Whether you loved Avatar or hated it, one thing is certain; this film offers a look at our past and through this reflection we can see guidance for the future.
As 2012 approaches, and many wonder what will come with it, I am left feeling a sense of hope and vision for where humanity can go. However, there are many questions that seem to need answering…
Will we expunge our resources? Will some catastrophe cripple our world economy? Or, will we blow each other up in a nuclear battle? These are just a few out of a multitude of questions one could ask.
Today after finally seeing James Cameron’s Avatar, I feel a resonance with these questions and Cameron’s visionary look at the future.
What Avatar does so well is in taking us back to a familiar history, albeit in a setting of future, and offer us a story as old as our beginnings. What have we as humans done in the name of furthering our nations’ causes and desires for profitability and sustenance?
I don’t want to spoil anything in the movie for potential people like myself who have come late in the game, but I would like to touch on a few points.
- The Navi (that’s the blue people) are a civilization deeply connected to their land and the spirit of life that resides in this paradise. That should sound familiar to you.
- The humans are on this planet (Pandora) to mine its resources and gain financial profit, due to the lack of harvest-able resources presumably left on Earth.
- Thus there are two different species or people living on the same land, each seeking two entirely different things and the human desires come in direct opposition to the Navi’s way of life and how they view their land (Again, sounds familiar right).
- The bottom line: Humans are willing to destroy Navi to get what they want. The Twist: Some Humans form a direct bond with the Navi and begin to question their own peoples’ aims.
I imagine you can see where this might be heading, and all I can say to that is go see the movie. The experience will humble you and inspire you, all the while leaving you picking your jaw up off the floor at Cameron’s superbly crafted world that comes to life in unbelievable fashion.
So now we must move into the lesson, what can we learn?…
Imagine if we lived in a world that deeply relied on a connection and communion to our planet. If we understood there is an ongoing dance of give and take with this land and that we must care for it deeply and treat it as if it were indeed our very own; like a child, loved one or favorite animal.
Earth must be loved, treated with respect and given its natural space to breath, replenish and give back to us. Continuing to expunge our resources will leave us in an uninhabitable planet and thus we as a species will have to move and most likely begin repeating the same patterns if we don’t consciously stop ourselves and become personally and globally more aware.
The good news is that it seems we are taking this mantle up. There is always more that can be done and it is up to our leaders to forge the path ahead, but it is up to us as individuals to personally live this responsibility even in the face of difficulty or detraction from others or our communities.
The larger issue at play here is how are we treating our fellow citizens of the world. How are we exploiting others for our own economic or political gains? If we don’t look at all members of this planet as a global family, than how much equality and communion can we really have?
They are as good as a different species to us and so instead of embracing them, we will in-kind, treat them with inferiority and choose to act in our own best interest.
The historical lessons will show that in so doing, we never truly achieve an environment that has lasting peace, love or tolerance. What we end up with is a world at odds, cultures that clash and don’t understand one another.
So now is the time to begin making our new earth, to begin fundamentally changing mindsets and habits of the past. To have a global world we must be like a giant team.
We aren’t playing a game against each other: We’re all in the same game, on the same side and are playing against our history. Will we repeat it or will we learn from it and truly move beyond it, vowing to never resort to the old ways of doing things that didn’t move us further along toward globalization.
Everything starts with respect. Respect yourself, your gifts and potential and you will accordingly respect others and this beautiful planet that offers us the promise of paradise. Tolerance is the next ingredient to adopt.
Each of us are uniquely different and by learning to accept this and use the strengths of one another, we can move into our utopia, our world. Let’s have a good time doing it and make the most of this moment so that we leave our future generations with a brighter starting point than we started with.
Thank you to James Cameron and the entire team that made this film and then distributed it. It was a massive undertaking and I encourage you to stay for the credits after you’ve enjoyed the film. Look at just how many people came together and put so much of themselves and their gifts into this remarkable picture.
I hope you enjoyed this posting and I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please do leave a comment below and let me know your take on it.
