Tonight I went to see Avatar. What an incredibly diverse range of talent, storyline, colour and imagination. What I wouldn't give for an hour alone with the person who dreamt that all up! In case you couldn't tell I loved it, even though I spend about half of it both in tears and holding my breath.
I loved the amazing imagination of the creatures and the plants. There is no spoiler telling you about the incredible creature which twirled like a helicopter with a single spinning 'wing' of fiery red.
However what has really set my mind going was the incredible metaphor. I've heard through the grapevine that this movie has set young people, around the tween age, toward environmental causes. Now I have no doubt that children see the world differently to adults. Our world, I believe, begins large because they see everything. As we age our prejudices and judgement, expectations and assumptions begin to narrow our vision. Children do not have this problem. I believe that this movie gives us a glimpse of how our own planet works. The energy of it's living creatures, the connections between us and our planet and the effect we have. According to the movie all energy is a loan; at some point we must give it back. I believe that Avatar attempted to put what we should know and feel instinctively in to a visual representation so we could see it.
Personally I came out of this movie hating my race. Humans cause a lot of destruction and whilst I will not give spoilers you don't have to just watch Avatar to know this. Simply watch the news each night or a road being widened. Now I am aware, and I try to remember, that not everyone is the same. There are many precious, generous, kind, thoughtful, passionate people who do not destroy. I am also aware that there is the necessary balance of yin and yang, heaven and hell, good and bad. What disturbs me is the sense that we are not in balance.
A few months back I realised what I saw was my answer to the meaning of life. I believe that on the simplest level our challenge in our lifetime is to find balance. No complicated lessons, not messy goals. Just balance. Now that sounds simple but imagine this with the metaphor of a sharpened pencil. According to science everything has a centre of gravity, a balance. Now in a sharpened pencil it is very hard to find that centre but that doesn't mean it's not there. I believe a balance can be achieved. I'd like to see us begin to find that balance, as a race not as individuals, sometime in my lifetime but the fact is that humans aren't very good at balance. We tend to swing wildly from one thing to another, barely touching on the centre that I believe is the key.
I hope I'm wrong. I see people trying to find that balance, as I do every day, and I see some succeed and some fail. I fail regularly. But I hope that we can all search for, and someday all find, the balance in our lives and our world. Becuase until we do I don't think we will even begin to comprehend the impact we have on ourselves, each other and our home.
One quick afterthought. Today is what I call a binary day. 11/1/10. If you think about it binary is in perfect balance. There are only two which seems to digitally represent the yin and yang of life. A binary day is a special occasion, only happening 9 times in 4 years of any thousand years.
Give me your thoughts - Do you struggle in the search for balance? Do you feel that balance is the key or is it something else?
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