Friday night movie was Catch Me If You Can, which you may remember was a story of a teen who impersonated an airline pilot, doctor and lawyer (before his 21st birthday), all the while cashing millions of dollars in fraudulent checks. Dogged by an FBI agent, he fled to France where he was finally caught, extradited to the US and served 12 years. Upon release he worked with the FBI using his skills in cashing bad checks to detecting bad checks.

I was reminded of the theme of Mad Men because the movie was about identity theft, and all the while Frank wanted it to stop, so he bonded with his pursuer, daring him to catch him, which he finally did.

Frank was able to enter into an identity with such assurance and confidence, and thinking on his feet, make other believe he was who he was.

And so I, as always, take the metaphorical leap and ask, (as the supreme narcissist I am) in what way is this about me? Who am I? Is this identity I’ve become the real me? Can I stop the charade? I am so good at being me that I even fool myself.

Frank was like an actor looking for his next character, his next play. How many lifetimes have I been playing this game? Catch me if you can…with whom am I playing this game? God? The Self? Am I running from myself.

Just finished the talk and I’m really pumped up, as if I have just created a “new identity” that will heal the wound if feel: what is my true service? I must become a Spiritual Movie Reviewer, a review that reveals the deeper levels of the movie, the mental and spiritual layers that are so often covered up by the superficial layer of just a good story.

I find that when I watch a movie it perks in me and the next day, BAM!, the whole movie begins to unfold in my dialogue, from the parts to the greater whole, and the greater Whole is, of course, YOU….and ME….. I’m looking for the transformative BAM, the spontaneous I SEE! that heals the division in my world, this original divorce that separates me from the world and sends me into exile, looking for the perfect identity that will heal my soul.

Like Frank, the identity that will bring his parents back together….But in the end, Frank (now an adult) sees that he can’t bring his parents back together again. His father has died and his mother happily remarried. Now Frank has to discover his true authenticity, who he is without the charade, within the fake image and the fake news (Oh, does that sound familiar?)