9.8.2017, when I went for lunch at Tailgators Bar & Grill with classmate Terry Steinweg (FCHS 63) where we ran into Tom Olson (FCHS 62) who was having lunch with his handball trophy winning friend Denny Tallman. At one point, I passed them the latest issue of the HPR calling attention to Ed Raymond’s The Gadfly column, “Arpaio vs Kaepernick: Who will win out?” However, the HPR column I had first read was Faye Seidler’s Trans Corner, “A love letter to Lana Wachowski”, on her encounter with Wachowski’s (Matrix writer/director) Sense8 Netflix series. I also really like Sense8 and am currently watching Season 2 Episode 8. I will return to Ed’s column and my meeting with Tom, when i again visit the topic of synchronicity.

Faye’s Trans Corner column focuses on sexuality, an important element of Sense8’s story-line and Faye writes specifically about the transsexualism of Nomi Marks, a computer hacker, played by Jamie Clayton, a transgender woman. Faye asks “What makes ‘Sense8’ so powerful? What about it calls so many people to action?” She answers, “Each person has their own reason, but I suspect it has to do with the show being about the celebration of life and what it means to be human. It does this by inviting viewers to see stories, cultures, and lived experiences beyond their own”. And then Faye, nails it writing that Sense8 … “bears witness to the live births of eight people of different backgrounds and cultures”.

I agree with Faye’s statement but will add another element that attracts me, present tense, since I will watch for the first time S2E8 when I finish this Morning Page. The excitement for me is witnessing these 8-diverse individuals coming together to form a sensate/intellectual/support team pitting as Faye’ points out “an evil corporation that drives the story’s main conflict”. If I was back at UND teaching team-management, this would be an assigned series to watch. In most classes, I would assign a currently playing movie, relevant is some way to our unfolding theories, and attend together with the class – I bought the popcorn. At Concordia  College, we went to The Social Network depicting Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to his now billion-dollar corporate empire – here is an“evil corporation”. Interesting, Zuckberg’s corporation is now part of the investigation into the Russian’s “hacking” of U.S. elections! We are tuned in!

The Social Network – Hacking scene

Faye’s psychoanalytical analysis of Nomi in Sense8 is deep and important she says for LGBTQ+ people! Her analysis can be applied to all team-members, but for me it is being applied to the “evil corporation” and its role in ‘globalization’. I saw this theme emerging in S2E4 when we are told there are other Sense8 groups in the world that are now coming tougher. I am looking to see how this theme ends in Season 2, for we are told that this is the last season. So, I join Faye’s disappoint in that the Netflix Sense8 series looks to be ending. I wonder about writing script for a Season 3.

Let me end with a scene where Capheus “Van Damn” Onyango matatu driver in Nairobi, a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme, meets an English educated Nairobi woman and is told by her office mates, he has no chance with his big dick because she like girls. When they next meet, Capheus mentions this news and she responds “Yes, I had a relation with this woman, however, I fall in love with the person not the genitals”. The next scene they are entwined in passionate loving. Kind of invites one to join in – yes? Of course, this is the deep message of Sense8!

Sense8 We need you!

Ed’s column was not as interesting as Faye’s, da, but what caught my attention is Ed beginning with, “Sometime in the future we may teach real history, not real history, not fake history. The truth is that 8 of our president staffed their White House with slaves personally owned by them – and ran a government from a capitol building mainly built by slaves.” This morning I recorded this dream: I was following a sequence of ideas, situations from left to right, past to present, and when I got to now, I woke up. I am now ‘sensing’ that ‘the power of now’ begins Sense8’s Season 3, Episode 1.

A cottage industry of analysis has grown up around the Matrix movies and this documentary Philosophy and the Matrixx – Return to the source is one of the best. You can enjoy it at your leisure as you consider a similar philosophical analysis of Sense8 in The Philosophy of Sense8 | Emotion and Connection.  Let’s get Sense in the new year! What does this mean? What are New Year Resolutions to commit to? What does commit mean? Happy New Year!