I’ve got a batch of ciabatta rising, and I’m coming down the final stretch with the wedding shawl, after spending much of yesterday hauling ass. (Sorry Marn, you can’t see it yet – but anyone who is on ravelry can see it on my project page.) I watched three movies yesterday while I was knitting, and I want to heartily recommend one of them.

If you have Netflix streaming, you can watch it immediately, or at least add it to your queue. It’s Unmistaken Child, and it’s about a Tibetan monk’s search for the child who is the reincarnation of his master. It’s enormously touching, and when he finds the child, it’s hard to argue that he isn’t truly unmistaken. It’s fascinating to watch the Dalai Lama rename the child. It sounds silly to say this, but I forget that among all the rest, he is a Buddhist, enmeshed in the practices of his culture. When he does the variety of things required with the child, it kind of startled me. He seems so western to us – he speaks everywhere, he participates in western research, he exhorts us to peace, like so many other people do – but he is entirely Buddhist. It’s easy to see him grinning, in his big old glasses, and think he’s just a kindly older guy with incredible compassion and wisdom. And he is….but he’s ohsomuch more.

The movie has kind of haunted me since I finished watching it. Tenzin Zopa, the monk who searches for his reincarnated master, touched me and it’s hard to think about him without crying, for some reason.