Every so often, a movie comes along that jars me out of life on the train. The 'chuggin along the track hopin' that it's going to a nice station' kind of train. AKA- life. Tuesday night, one of these monotony-breaking 'jars' occured. I saw the documentary I AM, and realized "enough riding on this train, I gotta drive this train!" I AM is a famous comedy movie director's
curiosity on wheels. He sets out on a mission to know the truth to two questions: 1. What is wrong with our world? 2. What can we do about it? (By the end, he comes to another, question 3. What is right with the world? (and that answer made me smile in the dark of the theater.) Check out the trailer
here.
This doc. is a beauty of a 'mind pop' for all ages. I went with my Daddio (56), little bro (13) and sis (11). We all laughed, got a little scared in our boots and walked away inspired. It's one of those flicks that you think ALOT the day after you see it, the next day and the day after that....it will probably inspire everyone in different ways but what I really boxed up and took home was-
"The truth of who we are is, we are, because we belong."- D. Tutu
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| Cutter-(lil bro) and Jimbo (dad)- (family tribe members) before the show |
In most animal species, groups live, eat, sleep and migrate together in one group. Earlier humans did this and lived in tribes, right? The harmony in this was that the sick, elderly and weak still had food and shelter, they still belonged somewhere. Being alive was the only prerequisite for the people of the tribe to care for them, and it didn't fall on one person- they are pitched in together. As shown in cartoon in the documentary, somewhere along the way- the best hunters may have adopted the philosophy of "I am the best hunter. If I seperate from the group and go live on my own, I can have all of my hunt to myself." And, so, the breakdown of tribal life began. Our economy is affected by this, our government and especially our inner spaces. I wonder if, as a race, are we lonely? Do we miss the tribe life? We are social beings and what I am saying I guess is, Power to the Tribe Life:) If that is a close-knit family, yo-yo club, church, cheese making group, work, ninja kick squad--- these may be our modern day tribes where we care for one another. In my kumbaya, tree hugging, Utopian dreams, I can fantasize about the day when we are one global tribe, and we feel so connected with everyperson that once again, all people
belong somewhere. Where every country has everyperson living somewhere and with clean water at the very least. We can dream of the day when we take what we need from our "hunt" and share the rest. Tall orders I know, and in 2011, but we can do it- and we might just
like it!
This goes right along with something Josh and I were talking about yesterday. He said, "Why is it that people you barely know, who have hardly ever spoken to you, suddenly want to be an active part of your life when they discover you're going through a tragedy". At first I said, "People are just drawn to tragedy", but then I wondered why would people be drawn to tragedy. Finally I said, "It's how we've survived as a species". Compared to pretty much all of the animal kingdom, we're not particularly strong or fast or even half way decent hunters (without tools), but the need to help others when they suffer is almost primal in us. Many of us, in our independent hunter way, as you put it, have learned to bury or deny that side of ourselves (I think usually either out of selfishness, insecurity or in the name of being "polite"- a modern social barrier) but I think for most of us the need still runs deep. P.S. You would make a truly FASCINATING cultural anthropologist. Just sayin' =)
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