Terminal

Series
The Other Side
Original Broadcast Date
8/5/2001
Cast
Larry Block, Zachary Block, Kristine McKenna, David Rapkin, Sharon O'Connell, Jack Kornfield, Joe Frank
Format
Karma Style, 56 minutes
Preceded by:	Men Of The Cloth
Followed by:	Black Hole (Remix)
Purchase /  Stream

"I have this strange fantasy life when I eat."

Terminal is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side. It was originally broadcast on August 5, 2001.

Synopsis

Larry tells Joe about his fantasy life when he eats: he imagines being an FBI investigator in the case of Gary Condit and the disappearance of Chandra Levy and another in which he imagines he's a smart detective who plays dumb, hoping that will place the suspect off-guard.

4:10: Jack Kornfield describes Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. It placed spirituality at the top; Kornfield disagrees, says it's more important.

6:00: Zachary tells Joe about a security guard running him and his buddy off from drinking in a building hallway.

6:40: Larry tells Joe he doesn't care about Zachary's drinking.

7:30: Joe tells Larry that Zachary is copying Larry's behavior, that Zachary is angry with Larry because of Larry's behavior. Larry defends his drinking.

12:50: Larry quotes Walter Savage Landor's 'Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher':

'I strove with none, for none was worth my strife: 
Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art: 
I warm'd both hands before the fire of Life;
It sinks; and I am ready to depart.'

except Larry says 'It stinks', and means it.

15:10: Larry recurs to his performance in Comedy of errors in 'Shakespeare in the park' (1975). Joe says Larry failed because of his drinking and drug use. Larry disputes this.

16:50: Joe takes a brief call from Kristine McKenna on call-waiting, makes an appointment.

17:20: Kornfield remembers doing walking meditation in the dark in the forest when he was at the monastery in southeast Asia, the loving-kindness meditation, blessing all beings; he explains why the Buddha invented it.

21:30: Kristine McKenna tells Joe about taking him to the emergency department. After delaying treatment with the usual paperwork they eventually figured out he was bleeding in the stomach, had lost 2 pints. Joe disagrees with her description of his behavior. Joe thought he might have been dying, couldn't think of anyone close to call. He noticed how he felt close to the nurses who took care of him, his roommate Roy. But on the ride home he was dismayed that his angry habits returned.

32:30: Kornfield says that what matters at the end of life is whether we loved well.

33:50: Larry tells Joe he got in trouble because he left an e-mail to Marilyn open on his computer - Jolly saw it, suggested he move to California and live with her.

37:20: David Rapkin tells Joe imagining an alternative life sailing alone around the world, waxes poetic.

40:00: Larry and Joe argue about whether Larry is responsible for his failure.

49:40: Kornfield talks about the blessing of mercy.

51:30: Sharon, on the phone with Joe, tells him about this person who showed up at her house, wanting to use the bathroom - it's Larry. She let him in and he wants to stay. She won't let him stay.

53:30: Kornfield tells about his good friend Michael Harner, an exponent of shamanic practice] communing with a bristlecone pine, the world's oldest living things, older than 4,000 years, what he learns from it - then quotes Rilke, 'Being alive means not numbering or counting but ripening like a tree which doesn't force its sap and stands in the storms of spring not afraid that summer may not come - it does come, it always comes.' ('Letters to a Young Poet')

Legacy Synopsis

• Larry - fantasies while he's eating: being a cop, confronting Gary Condit.
• Kornfield - reordering Maslow's hierarchy and a story of a destitute man in India who wants to talk about religion.
• Zak and Larry - security catches Zak drinking, Larry doesn't care.
• Larry and Joe - All Larry can do is withhold money. Larry as a role model. Neill's and Reich's philosophies of child rearing. Is Larry's lifestyle a rational decision. Comparing Larry's career to fellow actors. Substance abuse as the cause of his downfall.
• Kornfield - Loving kindness meditation in the forest. Keeping oneself from danger.
• Kristine McKenna and Joe - a recent trip he made to the emergency room suffering from internal bleeding; human kindness, connecting emotionally with people; leaving the hospital and immediately returning to old habits and the drive for sex and combat.
• Kornfield - what matters in the end.
• Larry - a letter for a former participant in an affair lands him in trouble. Fantasies about leaving.
• David Rapkin - choosing an alternate live on a tiny boat.
• Larry and Joe - they fight over the cause of Larry's downfall.
• Joe argues it is due to his own failings and lack of self understanding.
• Larry is offended, argues that the Joe's case is bogus and a rationalization for class oppression.
• Kornfield - pleasure and pain are all a part of human experience.
• Woman - She lets a street guy use her bathroom, he won't leave - it's Larry!
• Kornfield - reads from Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet: "Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come."

Music

• "Spiritual Healing" - Toots Hibbert (from Spiritual Healing, 1983) | YouTube [4:02]

• "Sex" - The Necks (from Sex, 1989) | YouTube [21:19]
• "Romantic Love" - DJ Cam (from Mad Blunted Jazz, 1996) | YouTube [39:50]

Shared material

• Pledge Drive Rough Cuts

Additional credits

The original broadcast credits state: "With Larry Block, Kristine McKenna, David Rapkin, Sharon O'Connell, Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, and Joe Frank. Production: Ray Guarna. Production assistance: Esmé Gregson. Special thanks to Cally Rose."

Commentary

The bristlecone pines are wonderful. You can see them in the White Mountains of California.