After I watched “The Man who Invented Himself”, the strongest impression the documentary gave me was how much energy Duane Michals has, considering how old he was, I got really inspired as I feel I wont have half of his energy by the time I am at his age.   I think it is also why he has a lot of great works.  Him being gay seemed to have shaped his whole life, while being rejected by the norm and the church, he is more interested in nature, philosophy and expressing himself, as he said in the documentary that he was attracted to nature and Buddhism, both the mother nature and Buddhism would not reject him.   Reflections are very interesting because they symbolize different sides of mankind, no individual is purely good or purely evil.  Toward the later half of the documentary, the focus was more on death and desires, the message I got is that as his various desires still remain within him, but his time is running out and he started to reflect on his past memories, which inspired me, because it makes me feel our life is too short, we should live to its fullest.