# KUBRICK’S BOXES: An Education



## RonPrice (Jun 21, 2009)

Much of the education many people get today is from television and the following prose-poem is one I wrote in appreciation to the makers of a program entitled Kubrick's Boxes. I leave it with you.-Ron Price, Tasmania
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I watched with fascination the ABC2 program on 17 May 2009 at 8:30 p.m. "Stanley Kubrick's Boxes." Kubrick died in the last month of my 30 year full-time teaching career, in March 1999, and he left behind 1000 boxes in his mansion in England. This one hour program gives viewers a close-up of Kubrick's creative process by its study of the contents of these boxes. We also get a biographic adventure into the mystery, the obsession and the genius of this cinematic legend.

As a poet-writer who has been collecting printed matter rather than photos, in files rather than boxes for most of his life, at least since the late 1950 and early 1960s--and now in my computer directory as well-I could not help but draw parallels with my own work. No genius I, although I have always liked what is probably the most famous line uttered by the inventor Thomas Alva Edison, namely, that "genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." If further explanation of the meaning of this quote is required Edison provided it by completing the quotation thus: "I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident. They came by work."-Ron Price with thanks to the internet site: 1,600 Sayings and Phrases - with their meanings and origins explained, 26 May 2009.

Some, of course, are born with
certain powers and gifts and we
could call this genius......Others, 
of course, must strive with infinite
pains and still others who accept
their life with radiant acquiescence-
receive confirmations of the spirit 
as He called them.1 And yes, they 
come, they do come, part of that 
mystical element in life as others
would call it. Thank you, Stanley,
for your example of persistence,
of dedication....of an obsession
which created truly wonderful
experiences for billions around
our globe-and may you now,
perhaps, in some world of light 
continue in unearthly mansions 
what was found in your earthly 
one and which will now inspire 
generations, many not yet born.2

1 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London, p.126.
2 This prose-poem, originally written for several internet sites associated with cinema, Stanley Kubrick and creativity, had an obvious relevance--as it evolved--to a recent exchange of emails with an old friend Arini Beaumaris, now the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Australia, Inc., and so I sent it to her for her possible pleasure.

Ron Price
26 May 2009


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